17 Year-Old Weightlifting World Champion (with Hampton Morris)

It was ground to shoulder, shoulder to overhead, then a rerack, then another shoulder to overhead. The rerack wasn’t written in the complex, but I always mention it because it’s the hardest part.

Welcome to the BarBend Podcast, where we talk to the smartest athletes, coaches, and minds from around the world of strength. I’m your host, David Thomas Tao, and this podcast is presented by barbend.com.

Hey, folks. We have a short and sweet one for you today. I’m talking to American weightlifter, Hampton Morris. Just 17 years old, Hampton has an athletic resume that is nothing short of jaw-dropping. He has 2 world, 10 Pan-American, and 16 American weightlifting records. He’s the 2021 Pan-American Senior Champion, yep, at just 17, and also the 2021 Youth World Champion.

We chat about Hampton’s meteoric rise in the sport, the unorthodox accessory movements in his training, and much more.

We’re incredibly thankful that you listen to this podcast. If you haven’t already, be sure to leave a rating and review of the “BarBend Podcast” in your app of choice. Now let’s get to the show.

Hampton, thanks so much for joining us. For those who don’t know, because we’ve been following your weightlifting career very closely at BarBend, how long have you been weightlifting, and how long have you been competing?

My first local competition was summer of 2016. My first national competition was summer of 2017. Before that, I’d been doing the Olympic lifts for maybe half a year. I’ve been doing general strength stuff, like squats, pulls, and some press, since I was about 10.

How old were you during your first weightlifting competition?

I was 12.

Now here we are, about about five years later, and you’re a world record holder and you’re a multi-time champion. I can’t list the number of championships you have. Give folks an idea. What are some of the titles you currently hold? Let’s just put it that way.

Youth Pan-American Championship, Pan-American Champion, Youth World Champion, recently Senior Pan-American Champion…

…got really lucky with who was competing in my weight class, Youth world record holder, clean and jerk, and total.

That’s a good resume for the past two years.

Yeah.

I have to ask because you’re still a youth athlete, so you can compete as a youth athlete, you can compete at the junior level and you can clearly compete at the senior level. Congrats on your recent Senior Pan American Championship.

Thank you.

Which level do you prefer competing on — Youth, Junior or World at this point, or Youth, Junior or Senior, I should say.

I don’t really feel much difference. Aside from the senior one, my competition is pretty much the same. The Youth and Junior are a lot of fun because they play card games and hang out and stuff. There’s a lot of that between sessions.

OK. Let’s talk a little bit, if you don’t mind, about your training. You’ve been lifting at strength training in some capacity since you were 10. A lot of folks would say that’s on the relatively early, early side, what got you into strength training initially.

I started to try to get stronger to play soccer better. My dad is my coach for weightlifting but he was also my soccer coach back when I played soccer. My family got into weightlifting through CrossFit.

Was it something where you immediately realized you were pretty good at this whole lifting thing or was it a slower progression at first? I feel like some people can pick up a barbell and it’s like that always belonged in their hands. Some people, it takes a little bit. We’ve seen lifters at top levels go either way. Talk about those early years.

 I’ve been interested in barbell sports for a while just watching my parents do CrossFit but I want to say I really decided that I wanted to be a weightlifter after my first youth nationals in 2017. That’s about the time that I stopped playing soccer, finished that season out. I’ve just been a weightlifter ever since.

It’s clearly gone pretty well. What is a week of training look like for you? Your dad’s your coach…do you follow a particular…people have different methodologies. Some people say the Bulgarian system, the Russian system, there’s all these terms that get thrown around. How would you describe your training and what is the week of training like?

I don’t have a name for it, but I train six days a week. Thursday is usually my rest day, recovery day. Friday is easy. Saturday is usually the day that I go heavy. The rest of the days are mostly just working days.

What are your current PRs and are they…your competition PRs and then you’re training PRs? I’m curious if there’s a difference. You know, some lifters there’s a big difference.

