Arthur Drechsler, Lost Battalion Hall and the New York City Open

The New York City Open Olympic Weightlifting Competition was held on Saturday September 26th. Although a bit too close to my last competition at the Conn. Open in August, I was very excited about traveling down to Rego Park, Queens NY and seeing the famous "Lost Battalion Hall" or LBH for short (pictured above in the second photo).

Also, I had the privilege of meeting and talking with Arthur Drechsler, former Olympic Weightlifting World Record holder and Coach of Team Met-Elite at the New York City Open this Saturday (pictured above at the top right of the top photo along with members of Team Met-Elite). I own a copy of his "The Weightlifting Encyclopedia", or TWLE, for short and brought it down to the meet for a signing for which Arthur was extremely gracious and appreciative. This is by far my favorite book on the sport and one that remains on my kitchen table. It truly is an Encyclopedia, with no frills, a small font and over three hundreds of pages of practical information on the this great sport. I have yet to complete it but have made great progress in working through it in a non-linear fashion by choosing topics of immediate interest that then lead to other topics.

After I completed my snatch attempts, Arthur asked that I stick around at the end of competition as he had some suggestions to implement in my training.

Here are Arthur's suggestions:

• OHS, OHS, and then more OHS. The overhead squat must be mastered and made to feel natural and strong in the bottom position
• The fleshy inside of the elbow joint where the bottom of the biceps attached, must face outwards. The bar must be pulled like taffee during the entire OHS and catch of the snatch.
• Practice, practice, practice with and without a an empty bar, dropping quickly and completely vertically into the jerk split bottom receiving position. All five toes of the back foot should be pushing and cushioning. This motion of quickly pushing directly vertically down mush be grooved into neural-muscular memory.

Here are the details of my meet warm ups and competition lifts:

Snatch Warm ups (kg):
20 x 2 x 5
40 x 1 x 3
40 x 1 x 2
50 x 1 x 2
50 x 2 x 1
55 x 1 x 1
60 x 1 x 1
65 x 1 x 1
70 x 1 x 1

Snatch Meet Attempts (kg):
70 Power Snatch: Good Lift
73 Squat Snatch: Good Lift
75 Squat Snatch .. out front: No Lift

Clean and Jerk Warm ups (kg):
20 x 2 x 5
40 x 1 x 3
50 x 1 x 2
60 x 1 x 2
70 x 1 x 1
75 x 1 x 1
80 x 1 x 1 Missed jerk
80 x 1 x 1
85 x 1 x 1

Clean and Jerk Meet Attempts (kg):
90 Squat Clean: Good Lift
95 Squat Clean, Missed Jerk: No Lift
95 Power Clean, Missed Jerk: No Lift

I traveled down to Riverdale in the Bronx a day early to hang out with my second cousin who I hadn't seen in twenty years. I knew combining visiting relatives would impact my performance but in spite of it I did just okay. I power snatched my first snatch attempt of 70kg easily and then proceeded to get quickly under 73kg for my best heavy snatch to date .. in fact a new PR. I was too slow getting under 75kg but that's going down soon. Mike Shoretz and Dave Almeida two former Excel weightlifters who took charge of my warm ups and deserve a lot of credit for 73kg snatch .. after the 70kg power snatch they were emphatic about me just getting under the 73 and I'm glad I did.

I was off in my c&j missing 80kg in the warmups and got very concerned about it. Fortunately, Mike Shoretz did a great job of calming me down .. a few minutes later I tried it again, made it and then an attempt with 85kg. He convinced me to stick with my opener and I made 90kg .. but it was tough as the clean recovery seemed much more taxing than usual. I decided to go for broke but I missed 95kg badly on my second attempt with a squat clean that took too much out of me in the squat recovery .. it seems I lots some leg strength but I know I'll get it back. On my 3rd attempt with 95kg, I just power cleaned it to avoid another tough squat recovery and missed the jerk out front. As a result, I repeated my total of 163 from the Conn open by shifting 3 kilos from my c&j and adding it to my snatch.

