Build confidence, learn the lifts in a sensible order and establish foundations you won’t have to undo. An online course you work through at your own pace, with one technical review of your lift by Mike.
Establish where you are, identify what’s getting in the way and where the opportunities for progress are, then build an individual plan with Mike. For lifters at any level who want a coach, not just a programme.
Appreciate where you are.
Pursue what’s possible.
Effort with direction. Capability is built through deliberate practice, useful feedback and work that adds up. Talent, luck and help are real — what we coach is the quality of the process.
No manufactured hardship. Training stress has a purpose. Needless friction isn’t a virtue. Sometimes the answer is more practice; sometimes it’s less wasted effort.
Your story, not ours. You already bring strengths and experience. Coaching recognises what’s working, tells you the truth about what progress needs, and leaves you with an achievable next step.
The method is in the name: CSR stands for Capacity, Skill, Results. Skill organises the lift. Capacity makes it available — and affordable — when the weight goes up. Neither works alone, and they develop together: every quality rep of the lift builds capacity too.
Strength, range, positional strength, power and the tolerance to repeat the lift at the load and fatigue that matter.
Reading the problem and organising an effective solution — timing, coordination and control under load, not reciting cues.
Evidence of the two working together over time. Measured on the platform — never a measure of your worth.
Five steps, repeated. Tap through the loop Mike uses to decide what you train next.
Not a picture of perfect technique — the job the lift has to get done. Where the force needs to go, how you meet the bar, what makes the attempt count. One priority per exposure, not five things to think about.
Load, reps, tempo, rest and the variation are chosen to reveal or develop one thing. 80% isn’t a smaller version of 100% — the margin for error is different — so lighter work rehearses the solution you’ll need when it gets heavy.
Video, made and missed attempts, speed, balance — and how it felt to you. Your report is evidence too. We look for where the lift first lost function, not just the most obvious error at the end, and whether it repeats.
The simplest intervention likely to work: a clearer intention and better reps, a targeted variation, positional holds, eccentrics, strength work, density or more recovery. Dosed with purpose and progressed — not more drills for the sake of it.
The trained quality goes back into the full snatch or clean & jerk under real demand. If the position holds, the bar moves or the lift repeats more reliably, we progress. If not, we revise the hypothesis — rather than adding more of the same exercise.
A learning loop, not a rigid programme: what we see can change the next exposure in the same session or across several weeks.
Your heavy snatch keeps drifting forward. Light weights look fine. Most advice gives you a cue. But the same visible fault can come from at least six different places — and each needs a different answer.
A missed lift shows where it changed — not why. So we don’t coach the symptom. We find the friction, test a fix and return to the full lift.
You can’t get into the receiving position comfortably, so the bar arrives somewhere you can’t meet it.
Range, setup and positions first — before asking for heavier loads.
You can reach the position, but you can’t hold, support or leave it once there’s real weight on the bar.
Loaded holds, eccentrics and positional strength, then progress back into the dynamic lift.
The intent is right, but there isn’t enough useful output at that load to put the bar where it needs to be.
Strength and power that’s relevant to the lift — then check it actually transfers.
The resources are there, but they’re applied in the wrong order or the wrong direction.
A simpler intention, a targeted variation and practice with immediate feedback.
First attempts are fine. It falls apart with fatigue, density or a week of poor recovery.
Adjusted dose and rest, tolerance built progressively, and better recovery.
Rushing the lift, or thinking about so many cues that nothing happens naturally.
A clear goal for the rep, fewer cues and a better practice environment.
Your target lift isn’t just the finish line — it sets the requirements your training has to meet. Strength ratios and percentages are useful guides, not laws. We test them against you.
The exact lift and the date it matters — a competition total, a first bodyweight snatch, a return to old numbers.
What must physically happen to complete it, and what you’ll need to repeat reliably — not just once on a good day.
What’s already confirmed, what still needs testing, and the one limitation most likely to stop you next.
More than 30 years in Olympic weightlifting — competing for Team GB and winning over ten national titles. Today Mike coaches lifters in London and remotely through Causer Strength, alongside his work with the IWF Refugee Team. Precision Nutrition certified.
The same method runs from a lifter’s first session to an Olympic platform: understand what’s limiting the lift, train it with structure, and stay consistent long enough for it to show.
Clean & jerk PB · Ramiro Mora, Olympian, 7th at Paris 2024
Clean & jerk PB · Stefano Cataldi, 2× National Champion
Snatch PB · Alex Jamieson
A practical audit of your own training: notice the pattern in your lifts, form a sensible hypothesis about what’s holding them back, and choose one thing to test. The last lesson points you to the next step that fits — the course or One-to-One.
Three emails over four days. Unsubscribe any time. This is separate from coaching enquiries.