Yeah, snatch. My best training snatch is 124 and best competition snatch is 120. Then for clean and jerk, my best competition clean and jerk is 156. In training, 163.

Oh, wow. That’s interesting. The 156, that’s the Youth World Record currently, right?

Yes, sir.

That’s how you know you’ve reached a really good level in the sport. What’s your competition PR? You can just look up the world record list if you forget your competition PR because it’s the heaviest anyone’s done.

163, I had no idea. I assumed your Youth World Record might have been at an all-time PR. That’s absolutely phenomenal and for those who might not know, what bodyweight class do you train at or you compete at, currently?

I compete in the 61-kilo class. In training, I walk around 63.

So not that big of a cut, basically?

Yeah.

Do you want to stay in that bodyweight category or as you get older, do you think that you’ll move up?

Well, the big thing with us is that I listen to my body. If I need to go up, I will, but I’m liking the way that 61 is feeling.

I have to say that you…even at a lower bodyweight category, you have some of the best hair in weightlifting that I see. I used to have really big hair. It adds maybe like a quarter of a kilogram so you have to make it work, but your flow is absolutely phenomenal on the platform. I just have to give you a shout out there. I couldn’t not say it.

Thank you. My dad actually calculated it. He said half a kilo.

OK. You have to cut an extra half a kilo to have the hair, but the hair also gives you the confidence, right? It has to balance out, right? Where’s the benefit there?

 So is my power.

There you go. It’s like Samson. Let’s change subjects a little bit.

I’m curious as to…Look, you’re competing against the best in the world right now. You are the senior Pan American Champion in your bodyweight category. It’s not like there isn’t a level of…You haven’t competed at the Olympics, yet, right?

Yeah.

But there’s not really a level of competition you haven’t hit or that you haven’t qualified for. Remind me, have you competed at a Senior Worlds, yet?

No, but I qualified for it this year. I’m going to the Junior Pan Am Games later this month and the schedule with that in Senior Worlds didn’t work out.

So Senior Worlds you’ve qualified, maybe next year, maybe in the very near future. Is there anyone that you still look up to, in the sport? Could be in the US, could be internationally?

Just a lot of people. Even my teammates at the youth and junior level. It’s really fun to watch everybody.

Excellent. Is there anyone you haven’t seen lift? Any lifter that you haven’t seen lift that you’d like to see lift in person?

I really like Koha, her liftings are really fun to look at.

I think that’s as good a pick as any. I am curious about when it comes to your actual training week, what kind of volume are you doing? Are you doing a bunch of accessories?

You post a lot on social which is fantastic to follow along, but social always gets the highlights. Some of the real work, the front squat triples, and the clean pulls and things like that don’t always get the social media highlight. What are some accessory movements that are a priority in your training right now that you’re hitting regularly?

Oh, my dad has a trick for that. If there’s some accessory work that I really need to prioritize, he’ll put it in my warm up. I get in pull ups basically every day. There’s some Turkish get-ups and stuff like that.

Aside from that, handstands are pretty important. We have this flywheel that I do all kinds of stuff, like, Zercher squats, and RDLs. GHD work a lot, do some Bulgarian split squats.

It sounds like a pretty well-rounded approach. You hear a lot of weightlifters and some will be like, “Oh, I just front squat, back squat, snatch, clean and jerk.” It sounds like you’re hitting a lot of general physical preparation in your work right now.

Yeah. I’ve got a super long list of accessory stuff.

Do you like doing accessory movements, or are you just like, “I want to get those done, so I can focus on the snatches and clean and jerks”?

Depends on the movements. Most of them, I don’t mind. The way that I do handstands, is just not fun.

[laughs] What is the protocol for that?

My dad has me superset minute-and-a-half handstand holds, with hand shifts, with strict chest-to-bar pull-ups, and flywheel RDLs.

You’re ready to go to the CrossFit Games at this point?

 No, I move slow.

I’m just saying that’s very technical stuff. You don’t see every weightlifter…Let’s put it this way, when I was training in weightlifting regularly, I wasn’t doing a lot of minute-and-a-half handstand holds, to put it nicely.