The other Excel lifter that made the trip down to LBH, the seventeen year old Alex Gordon, was very, very sharp making his opener 75kg snatch and then a very easy looking 80kg for his 2nd attempt. He went for 85kg on his 3rd attempt and caught it a little out front and had to ditch it. His c&j opener with 90kg looked like it was a bar warm up. He then smoothly with a perfectly straight back, squat cleaned 95kg and jerked it easily. He then went for 100kg on his 3rd attempt, got under quickly but just couldn't recover. This kid just needs to gain some weight (he weighed in at paltry 79kg) and he will easily do more. With a nice 175kg total he took 1st place in the 85kg. I was shocked when my name was called for 2nd place but its not my fault that the weight class was the weakest by far of the final session. Even so, I did have to beat two other competitors in the weight class to earn "runner up" so it wasn't a total gimme. As a result, Alex and I did the best we possibly could have in representing Excel.

Poorly fitting dentures?!

Until this photo was taken of me at the Conn Open I would have never guessed I looked so completely ridiculous just prior to making this 70kg snatch attempt. As a result, I will never ever make a wisecrack about anyone else's pre-liftoff setup ever again. I would like to change this but there are so many more important areas to work on .. eliminating gaping mouth grimaces will have to wait.

Tuesday Sep 15, 2009

Evening Olympic Lifting Session at Excel Fitness and Sports

Z-Health Neural Warmup Level II Dynamic Joint Mobility

Clean and Jerk (kg): [Goal 6 x 2 @ 90%1RM = 84kg]
40 x 1 x 2
50 x 1 x 2
60 x 1 x 2
70 x 1 x 2
80 x 1 x 2
85 x 2 x 2
90 x 1 x 1
95 x 1 x 1 PR
100 x 3 x 1 3xclean-NoLift

Front Squat (kg):
60 x 1 x 6
70 x 1 x 2
80 x 1 x 2
85 x 4 x 2
90 x 1 x 2
100 x 1 x 2
90 x 1 x 2

The last thing I expected this evening was c&j PR. The heavy back squats on Saturday had a delayed effect on my right knee and this morning it was still a little stiff and sore. My right shoulder was a little better than usual but still painful in some extended range of motion. At least I was a good boy and only did some light Bear and Tiger Frolic QiGong on Sunday and Monday to get as much rest in as possible. Since the Conn Open, I had been avoiding heavy jerks as they seemed to irritate my shoulder. Perhaps switching to power-jerks for a few sessions might have had some carry over or maybe the PR can be partially attribute to the those very heavy back squats on Saturday.

Yet another theory is my shoulder is usually fatigued after a heavy snatch session of which I have been doing at the start of every session prior to today. Instead when I saw that Coach Ben Fuller wanted six sets of double c&j with 90%, I let the snatches slide for a day and starting with doubles with 40kg and I added 10kg each set up to 80kg. I surprised myself when I followed that with two sets of doubles with 85kg (92%). Coach asked me to switch to heavier singles, first with 90kg and then the PR with 95kg. Happily, my shoulder never bothered me and even now its the best its been in several weeks. Part of this I attribute to all the extra Z-Health dynamic joint mobility and some band work I recently added as suggested by top lifter Yasha Kahn. doing.

One thing that helped me psychologically was on Saturday when I asked my training partner Jason Edmonds, who is an extremely strong jerker, if the weight felt heavy prior to jerking it. He replied

"Yeah it feels heavy but I just jerk it and it goes up somehow".

That's exactly what happened with 95kg .. I had a nice clean, it felt very heavy in the rack but somehow I just jerked it an up it went although the catch was wobbly but I was still able to save it after taking a few additional steps. Amusingly, I had really thought I had dropped into a deep full squat with the clean but coach said it was only to parallel and that I did the right thing by not riding it down to the bottom.

