Powerlifting runs in the family for Tyla Watt.
After just over a year in the sport, the 17-year-old King’s High School pupil has been named to represent New Zealand.
He got into the sport when his grandmother, accomplished powerlifter Sylvia Clarkson, told him he had a talent for it.
Before that he had not done any weight training.
"I just really started lifting when she got me into it," Watt said.
"I went to her house one day and she had a gym set up and I just did a squat and she’s like ‘you’ve got talent, come along with me’."
Watt competes in the sub-junior under-83kg category, which sees him compete against others 19 years old and under.
The Asian-Oceania Championships will be held from December 4-11 in Christchurch and consists of lifters from most countries in that region.
Watt said there were plenty of talented people going and he was looking forward to it.
"I’m stoked. It’s been my dream to be honest."
He trains at Anytime Fitness and is coached by Clarkson, alongside Andrew de Vine.
Clarkson got into the sport aged 62 in order to strengthen her back and has had plenty of successes, notably claiming a world title.
De Vine has moved to Auckland, although he maintains regular contact with Watt.
"We skype and stuff.
"He gives me my planners. I started training with him down here, but he moved. He’s a good coach."
Watt has not represented New Zealand before, although he has previously been selected for a New Zealand taekwondo team.
He has taken a break from the sport to concentrate on powerlifting, although he hoped to get back into it next year as he learnt how to integrate the two.
His powerlifting training involved lifting twice a day everyday, with three leg days, two chest days and mixing the rest up.
He primarily focused on strength training, doing five sets of three reps at heavy weights, increasing the weight every week.
Powerlifting involves performing a squat, a bench press and a deadlift.
The best lifts of each are added together for a final score.
In his year of lifting, Watt had a best squat of 190kg, a best bench press of 122.5kg and a best deadlift of 202.5kg.
He said he had made plenty of gains since taking up the sport.
"I’ve improved quite quickly.
"You’ve got to be kind of naturally strong to be able to start well, but I think a lot of it is technique.
"I’ve been improving my technique. It all goes hand-in-hand, really."
At the championships in December, he hoped to build on those bests, aiming for a 210kg squat, a 130kg-135kg bench press and a 215kg deadlift.
From there he would turn his attention to the world championships, held in Belarus next year.
There was plenty of fundraising to be done for that though.
Playing rugby and surfing alongside his lifting kept Watt busy and he admitted it was hard fitting everything in.
"Yeah [it’s hard fitting it all in], that’s why I dropped taekwondo last year, so I could just focus on [powerlifting] this year and slowly integrate them both.
"I come here and still train for taekwondo. I just punch and kick on the bags and stuff. So we’ll find out [how powerlifting has affected it] when we start competing again next year."
He said there were not many powerlifters his age, although there were plenty of young people that went to the gym.