It’s awful.

Then again, I wasn’t setting world records. Maybe that’s the difference. There’s something there. Listen to what Hampton says and his dad says, not what I have to say. What is your least favorite movement?

The Zercher squats on the flywheel. Those aren’t fun. The flywheels…The more you put in the harder it is. That handstand circuit is also pretty bad.

Well, it’s certainly paying off. Your overhead is very strong. There’s something teased, you’re actually not the first weightlifter I’ve talked to, who really prioritizes handstands, but you’re the first in a while. Both of you were very good overhead.

Maybe that’s telling me something I should work on. Look, you’re very early on in your career, and I don’t want this to be too big or too intimidating a question. What are some goals you have in this sport in the next couple of years?

Paris Olympics is definitely a big goal for me. More general, I’m not happy with my snatch. It’s not at the level as my clean and jerk. It’s a little frustrating sometimes.

That’s something that can be fairly common among youth lifters. At least I found in my observation, the snatch takes a little while to catch up to the clean and jerk. Is that something that you’re drilling specific? Are you training snatch significantly more than you’re training clean and jerk right now?

No, I do snatch and clean and jerk every day. The accessory work that I do right now is more geared towards fixing some of the problems I’m having with my snatch. With that, I’m also seeing a physical therapist about about once a week. She prescribes a lot of accessory work for me to do targeting that.

Let’s talk about competition because every lifter has a different ritual heading into competition. You’ve been competing a lot over the past year especially, as competitions have come back in person, you have a very busy schedule and you have more competitions coming up this year.

What is your competition routine? Are you someone who likes to…Some people have that particular soundtrack they put on for their headphones to get in the mood, some people don’t like listening to anything and they put the towel over their head between warm-up sets. What do you like on competition day?

I love to watch “Miracle.”

The hockey movie, with Kurt Russell?

Yeah. Usually on the bus or shuttle ride, before weigh-ins, I listen to Hozier more lately. Aside from that, I’m just focused on the competition.

Now, are you a lifter who…You’re just doing what your coach tells you in the warm-up area, or are you giving feedback and going by personal feel back there?

If anything stands out to me about how I’m feeling, I’ll mention it. Mostly, I’m just listening to my dad.

Makes sense. What about, you’re heading into a competition before your attempts, are you and your dad pretty communicative and pretty locked in as far as what your attempts are going to be heading into a competition, or is it based on how you’re warming up and how you’re feeling day of?

Definitely, there’s a lot of communication about that. He goes through all the plans, “This is what we might do if you’re looking good.” “This is what you might do if you’re not looking great.” “Here’s if we need to push something, try to total well,” stuff like that.

Fantastic. Let’s talk a little bit about, looking ahead you mentioned the Paris Olympics, are your big priority for the next, I guess, I would say four years, but really it’s three because we kind of fast forward it a year there.

What are you keeping in mind, and how are you staying focused? Is everything in service of that, or are there milestones along the way that you’re looking forward to?

I’m just taking every meet as it comes to me. Paris Olympics, it’s pretty far off. It feels like…There are other things that are very important that are much sooner.

For an old guy like me, three years doesn’t feel like that much. When you’re young and your career is getting started, it might feel like a lot. I’ve seen enough Olympics to where…Where have you competed that you most enjoyed traveling to?

Saudi Arabia was really cool. We didn’t get to explore any at all, because we were in the bubble. They treated us really well at the hotel. The hotel we stayed at was really nice. At the time, it was the nicest hotel I’ve ever gone into, up until when we first arrived at the hotel that the competition was at.

[laughs] You were like, “There’s nothing that can be better than this hotel. Oh, wait, this hotel is slightly better.”

It was like orders of magnitude. The competition hotel was incredible, absolutely beautiful.

I saw that after the competition you had a photo with a falcon on your arm.

