I feel the need to make my voice heard on this particular issue. I don’t know the process involved in selecting host cities for national weightlifting events. I believe the Competition Committee is supposed to sign-off, ditto for the Board of Directors. Phil Andrews is involved and maybe even Rogue. I believe that food availability is one of the factors that needs to be considered when site selection decisions are made. I’ve been in Detroit for this year’s Nationals since yesterday, June 30 and will depart tomorrow, July 2. So it’s a short stay. My gripe is the lack of dining facilities or the ..read more

So let’s take the Wayback machine and take a trip back to the 1980’s when women’s weightlifting was considered little more than a preposterous idea.  Here are some of the things you would have had to face if you were a woman and wanted to enter the sport of weightlifting. ·        Women were not allowed in YMCA’s where most of the weightlifting training in this country took place in those days. ·        Women were not allowed in most weight rooms. ·        Weigh-in rules required that ..read more

As Black History Month 2021 draws to a close, I’d like to conclude it with a memorial piece that I wrote about my best ever athlete, Albert Hood. I wrote this piece in 1994 shortly after his tragic death. He left an indelible impression on me and I’m sure he influenced and inspired the fans he had in the American weightlifting community. What an experience it was to coach such a competitor! Springtime, 1981 and the world was a beautiful place.  Never mind that Interstate 5 was the world's most boring highway.  I-5 was several hundred miles of straight concrete and asphalt that extend ..read more

THE RADIUS The radius of clarity extends to approximately the size of the competition platform.  Beyond the platform the stage is unclear and uninteresting.  Only the items within the radius are of interest.  If there is a stage (which is common at national events), it is forgotten once you step on to it.  THE CLARITY Within the radius, your vision is crystal clear.  It is as if everything is in 4K.  The bar is stunningly clear, as are the plates and the collar.  Your footsteps are not especially loud, but they are clear if you can hear them at all.  THE ..read more

“Do you do privates?” is one of those irritating questions that I’ve had to deal with since opening a weightlifting gym in 2014.  It’s irritating because it presumes that weightlifting functions like a branch of fitness.  Weightlifting is a sport and yet we rarely get considered the same way that other sports do.  The Fitness Model The fitness segment of the physical training spectrum has long employed the options of group classes or private (1 on 1) sessions.  The wealthier patrons consider group sessions to be passe, and would much rather opt for the exclusivity of privat ..read more

I’m writing this with the new coaches in our sport in mind.  I see that there is a big problem trying to figure out where and how to access reliable information for the training of weightlifters.  At one point there was a very brief period when weightlifting coaches could accumulate instructional content that was reliable if not entirely organized.  New coaches coming into the sport at this point are faced with a different set of issues in this digital information age and although I can’t offer any actionable solutions, I can outline where we stand on this issue. The Body of Inf ..read more

Much of what happens to us is the result of being at a certain point in history.  The current time is no exception and the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the weightlifting community as it has much of the rest of our lives.  Weightlifting has always been an activity in which its practitioners were comfortable with its solitary aspects.  Generations of American weightlifters have sprung from basement and garage gyms.  The majority of weightlifting champions have been developed in weightlifting clubs, however.  Although the coaching in the clubs may have been a major fact ..read more

The Women’s World’s Coach One of U.S.A. Weightlifting’s responses to the upgrading of the women’s program was the consistent selection of Tommy Kong as the head coach for the world’s from 1987 to 1990.  Unquestionably Tommy had legendary status and he added credibility and cachet to the women’s team.   Having coached the Olympic teams of Mexico, Germany and the U.S., his credentials as an international level coach were uncontestable, but there were some rumblings within the women’s community since Tommy had not produced a female medalist at the national level.  Now this par ..read more

A Man’s Sport It took a little while for women’s weightlifting in the USA to actually become a movement.  For many years it was just the occasional entry of an adventurous female into what was traditionally considered a man’s sport.  Weightlifting, which had been brought to America by European immigrants after World War I, was very much an underground activity that was conducted under clandestine circumstances sporadically around the country.  Although it was largely managed and standardized by the Amateur Athletic Union (A.A.U.), the actual physical home network of the sport wa ..read more

I’ve written on this topic previously and at the urging of SportsEDTV CEO Victor Bergonzolli, I’m returning to the subject again with a modification.  The Background I’ve been providing strength and conditioning coaching for female volleyball players since 1992.  I’ve worked with hundreds of them, almost entirely high school/club players.  As an indication of the quality of athlete, 18 of them have gone on to earn Division 1 scholarships.  That statistic in which I take the most pride, however, is the fact that over this 28 year period, none of my athletes has experienced a ..read more