Case Study: Canterbury Strength Weight Lifting Club

Canterbury Strength Weight Lifting Club was founded in September 2018 by Charlotte Moss, and they are now a fully licensed club. Based in Kent the club currently has four coaches who all have backgrounds in training, coaching or education and who all share the same passion for weightlifting.

Charlotte was inspired to set up Canterbury Strength due to a lack of opportunities for people to get involved in weightlifting in Kent. Charlotte commented, “This area traditionally seems to not have many clubs, so the opportunity to get involved in weightlifting is low. It was very important to us to change this as it’s a sport that should be accessible since its beneficial for all”.

Charlotte highlights, “although setting up a club can be a daunting experience the good thing about weightlifting is all you need is a suitable sized space, a bar, some plates and you can make a start. Charlotte added, “Although it can daunting for women to reach out into weightlifting it’s actually an incredibly accepting field where I have never felt that anyone didn’t believe I was strong or able to be involved as a young women”.

Having only fully opened last month, Canterbury Strength has already experienced success and is expecting more growth soon. With the launch of youth classes the club hopes to pick up some promising young athletes.

Speaking about her positive experience dealing with British Weight Lifting she stated that everyone she reached out to has been very supportive about growing weightlifting in the area. “Working with BWL has been so rewarding and straight forward, the coaching courses were amazing and working with Adam Warwicker and Kristian McPhee to get our Level 1 and Level 2 coaching certificates was so much fun. We have also been lucky to have been able to meet and work with national athletes and coaches including Zoe Smith, Owen Boxall and Andy Callard. BWL really is a great group!’

“To anyone that would want to try weightlifting for the first time I would say give it a try once, even if you think it seems daunting. I can almost guarantee you willl love it and immediately want to do more! Weightlifting is indefinitely challenging and rewarding and no matter what your ability everyone will be equally supportive. I also encourage people to find a coach and likeminded group of people to train with as this makes a world of a difference to not only your lifting but your mind set as well”.

Charlotte offers encouragement to anybody wishing to set up their own club, ‘It is a lot of work to organise, especially when deciding how you want to run your club on top of writing programs, working on a website, and sorting out a facility- but it’s all worth it in the end’.

For further details on Canterbury Strength Weight Lifting Club visit their website here

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British Weight Lifting would like to wish Canterbury Strength Weight Lifting Club the very best in all its endeavours and we look forward to working together in the future.