Powerlifting and strength training facility SSPT is the premier, private strength and conditioning facility for serious trainees in the Bozeman, Montana area.
We are minimalistic in our approach while specializing in powerlifting and strength training for individual/team sports. We primarily espouse free weights over machines and believe our trainees succeed in a training environment free of distractions like cell phones, and televisions. Furthermore, we are built upon the bedrock of consistency and effort utilizing the best strength tools.
Operating as usual
01/02/2025
2024 was a roller coaster ride.
Had some of my highest highs.
Had some of my lowest lows.
Got knocked down. Stood back up.
Pivot, march forward, and thrive!
That’s life and I’m thankful for it.
On to 2025 and I can only guarantee one thing … I will continue to 𝗨𝗽𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗱.
11/26/2024
Twenty-four days ago, when I officially accepted the position as Head Coach of the GB 🇬🇧 Classic Open National Team, I was immediately ready to get to work. One of my first steps was to come to Wolverhampton for the 2024 British Open Classic Championships. It wasn’t even a question.
𝗜 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗱 to demonstrate my level of commitment and investment while 𝗜 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗱 to build relationships and witness firsthand the incredible talent British Powerlifting has in its stable.
The past week in the UK was amazing. From the moment and I arrived we were welcome with open arms, treated with class, love, professionalism, and respect. More importantly, we’ve been made to feel like chosen family as we reconnected with old friends and made new ones. I can’t describe how good it feels to be appreciated, valued, and wanted. 🙏
During our time, I was able to coach two incredible lifters in @11.joey and who both executed like pros going 18/18 with 8 PBs collectively! 👏🏻🔥 We served as referees/jury, worked on the live stream with the lovely , and watched the exceptional lifting throughout the week. , , and .kirkhy, put on a tremendous event with innovative ideas from enhanced scoring programs (see photo #7 where it displays ATTNL = approximate time to next lift) which assist coaches and lifter ready themselves for the platform. Similarly British Powerlifting also gave brief lifter intros just before the squats during the prime-time sessions. 👌
The GB talent pool is deep and wide, and I’m thrilled to be joining forces 🤝 😤 with to lead some sensational lifters into 2025 Euros, Worlds, and World Games. Exciting times are indeed ahead.
From the bottom of my heart, I want to say thank you 🙏 to everyone who made us feel special. I won’t forget it. I love you ❤️ and promise to give my very best to the lifters, our teams, and this federation. 🇬🇧🤝🫡
03/12/2024
𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝗖𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 is our passion and 𝗦𝗦𝗣𝗧 is thrilled to join forces 🤝 with eight lifters this week at 2024 Powerlifting America (PA) Classic Open Nationals.
02/26/2024
I was elated to be on the other side of the curtain at Sheffield24. I don’t take these opportunities for granted. Thank God I’m back where I belong. 🙏🫡
02/06/2024
It’s no surprise that last year’s Sheffield champions both went 9/9. I suspect it’ll be the same this year. If you’re not making 8 or 9 lifts, you’re probably not even going to be in the conversation for the podium and, frankly, that’s exactly as it should be.
10/15/2022
Top 10 photos (of hundreds) from our ~2,300 mile, 8-day getaway through Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming.
Our journey took us to Moab, UT where we started with a private jeep tour through Canyonlands National Park, followed by a hot air balloon 🎈ride, and then we explored Arches National Park. Then it was a scenic drive through the breathtaking mountains 🏔 of Colorado with a pit stop in Fort Collins to get in some training 🏋️♂️ at and visit some of our PL family .907 & . We finished up in Jackson, Wyoming hiking through Grand Teton National Park. Huge thanks 🙏 to & for the accommodations.
I feel blessed and grateful to live in a free country 🇺🇸 with so much physical beauty where we can travel anywhere and explore anytime.
06/27/2022
Sunday has traditionally been a rest day for me so it's nice to engage in another activity that adds value to my life. 💯 The weights aren't going anywhere and tomorrow is a SBD day so today was all about enjoying the outdoors.
