In a converted Tampa warehouse, Lonnie Coston is cranking out bench presses in the late-summer heat. With the guidance of Mike Tedford, Coston powers through his set in front of a small audience.
Push, and exhale. Ease down, and inhale. Repeat.
Coston’s form is clean, and he finishes the set with no problems. As the people around him clap, Tedford guides Coston off of the bench and helps him to the side.
The Special Olympics athlete is blind.
He and his three teammates, Tyler Gwynn, Austin Hauff and Dallas Jones, are training for upcoming competitions, starting Oct. 2, as well as November’s State Games.
BACK IN THE GAME
It’s been roughly a decade since Special Olympics of Hillsborough County last fielded a powerlifting team. It’s not that they didn’t want to, of course, but the resources weren’t always there. The organization had some difficulty finding someone to organize and coach a team.
What changed this year?
For starters, there’s Tedford.
He and his wife, Letitia, own space in the converted warehouse on Cypress Street. They’ve turned it into True Grit Fit, a gym offering specialized training programs and boot camps without the luxury of air conditioning.
The couple, who are from San Diego and Australia, opened the gym about a year and one half ago and are actively involved in its programs.
Tedford says he enjoys getting the gym involved in community outreach activities, but that the opportunity to coach the Special Olympics team came to him. While talking to a Special Olympics director in the gym one day, he offered to help out in any way he could. One thing led to another, and Tedford soon found himself at the helm of the powerlifting team.
“I said, ‘I’m your man. Let’s do it,’” Tedford says. “As someone who truly loves the sport of weightlifting, it’s not work. It’s fun, teaching this stuff.”
Coston, Gwynn, Hauff and Jones signed up for the team, and the group has spent most Saturdays over the last two months training at True Grit Fit with the Tedfords and coach Ryan Jackson.
MAKING GAINS
It’s not the first time Tedford has trained people with special needs, but it is the first time he’s trained a group of these athletes with the goal of competing.
Although adapting workouts to fit each athlete’s capabilities can be challenging, the trainer says that the end result is rewarding. These athletes develop new and improved motor skills that they otherwise wouldn’t have, which helps with the day-to-day.
“I teach these athletes just like I’d teach anybody else,” Tedford says. “They might not pick it up as fast but, eventually, they’ll get it.”
With this specific group, Tedford says that the training regimens he and Letitia have put the athletes through has yielded big results.
“Shoot, it’s amazing,” Tedford says. “Especially Lonnie and Tyler. They’ve done their first competition for the county and both of them did really, really well. … Before, they couldn’t even do a basic squat. Now, they can go below parallel, in perfect form.”
Working with Coston might seem like a big challenge. In a sport where athletes in training are observing themselves to make sure their form is correct, being blind ramps up the difficulty. But Tedford says that Coston has risen to the challenge and looked impressive in workouts.
“He’s so used to moving and not being able to see that it’s just an everyday norm for him,” Tedford says. “He picked it up just as fast as some of the other kids did. I’ll guide him down, position him there for a few seconds and say, ‘I want you to remember the position that you’re in right now.’ He’ll remember it. He might slip up the first few times, but we all do.”
While the main goal is to get all of the athletes ready for Oct. 2 and beyond, the coaches and athletes are going to have a blast no matter what happens.
“It’s gonna be fun,” Tedford says. “They’re looking forward to it. They’re a little bit nervous, but I know they’re gonna have fun.”
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
MEET THE TEAM
Lonnie Coston
“What made me get into powerlifting is, when I first heard about it, I didn’t know
about it. So I said, ‘Oh yeah, I want to do it.’ I really like it. I think the dead lifts are my favorite. It’s cool because you can pick up the weights and hold it.”
Austin Hauff
“I like lifting weights. We try not to eat fat things. If we lose a lot of weight, we can
lift a lot more of this weight. I’m excited to have people cheer for me.”
Tyler Gwynn
“Everybody in this gym is really nice. The athletes and the coaches help out really good. I can do a lot of things now. I can throw the bowling ball a lot better now. I have some leg issues, and (working out) has helped a lot.”
Dallas Jones
“I work out at the Y, but it’s my first time doing powerlifting here. Glenn (Fite, SOHC director) says I need to get big and strong. My favorite workout is pushups. Right now, I can do 10.”