While I was on a roll, I tried three attempts with 100kg and missed all three. For the first two the pull was very high but I pulled too long and just stood there holding the bar. The 3rd time I jumped backwards in a poor attempt to get under it. I am not discouraged at all .. it really felt light off the floor .. I'm just trying to pull it too long. The same thing happened with 80, 85, 90 and 95 .. I know I'll nail it in the near future having been through this several times before with lighter weights.

Following the clean & jerks, coach had me go right to front squats to complete the workout. I was very pleased the doubles with 85kg felt very light and the double with 100kg felt the easiest it has ever been.

Needless to say I'm really excited at all the improvements lately and I think Coach Fuller deserves a lot of the credit for the program he has designed for us.

A Reverse Kettlebell WTH Effect

There is a significant number of documented cases of RKC style kettlebell lifters who have experienced large improvements in non-kettlebell strength and endurance feats without explicitly training for them. This cross-0ver phenomenon in the RKC community is known as the "What-the-hell?!!"or the WTH effect for short. Since beginning Olympic lifting eleven months ago, I have since learned that the Olympic lifts are well known for there tremendous impact on strength and power sports such as football and wrestling but never had direct experience of this type of carry-over. In my case, it was RKC kettlebell lifting that provided the necessary base of strength and conditioning to allow me to train the Olympic lifts especially as a 56 year old master lifter.

Well, last Saturday was the first time I had seen the Olympic lifts providing a "WTH" effect in another area and in this case it was kettlebell lifting! Jen Johnson, the 60kg lifter pictured above in a rock bottom position of a 45kg snatch, has been training the lifts for over two years. A biologist by profession, she was an avid soccer player in high school who picked up the lifts several years after college.

As mentioned in a previous post, just as I started lifting at the club I would be in complete awe as she demonstrated beautiful full squat snatch and c&j technique. When I mentioned this to her, she was very modest claiming what I was seeing was a result of year and half struggle to get under the bar quickly. Shortly afterward she broke through a number of lifting plateaus and continues to improve in all her lifts. Just recently she front squatted 71kg, snatched 51kg and c&j 61, all PRs within the last two weeks. We both laughed so hard when I realized only after being at the club for over seven months, that Jen used to baby sit for her brother and my now twenty-eight year old son when they were in elementary school. Oh boy the years fly by!

Well last week Jen asked me about kettlebells and I offered to instruct her in performing the Turkish Getup, or TGU for short, after our session. Within twenty minutes of working through the six steps of the progress, she was handling 25 lb dumbbell (I didn't have a 12kg bell with me at the time) quite easily with either hands for good crisp form as she transitioned between the six positions. To date all of my women clients have taken six months or longer to TGU this weight.

Then last Tuesday, I brought in my 12kg bell for her and 24kg bell for myself to demonstrate and teach her the two-hand swing. Honestly, she was doing them solidly withing a minute with the 12kg bell with powerful hip snap, loose arm and neutral back. However the bell kept flying up too high spinning around her hands. Wishing I had a 20kg bell as I felt it would be better suited for power generation, I went ahead anyway and for grins asked her to try the 24kg bell. Low and behold she began swinging it with excellent form to shoulder height for sets of ten reps. For the record, none of my women clients can handle the 24kg bell for anything more than
Sumo deadlifting it. In all fairness there a quite a few very strong and powerful women RKC kettlebell trainers (Andrea Du Cane, Master RKC, Sarah Cheatham, Senior RKC, Tracy Reifkind,RKC, Gabby Katschthaler, RKC to name a few) that handle the 24kg and heavier bells, but none of them, as I know of, could swing a 24kg so proficiently the first time they learned to swing. Congratulations Jen!