It's such a tremendous blessing 🙏 to live in the 🇺🇸 and specifically (aka Montana) where I can go to state-owned public land, blow-off some steam, and shoot safely and uninterrupted for a few hours.
On the menu for today's session (in order of lightest to heaviest rifle, then shotgun, then handgun) ...
𝗥𝗜𝗙𝗟𝗘𝗦
22 Re*****on Fieldmaster Pump
270 Weatherby Magnum
375 H&H Magnum by Wi******er
𝗦𝗛𝗢𝗧𝗚𝗨𝗡
12 gauge Re*****on 870 Express
𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗚𝗨𝗡𝗦 (𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗢𝗟𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗦)
38 special Smith & Wesson with Crimson Trace handgrip (laser sights)
357 Magnum Smith & Wesson
I actually find many parallels between sport shooting (target practice) and powerlifting. Skill acquisition in the quest for technical mastery requires copious amounts of repetitious practice. Using a scope on a rifle is a lot like using RPE in that it allows us to zero-in on our target. I also appreciate the methodical, workmanlike approach required to achieve incremental improvement over time.
06/18/2022
Piggybacking on my recap video, here are the stats 📈 from all SSPT-coached lifters at 2022 USAPL Mega Nationals.
2022 USAPL Mega Nationals recap as well as some random thoughts on comparing totals, best lifter awards, protesting lifts, bucking IPF weight class traditions, and gratitude.
06/04/2022
Sports are (mostly) about the contestants, the ones in the arena, those who play the game. But competition doesn’t end there. As coaches, we’re competing too. SSPT’s priority is putting our athletes in the best position for them to succeed & achieve 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 goals. Helping someone do something they’ve never done before, hitting a new personal best (PB), is as thrilling as it gets.
and I are grateful 🙏 to provide game day coaching services for powerlifters of 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 at 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝘀 of competition.
Our game planning & strategy calls are a 🔑 component of our game day coaching process. This critical step is an opportunity for us to connect with the lifters, their coaches, and collaboratively 🤝 install their competition game plan.
It doesn’t stop there because SSPT leaves no stone unturned in our 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝘂𝗿𝘀𝘂𝗶𝘁 of personal records for our athletes.
We review training plans & video footage, analyze competition results 📈, scout the opposition, provide mentorship, recommend sports psychology techniques, discuss in-game scenarios, and ask lots of questions because the better we know our lifters, the better we can support them in the heat of battle.
Spectators only see the final product. They don’t see the hours of preparation & labor poured into our craft that goes on behind-the-scenes. They miss the spotting/loading in the warm-up area, consoling a lifter after a miss, keeping them in the moment as the competition unfolds, advocating for them after a controversial call, nor the calculus taking place during final deadlifts.
We expect the best from our lifters because it’s like them to execute & make most of their lifts. Likewise, our lifters expect us to provide 𝘂𝗻𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹, 𝗼𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘀𝗲𝗹 on every attempt.
(Continued in the comments below 👇)
06/01/2022
SSPT delights in helping our athletes be the strongest versions of themselves both on and off the platform. Our business is personal records and powerlifting is our game.
Game day coaching is our passion 🔥 and what we do best. 💯 That's why and I are delighted to step into the arena and onto the platform with 🤝 these 14 lifters at 2022 Mega Nationals in Las Vegas.
All you can ever ask for is an opportunity and we are grateful 🙏 to have one next week with each of these amazing people.
05/19/2022
Beyond all the numbers, probability, and trends gleaned from extensive scouting, you'll eventually arrive at the most critical piece of game day coaching -- 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗽𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.
SSPT employs a systematic, data-driven approach of attempt selection that maximizes the probability of our lifters 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗽𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁. Much like RPE, our methods function like a scope which allows us to zero-in on our target.
However, when you strip all that away, it ultimately comes down to having a keen eye and being able to determine how much your lifter has left in the tank. There's no magic formula or weird trick for that. It's a skill we've developed over time with the experience of watching thousands of attempts at every level of competition.
