Alex Fera has certainly kept himself busy.

The coach and driver behind the Sudbury Weightlifting Club has continued to try and expand the offerings of Olympic-style weightlifting in the region in recent years, with a handful of his athletes moving on to compete at provincial, national and international levels.

Apparently, that wasn't enough for the former member of the highly respected Coniston Weightlifting Club, back in the day.

Such is his reputation within the coaching realm of his sport that Fera now regularly finds himself attending competitions with a much larger slate of lifters, an additional complement to those with whom he works weekly in the nickel city.

In May, Fera would find himself making the trek out to the west coast, attending the Canadian Senior Championships in Kelowna. While he was not there in a coaching capacity, far more as a man whose passion for the sport knows few boundaries, Fera did take advantage to maintain discussions with many of his colleagues from coast to coast.

In early July, it was off to the Atlantic for Fera and his crew, with three locals and four guest lifters part of the folks he would oversee at the Canadian Masters Championships in Moncton.

Understandably, there is a need to alter his approach, even it only slightly, when dealing with the diversities of his group of seven.

"The skeleton on my coaching is similar, whether I am with my own athletes or I am guest coaching," said Fera. "With a guest lifter, they are usually very appreciative and they want to listen. You are their eyes."

In fact, while some might believe that the work of a weightlifting coach is confined to the hours and hours of workouts leading into competition, Fera noted that there is plenty on his plate over the three days of the event itself.

"We have two hours from the time of the weigh-in until the first lift," Fera explained. "After the weigh-in, they are with me for an hour beofre they start. I watch their warm-ups and then sit down with them to plan."

It's clearly not as simple as stepping out on the stage and just lifting. For starters, there is the strategic component of deciding on an opening weight for both the snatch and the clean and jerk competitions.

From there comes the question of how exactly to attack, and at what weights, the three lifts that are allowed in each discipline.

"People will switch weights; you can go up or down. I am watching to see if it's an easy lift, is there an injury, are there some infractions. We may need to do some tweaking."

Following are the results of lifters that Fera worked with both at Canadian Masters and then further below at the Summerfest in Scarborough in early August:

Canadian Masters
Sylvie Guenette (F55-64 - 63.25kg) - snatch best: 48 kg; clean & jerk best: 63 kg

Liisa Burk (F55-81 - 78.30kg) - snatch best: 39 kg; clean & jerk best: 55 kg

Dave Desroches (M65-109 - 104.75kg) - snatch best: 66 kg; clean & jerk best: 82 kg

Rolly Chretien (M60-102 - 100.70kg) - snatch best: 57 kg; clean & jerk best: 55 kg

Dave Dessureault (M50-89 - 86.60kg) - snatch best: 80 kg; clean & jerk best: 110 kg

Jamie Crane (M55-89 - 86.65kg) - snatch best: 90 kg; clean & jerk best: 109 kg

Gordon Yard (M55-109 - 103.55kg) - snatch best: 91 kg; clean & jerk best: 119 kg

Summerfest
Liisa Burk (F81 - 80kg) - snatch best: 42 kg; clean & jerk best: 57 kg

Patrick Boileau (M109 - 108.70kg) - snatch best: 130 kg; clean & jerk best: 175 kg