Below is a wrap up of my week of training:

Tuesday Sep 10, 2009

Noon Olympic Lifting Session at Excel Fitness and Sports

Z-Health Neural Warmup Level II Dynamic Joint Mobility

Snatch (kg):
20 x 1 x 5 3Standing, Ak, Bk
30 x 1 x 5 3Standing, Ak, Bk
40 x 1 x 4 3Pos,2Sn 1Sn-NoLift
45 x 1 x 3 3Pos
50 x 1 x 3 1-NoLift
50 x 1 x 2
55 x 1 x 2
60 x 2 x 2
65 x 4 x 1 1-NoLift
65 x 1 x 2
65 x 1 x 2 1-NoLift
65 x 3 x 1
67 x 1 x 1
70 x 2 x 1 2-NoLift
72 x 2 x 1 2-NoLift
72 x 1 x 1 PR

Snatch Balance (kg):
20 x 1 x 5
30 x 1 x 5
40 x 3 x 3

Front Squat (kg):
85 x 6 x 3

A very good snatch session with a double squat snatch with 65kg. After a very smooth 67kg, Coach Fuller recommended going up. I missed 70kg twice and then was asked to jump to 72kg. Again missed it twice getting under it the 2nd rep but unable to stand with it. After being told I could have made it if I was just a little more confident, I went one more time and caught parallel to the ground a little off balance and somehow saved the lift for a new PR.

Thursday Sep 10, 2009

Evening Olympic Lifting Session at Excel Fitness and Sports

Z-Health Neural Warmup Level II Dynamic Joint Mobility

Snatch (kg):

Front Squat (kg):
60 x 1 x 6
70 x 1 x 5
80 x 1 x 3
90 x 6 x 3

Snatch (kg):
40 x 1 x 3 2Ak, sn
40 x 1 x 3 3Pos
50 x 1 x 3 3Pos
60 x 2 x 2
60 x 1 x 1 NoLift

Snatch Pulls (kg):
70 x 2 x 3
80 x 3 x 3

C&J (kg):
40 x 1 x 3
60 x 1 x 3
70 x 2 x 2
80 x 1 x 2 1Jerk-NoLift
85 x 1 x 1

This is the first time I've ever front squatted first. Coach Fuller has suggested I do this once a week to mix things up. They did tire my legs but I was still pleased with a quality session.

Saturday Sep 12, 2009

Noon Olympic Lifting Session at Excel Fitness and Sports

Z-Health Neural Warmup Level II Dynamic Joint Mobility

Snatch (kg):
20 x 2 x 5 3Standing, Ak, Bk
40 x 1 x 3 3Pos
40 x 1 x 5 3Pos, 2Sn 1Sn-NoLift
50 x 1 x 3 3Pos
55 x 1 x 3 2-NoLift
50 x 1 x 1 , 55 x 1 x 2
60 x 2 x 2
64 x 1 x 2 1-NoLift
64 x 1 x 2 2-NoLift
64 x 1 x 2

Clean and Jerk (kg):
40 x 1 x 2
50 x 1 x 2
60 x 1 x 2
70 x 1 x 2
80 x 1 x 1 Clean only

Back Squat (kg):
50 x 1 x 5
70 x 1 x 3
90 x 1 x 2
100 x 1 x 2
105 x 1 x 2
108 x 5 x 2 PR (90%1RM)

24kg Kettlebell Finisher AMT Complex:
A1. 20 Swings
A2. TGU Left
A3. TGU Right
Total: 5 super sets

Heavy front squats on Tues and Thurs took their toll and I struggled. I took immense focus to complete the back squat portion of the session with a five sets of doubles with 108kg. After resting a bit, I really worked up a good sweat with five supersets of 24kg kettlebell swings and TGUs.

Magic Bullets and Tired legs

The photo above is of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN where particle beams are accelerated close to the speed of light and then smashed into in each other, in the hopes of creating elusive primordial subatomic-particles. If in fact discovered as predicted by the theory of super-symmetry, these sub-atomic "Magic Bullets" would provide the indivisible glue for assembling the greatest source of energy known in the universe.

But alas, way up here at the macro level of everyday existence in the iron game, the search for a "Magic Bullet" yielding ever-lasting strength and power is completely futile .. just blood sweat and tears and only then results.