05/03/2022
We know wishing someone "good luck" 🍀 is a benevolent expression. It's just not our preference. 😉 We intentionally choose to frame our well-wishes in a manner that empowers our lifters and puts them in the driver's seat rather than riding shotgun and hoping for the best outcome.
We believe details matter and coaches ought to choose their words carefully.
04/25/2022
🚨LIFETIME PR ALERT🚨
Most of my powerlifting family don't realize I've also been a competitive 𝗦𝗰𝗿𝗮𝗯𝗯𝗹𝗲 player since 2019. While I've only played in one tournament, I've played over 1,000 games, was a member of the Washington DC Scrabble Club 171, and recently started a club in Bozeman, Montana.
Believe it or not, Scrabble parallels powerlifting in a few ways. The tiles are luck 🍀 (lot #), the lexicon is knowledge (preparation & talent), and anagrammatizing is a skill (refined via training frequency & volume). They're also strikingly different in that your next play depends upon your opponent because the tiles must intersect horizontally or vertically. Moreover, there are tremendous strategies like maximizing hot spots (double & triple letter or word scores) as well as creating multiple words in a single play. You can also intentionally play a word to block your opponent and close off the board when you suspect your opponent has a big play.
I achieved 2 lifetime personal bests today scoring 535-points with 4 bingos! (A bingo is when you play all 7 tiles at once. You receive an additional 50-point bonus on top of what you score on the board.). The bingos were 𝗦𝗡𝗔𝗜𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗚 across two triple word scores (131-points), 𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗥 (63-points), 𝗗𝗜𝗟𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗦 (78-points), and 𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗟𝗬 (64-points). I was also very lucky to play both the Q & Z on triple letter scores with the words QI (31-points) & OOZE (33-points). When you do the math, that's 400-points (75% of my total) in only 6 plays which means I only scored a paltry 😬 135-points in the remainder of the game. 😩
When I started my powerlifting journey back in 1995, I used to joke 😝 with about one day surpassing his totals at 90kg and 100kg. Suffice it to say, I now like my odds of beating him at Scrabble an awful lot better. 😏
It's cliche' to say, but I've waited 🙏 my entire life for this moment, and it feels pretty damn sweet. 🤩 I'd also be remiss if I didn't thank my darling wife 😍 , without whom none of this would be possible, because she was on the losing end of this utter annihilation. 🤣😂
Upward ⬆️ & onward ➡️.
04/14/2022
Until a few years ago, single-lift specialists (aka one-lift wonders) would occasionally win high-level powerlifting competitions. They certainly weren’t the norm, but you might see a deadlift specialist close the gap with their opening deadlift, only to storm back, then surprise everyone when they loaded it up for a huge third and went for the win. Even more uncommon were squat and bench specialists who possessed supreme talent to put the competition out of reach early.
Nowadays, the talent pool is too deep. Most elite powerlifters possess tremendous ability in at least two disciplines and aren’t lousy in the third. Naturally, the best deadlifters hold the ace card because they have the final say but a 𝗯𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗸 leaves no holes in your game and is difficult to overcome.
04/05/2022
SSPT intentionally coaches our lifters to focus on ex*****on. 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗥𝗜𝗢𝗥𝗜𝗧𝗬 is making all nine lifts. 💯
This rings most true when the competition is stacked at national or world championships and the 𝗣𝗥𝗜𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗬 objective is winning. 🥇🏆 𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗬 kilo counts and more successful attempts lead to a bigger total. Bigger totals lead to higher placings.
All powerlifters want to reach their highest potential and lift weights they’ve never done before. As coaches, we want that for our lifters too. Ergo, if performance on the first two attempts suggests a personal record (PR) is available and likely, then we’ll load it up and go for it!
We do 𝗡𝗢𝗧 deliberately hold our lifters back 𝗨𝗡𝗟𝗘𝗦𝗦 the competition unfolds in a manner that mandates that strategy.
Context is 🔑. Understand your situation, plan, and react accordingly. For higher-level lifters, PRs or YOLO attempts 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙗𝙚 the focus at local meets where the consequences for missing are less severe.
04/02/2022
Huge thanks 🙏 to and .usa for the shirts!