The MONSTER GARAGE GYM/MAROSCHER COACHING LOG is a weekly Coaching Log by MGG owner, 2-Time WPC World Powerlifting Champion, Eric Maroscher, and is geared to the new to intermediate powerlifter. LIVE, LEARN and PASS ON.
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THIS WEEK’S Monster Garage Gym/Maroscher Coaching Log: GET IN THE GAME AND MAINTAIN RADIO SILENCE
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This Week’s Coaching Log:
Going back a couple decades ago (up until about 2012 or so), I recall each month getting my new issue of Powerlifting USA in the mail. Powerlifting USA was a chapter out of the powerlifting bible, delivered to your door or gym each month. I would put the latest issue in my gym bag, bring the new issue with me to my training session, and then read it cover to cover (size 6-ish font and all) over post-training skirt steak and eggs at the neighborhood restaurant where all of the powerlifters from the gym broke bread after each of the big squat, bench and deadlift sessions. We would sit there at the three restaurant tables, all pushed together, eating, reading, analyzing the information and planning our next training sessions, upcoming meets and our goals, short, medium and long range.
We would read about the articles about great powerlifters throughout history and those at the top of the heap within the era we were in at the time. We checked the Top 100 list each month (it was a list of the best US lifts for the year, broken down into weight class each month) looking to see where we landed that year while drawing inspiration from the Top 10 lifters.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sldmd9ztFDE&feature=youtu.be]
Somehow, perhaps because this was all in print and you waited weeks to read each issue, you found inspiration in those pages, reading all about, and sharing the platform now and again with some of those amazing lifters within the pages of that powerlifting only magazine.
During that time-frame (90’s to early 2000 and thereabouts) serious powerlifters trained somewhat in radio silence. As it relates to the military, radio silence was ordered when any radio transmission/communication may reveal information about troops or their positions. Because each issue of Powerlifting USA would recap the meets from the prior month or three, as well as provide the top 100 ranked lifts for the month by weight class, lifters would look at the meet results and try to see the numbers their competition was putting up in prep for their next meet. You kept that information as part of your plan if the meet was tight, because some meets are for the numbers, but some are for the win/title. The other draw of seeing the other lifter’s numbers was simply part of being a competitive powerlifter. It was motivational as quite frankly, you were gunning for the person you think might challenge you at the upcoming meet. So, we would look up the meets, look for that lifter and try to piece together their numbers over the past year to see where they were going to land approximately.
Those at the bottom of the ladder, they looked at the numbers of the lifters above them. Those at the top of the ladder, they looked for the numbers of those who were hunting them down. Regardless of where you were on the powerlifting ladder, you were “in the game,” you were in the mix, you were in the chase, meaning either doing the chasing or being chased.
You planned your meets, competed, accessed, regrouped, then continued what worked and modified what didn’t. You trained in radio silence as you knew your hand was going to be seen via the meet results in Powerlifting USA magazine, so the last thing you wanted to do was put more information out there for your competition to see.
In this current era of powerlifting with not merely a heavy presence, but a saturation actually of socialookatmedia, the script has flipped. Radio silence has for many, fallen away, for some it has never even existed. You can’t swing a dead cat without bumping into a lifter’s posts about their training. For those with a little road under their powerlifting belts who poured over the pages of Powerlifting USA, seeing posts from each and every workout is like telegraphing your punch to the opposing boxer, but its every punch and in case your competition missed it somehow, it was posted over and over again, first on FB then on IG, Twitter, etc. It is not unheard of to see such emphasis on the ‘documentation’ of the training, that the meet becomes secondary.
The purpose of this coaching log is to put this thought out there. If you have not competed but are posting your training, “get in the game.” My other thought is, sometimes less is more. Consider a little radio silence as there is merit with regard to putting less emphasis on documenting the training, and more emphasis on the actual training. I recently mentioned in an article that, “Those with numbers win; those without the numbers post.” Food for thought as you navigate the waters of this great sport of powerlifting.
The accompanying video is of the 2018 Novice Strongman Challenge sponsored by United States Strongman and Monster Garage Gym. This was an event put together for novice strongman athletes. An opportunity provided by United States Strongman and Monster Garage Gym to “get in the game.” The athletes at this meet wanted to “get in the game” and did just that as for many it was their first or second competition.
If you are training but not competing, find a meet and enter it. Apply the breaks with regard to posting about your training and put the pedal all the way to the floor with regard to actual training. You might just like where these suggestions take you.
Wishing all of our weekly coaching log readers the best in your training and competitions. Ever Onward, Eric Maroscher, Owner: MONSTER GARAGE GYM
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