Sophie Davis
Qualifying for Youth Nationals does not define your success
Sophie was 9 years old when we first met her at a training camp at our gym November 2018. Sophie hadn’t had any real Weightlifting training or coaching at the time. But we knew she was serious when she showed up to a weightlifting gym putting on a weightlifting training camp with her own barbell!
Sophie decided to continue training with us after the training camp. As time went on her technique was significantly improving and we started talking about goals. One of the goals was to make a 36kg total by April 2019 so she could qualify for Youth Nationals.
This was a big and scary number at the time until we broke it down into pieces. To get to 36kg we would need to snatch 15kg and then clean and jerk 21kg. We were still a good ways away at the time, but the parts were more reasonable then the whole. We both decided that it was something that she could do and we went to work.
As time went on we inched closer to our goals. One day we would hit our snatch goal and another we would start making the clean and jerk number. Then some days we started making both numbers on the same day. And finally we were consistently making both numbers on the same day. All this was done ahead of schedule. Things were looking good for her to qualify for the Youth National Championships.
Finally, the week of the meet was here. Our last training session was awesome! Not only did we make the total we wanted, but we had exceeded it effortlessly. All that remained was to perform on the platform. Unfortunately, the opportunity to compete at that meet never happened for Sophie. Sophie had a freak accident at home where she feel and broke both bones in her left arm. No meet. No total. No Youth Nationals.
Most people would have stayed home but Sophie decided to show up to the meet to support her teammates and make some new friends. I took the opportunity to talk with Sophie and help her process everything that was going on at the moment. We were both disappointed that she didn’t have the opportunity to make the total we wanted in the competition. But we should feel proud that we set a goal of making a 36kg total by April and we achieved that goal. There was nothing that anyone or anything can do to take away the hard work you put in to achieve your goals. Qualifying for the Youth Nationals did not define her success. Sophie defined her own success 6 months prior and she was successful in achieving her goals. That is what made her successful.
In less than 6 month Sophie became exactly what the Sirkis Freaks Foundation is about. Sophie controls her own fate when she accomplishes her own goals. When you take control of the little things, the big things will happen.
This is Sophie’s ‘Chapter 1’! Chapter 2 started off with Sophie making all 6 of her lifts in her first competition and qualifying for the Youth National Championship!