How to Use a Meet Day Handler: A Lifter's Guide to Effective Communication

You've hired a coach or enlisted a trusted training partner to be your meet day handler. You've made a smart choice. A good handler can be the difference between a smooth, successful meet and a chaotic, stressful one. But their effectiveness depends entirely on you. Knowing how to properly communicate with and utilize your handler is a skill that empowers them to support you best. This guide will teach you, the lifter, how to maximize this critical relationship.

The Foundation: The Pre-Meet Briefing

The most important work happens before you even get to the venue. Do not leave this conversation for the warm-up room.

• Discuss Your Goals: What is your goal for the day? Is it to go 9-for-9? To hit a specific PR? To beat a certain competitor? Your handler needs to know your primary objective to help make strategic decisions.
• Establish the Attempt Plan: Go over your planned openers, second attempts, and potential third attempts. This should be a collaborative discussion based on your training. Use our Attempt Selection Guide as a framework.
• Define Your Cues: What are the 1-2 simple, powerful cues that help you most on each lift? ("Chest up," "Push the floor," "Patience off the floor.") Tell your handler exactly what you want to hear right before you lift.
• Clarify Your Warm-up Protocol: Give them your exact warm-up plan: the weights, sets, and reps. This removes all guesswork for them.
• Set Communication Expectations: How do you want feedback? Do you want them to be brutally honest about bar speed, or do you need more positive reinforcement? Setting these expectations prevents misunderstandings on a high-stress day.

In the Warm-up Room: Trust Their Timing

The warm-up room is chaotic. Your handler's job is to manage that chaos. Your job is to trust them.

• Focus on Lifting: Let them worry about the clock, the flight order, and loading the bar. Your only job is to execute each warm-up rep perfectly.
• Give Clear, Concise Feedback: After each warm-up, give them a quick, honest RPE. "That felt like a 7." "That was faster than last week." This data is crucial for them to help you make decisions.

The Attempt Selection Dialogue: A Partnership

This is where the partnership truly shines. While our Handler's Guide covers their role, here is yours:

• Your Role (The Subjective Expert): You are the only one who knows how the weight felt. Your primary input is the RPE. Be honest. Don't let ego cloud your judgment.
• Their Role (The Objective Expert): They are the ones who saw how the weight looked. They see the bar speed, the sticking points, and the technical execution without the adrenaline clouding their vision.
• The Conversation:
  • You: "That felt like an RPE 8.5, it was a bit of a grind."
  • Handler: "It looked like it, bar speed slowed down halfway up. Let's make a smart, conservative jump to 190kg for the second to secure the lift."

Trusting their objective eye when you're full of adrenaline is a hallmark of a mature lifter.

Building the Trust

The best lifter-handler relationships are built on trust. This comes from practice.

• Practice in Training: Have your handler give you commands, time your rests, and help you select weights based on RPE during your heavy training sessions leading up to the meet.
• Respect Their Role: You chose them for a reason. On meet day, empower them to do their job. Second-guessing their every move will only create stress for both of you.

A handler is your most valuable piece of meet day equipment. But like any piece of equipment, you need to know how to use it. By establishing clear communication, defining expectations before the meet, and trusting their objective feedback on the day, you transform them from a helper into a strategic partner. This partnership will free you to do the one thing that matters: perform your best on the platform.

What is the most important thing you communicate to your handler on meet day? Share your tips below!