On Saturday, absolutely everything felt heavy, I had no explosiveness in my pulls and my right shoulder acted up while power jerking a fairly light weight. I should have known this was going to be a rough one as my bar warm-ups were unexpectedly taxing. When my inner dialogue of indignation and disgust finally subsided, I "sucked it up", dropped down to weights that I could handle with somewhat reasonable form, and made the best of out it. What kept me going was knowledge of the belief that these are precisely the days that really count towards measurable results as they train the mind just as hard as the body.

Tuesday Sep 1, 2009

Evening Olympic Lifting Session at Excel Fitness and Sports

Z-Health Neural Warmup Level II Dynamic Joint Mobility
Snatch (kg):
20 x 1 x 8 Standing-sn, 3-pos-sn, scarecrow-sn, sn-on-toes
32 x 1 x 5 3Sn-on-toes + 2 AK-sn
40 x 1 x 3 Standing-sn 1NoLift
45 x 1 x 3 3-pos-sn
50 x 1 x 3 3-pos-sn, BK-sn-NoLift
50 x 1 x 3 2AK-sn + sn
50 x 3 x 3 1NoLift

Clean and Power-Jerk(kg):
50 x 1 x 2
60 x 1 x 2
70 x 2 x 2
75 x 1 x 2
70 x 2 x 2
75 x 2 x 2
80 x 1 x 1 PR
80 x 1 x 1
85 x 2 x 1 2CleanWithNoJerk

Front Squat (kg):
60 x 1 x 2
70 x 1 x 2
80 x 1 x 2
90 x 6 x 2

My hips and legs were quite fatigued as I had to abandon snatches early. The power-jerk PR was a nice surprise in a very difficult session.

Thursday Sep 3, 2009

Evening Olympic Lifting Session at Excel Fitness and Sports

Z-Health Neural Warmup Level II Dynamic Joint Mobility
Snatch (kg):
20 x 1 x 6 Standing-sn, AK-sn, BK-sn
30 x 1 x 5 3-pos-sn, standing-sn
40 x 1 x 3 3-pos-sn
45 x 1 x 4 3-pos-sn, 1sn-NoLift
50 x 1 x 3 3-pos-sn
55 x 1 x 2
60 x 5 x 2
63 x 2 x 1
66 x 2 x 1
66 x 1 x 1 NoLift

Snatch Pulls (kg):
70 x 1 x 3
75 x 1 x 3
80 x 1 x 3
85 x 1 x 3

Back Squat (kg):
70 x 1 x 3
80 x 1 x 3
90 x 1 x 3
102 x 5 x 3 (5 x 3 x 85%)

A great snatch session as this was the first time I was ever able to full squat snatch 60kg so consistently, in fact for five sets of doubles. However back squats required such intense focus as I forced myself to go as deep as possible on each rep. Recovering from the 3rd rep of each set was agonizing and I knew it would take a toll on me in terms of requiring extra time to recover.

Saturday Sep 5, 2009

Noon Olympic Lifting Session at Excel Fitness and Sports

Z-Health Neural Warmup Level II Dynamic Joint Mobility

Snatch (kg):
20 x 2 x 5 3xStanding, AK, BK
30 x 2 x 5 3xStanding, AK, BK
40 x 2 x 3 3-Pos
50 x 1 x 2 1-NoLift
50 x 1 x 2
55 x 2 x 2
60 x 1 x 2 1-NoLift
60 x 1 x 2 1-NoLift

Clean and Power Jerk (kg):
50 x 1 x 3
60 x 1 x 3
70 x 1 x 3
75 x 1 x 3 2-Jerk-NoLift
75 x 1 x 3 2-Jerk-NoLift
70 x 1 x 3 Clean only

Front Squat (lbs):
95 x 1 x 5
135 x 1 x 5
155 x 1 x 5
175 x 1 x 3

Walking Lunges (lbs):
45 x 5/5
95 x 5/5
135 x 2 x 5/5 PR

Although this session was extremely difficult and every thing felt heavy, I salvaged it with walking lunges. The heavy back squats on Thurs completely fatigued my CNS.