What is weightlifting? Weightlifting is a sport made for people who love to lift weights and get stronger. There are 2 lifts in it, the clean and jerk and the snatch. Currently at South High there is not a lifting program or team, just a weight room. However, this does not stop senior Danny Morrow from weightlifting outside of school.
Morrow said he began lifting his freshman year to become a stronger player for football. He wanted to learn more about weightlifting so he got into it a lot more as the years came.
“I started and kept with it because of football. Then in the off-season I really wanted to learn more in depth about the sport itself and started to get into competitions and learn the high up names in the sport. The more I got into it the more I wanted to stay in it. Overall, the community is very encouraging and makes you want to succeed. But I wanted to stick with it because I enjoyed a challenge and learned along the way this will make me a better athlete and could take me places,” Morrow said.
Morrow did not know about these lifts till he got into Kyle Whitcher’s class, Strength and Conditioning. Morrow said Whitcher was a pretty big part of his lifting path; he was the one who got him into weightlifting. Whitcher was a source of help for him in the beginning of his path.
“I introduced him to the lifts like the snatch and the clean and jerk through my classes. Then I helped him progress those lifts to a point where he wanted to compete and I gave him access to information to start competing in weightlifting,” Whitcher said.
Morrow’s current personal records are 305 pounds for the clean, 275 pounds for the clean and jerk, and 205 pounds for the snatch. He currently holds the all-time clean record at South High. Morrow said he worked hard for these numbers. He had to train 6 times a week. 4 of those days are based only on the Olympic lifts, but the other 2 are his hypertrophy training. He said having a strong core is very important so he decides to train it every other day.
Doing these kinds of lifts could cause serious injuries but Morrow said he has not suffered any so far.
“I have not suffered any serious injuries while weightlifting, but I have had minor ones like ripped calluses, wrist pain or back pain. But nothing major made me stop for a long period of time. It does suck though when you get injured in this sport, even if it is minor because it could force you to rest even if you know you’re ready to go,” Morrow said.
Whitcher believes that Morrow is able to become a better lifter in future and that weightlifting could become a big thing for him in the future.
“Yeah I mean I think if you want to look really recently he’s already where what one week at of football and he’s already back to doing like a weight lifting program and staying on task but something Danny’s great at is he’s just insanely consistent and diligent and he’s going to put a lot of time and effort to make himself a better weight lifter. I mean there’s no reason why he can’t be a national qualifier in the next year or two. Also I know he possibly has dreams of lifting on Lindenwood’s weightlifting team,” Whitcher said.
As of right now, Morrow is looking at attending Lindenwood University and competing on their weightlifting team. He says that nothing is official for now but would be a very cool opportunity to continue this sport with them.
A person who also helped Morrow is senior Josh Copeland, friend of Morrow. Copeland tries pushing Morrow, but also Morrow had an impact on him.
“In the weight room I’ll try to make each other go all out as hard as we can each session, but you know Danny’s a pretty hard working guy so he does that anyway. He kind of pushes me as much as I push him,” Copeland said.
Copeland and Morrow are both hard workers for this sport. Morrow also had an impact on his brother, sophomore Joey Morrow to start doing it himself.
“Just seeing him weightlifting all the time–it does inspire me a little bit to do it myself just so I can also improve. I would also say just seeing what I can do knowing that he can also beat a record for the whole school. I would say he’s very passionate and hard-working. He does whatever he can just to improve and see progress throughout his journey,” Joey Morrow said.
Both the Morrow brothers can show that they are willing to improve on this sport but also can be very passionate about it.
“It’s a great feeling. When you have a number in mind and want to hit it for a while and you finally do, it’s a relief in a way but also a successful feeling. But it doesn’t last insanely long. The next day there’s a new goal in mind and my standard is to set higher for myself. In this sport, and in many, you are always trying to get better even after succeeding. Though I like to enjoy those PRs when they happen, I know I have to keep myself focused for the next training session to become a better version of myself than I was in the past,” he said.
Morrow right now is working on his technique for the track season, where he competes in the shot put.
“As of right now, yes. I am trying to just work on my technique consistently and trying to get as strong as I can before track season. But I will mainly focus on this since there is nothing else for me to do at the moment. Just get as strong as possible with good technique,” he said.