Yeah, they had this cultural exhibit at the athlete hotel. That was pretty fun. Learned all about Saudi Arabian culture, and I got to hold the falcon.

[laughs] It’s funny because you posted that photo, and you sent me a message on Instagram, I think. Maybe we were chatting on Instagram because I had gone falconing in upstate New York that same weekend. For a brief period of time, we were falcon buddies. I thought that was really cool.

Where are some places you’d like to travel or compete, that you haven’t had a chance to go to yet?

Last year, Junior World was originally going to be in Egypt. That would’ve been really fun. It got moved to Romania, which also would’ve been really fun, but then it got canceled.

It keeps getting moved, it keeps getting moved, and it’s nowhere. That’s the least fun option. [laughs]

What about in the US? Are there any places you’ve competed nationally? Obviously, USA Weightlifting’s always picking different cities for national events. I enjoy going and exploring some of these cities when I do color commentary.

Anywhere stick out to you here in the US, where you’re like, “Oh, that’s actually a pretty cool city. I never would have gone there if it weren’t for weightlifting.”?

At the National meets, we don’t explore all that much. Grand Rapids was pretty good.

Were you in Detroit this summer? Did you compete in Nationals in Detroit?

Yeah, I did. Again, we weren’t there for very long.

I do remember that venue is cool because you can look across the water to Canada, and the big Canadian flag over there.

Yeah, that was pretty cool. We really just don’t get to explore very much. My dad takes all his PTO for me.

 I feel lucky because I get to go for commentary, but I don’t have to compete. My job is pretty easy. I talk about the sessions, but I don’t have to train or warm-up, or really watch my diet.

I tend to pig out and then have fun exploring at these competitions and I forget, the athletes, you’re there for a very specific thing. You have to be locked in, so I count myself very, very lucky on that.

Hampton, where’s the best place for people to follow along with your training and your competition career?

My Instagram is @hamptonmorris, there’s no punctuation. Then I’ve also started posting on my YouTube a little bit. I’m trying to get into that. So far it’s just been the Rogue Bella Challenge, and a training video.

Wait, you won the Bella Challenge for your weight class, didn’t you?

Yeah.

Tell us what that is because people listening might not know, Rogue puts out these challenges. It can be all sorts of things and they’re all across strength sports. What was the Bella Challenge?

It was ground to shoulder, shoulder to overhead, then a rerack, then another shoulder to overhead. The rerack wasn’t written in the complex, but I always mention it because it’s the hardest part.

It was by body weight. They had some bodyweight categories, right?

Yeah. The cutoff for mine was 63, which is perfect.

Absolutely. What do you end up doing?

145 kilos.

It was basically a clean and jerk, and then another jerk?

Yes, sir.

Rogue puts out all these challenges. Some it’s like hang from a pull up bar for as long as you can. They have all these sorts of things. When you saw that what…

I remember there was a suitcase carry or something.

There’s one where you have to hold a 200-pound sandbag for as long as…Some of these are pretty gnarly. When you saw the Bella complex, were you like, “Oh, yeah, I got that.”

Yeah. With there only being three weight classes, I was like this could go either way for me, but it worked out really well. The complex itself is really good for me.

What did you win?

There was a cash prize, and I also got a barbell.

Rogues got to be careful if they put the weightlifting focus challenges there. You’re ready for them.

Yeah.

If they had a handstand to one, you’d also probably do well there. They need to be a little careful. Otherwise, it’s just free money for you.

There was one that I could have done. It was max reps. It was first a one-mile run, then max reps chin ups, then from squat run, one rep max. The only thing that really would have eliminated me was the run because I do those pull ups in my warm-up every day. Weighted pull ups and weighted chin ups my accessories.

My front squat is…

 It’s very good. [laughs]

Yeah.

You’re a former soccer player, you could probably turn on the jets on the run if you needed to.

Been a while.

Hampton, I appreciate you taking the time to join us. It’s great getting to know you a little better. I’m excited to see what you do later this year. We’ll be following along. Thank you so much.

Thank you for having me.