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 one of the Featured Coaching Logs at EliteFTS.
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Monster Garage Gym/Maroscher Coaching Log: (Log number LVIII). “POWER OF THE TEAM”

*NEW MGG COACHING LOG POSTED HERE EVERY WEEKEND!!!!
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The purpose of this log is to show you training footage of a successful and functional powerlifting team, as well as the disaggregation of what makes it so. *Photo: Some of the current members of the Maroscher Powerlifting Team of Monster Garage Gym.

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Many years ago I originally wrote about The Power Of The Team https://www.elitefts.com/education/the-power-of-the-team/ Over time I tweaked and updated that original article that was originally published in one of the many now extinct powerlifting magazines of days gone by. As time has passed since that original piece was written, based on my personal experiences with a variety of powerlifting teams I have lifted on (including the legendary Frantz Power Team, which changed my life for the better thanks to Ernie Frantz), I am convinced, now more than ever, that a true team is the single most important element for propelling ones powerlifting career forward, outside of the time and work that the powerlifter as an individual puts in at the gym. The team is more important than programing, equipment, supplements, everything!  *Photo: Two members of the family tree that is/was the Frantz Power Team, Monster Garage Gym Owner, Eric Maroscher (left), WPC World Powerlifting Champion, Steve Brock (right) with their original coach/mentor, The Godfather of Powerlifting, Ernie Frantz (center).

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As those who are trapped and fettered in the corporate gym world know all too well, a facility can be packed to the brim with people, the best equipment and access to supplements and nutrition, but the amount of people in a facility as well as the other aspects is a far cry from the benefits of training on a team. 100 people exercising at the same time, yet as individuals with their ear buds on, hardly constitutes a team, regardless if they are going through the same physical motions as one another. Likewise, a group of people training in the same area and who help spot and load for one another is not a true team either.  *Photo: A part of the larger Maroscher Powerlifting Team, the Monsterettes of Monster Garage Gym.

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A team does not require that all members squat a grand or pull 800LBS or all be RAW or all be equipped, in fact, it is the diversity of the lifters on a true team that helps as fuel for the team’s engine itself. A true team might be diverse in appearance, strength levels and experience, but a team really all has one goal in mind and that is to help one another become the most powerful version of themselves that they can be. In that very process of others helping the individual, each individual in return, through the symbiosis of the team, also becomes the most powerful version of themselves.  *Photo: Post training feast with part of the MPT. 

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Depending on the size of the team, there might be a point where the team, as a complete whole, cannot physically train together (as only so many can rotate on a bench, monolift, deadlift platform) but this is not an obstacle for the true team.

When this is the case, as is the case at the Monster Garage Gym on Monday’s, Wednesday’s and Saturday’s and Sunday’s, that larger team, with its likeminded team focused individuals, break into pods of the larger team. They train together as a pod, or mini-team, coaching, supporting, spotting, loading, encouraging, inspiring and pushing one another within that pod, yet remain keenly aware of the other pods and the individuals within those pods. When a lifter in a pod is going max effort, the other individuals from the other pods focus their collective attention on him/her, sending that lifter their energy regardless if the max effort squat is 950LBS or 250LBS. In the true team there is not a hierarchy based on who is strongest, as each member of the team is trying to be a strong(er) version of the lifter they were yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that.  *Photo: Branches off of the Frantz family tree. (Ed Coan, Eric Maroscher, Ernie Frantz, Jose Garcia, Tom Carnaghi). 

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At the Monster Garage Gym, the team believes and embodies our mantra, Become A Part Of Something BIGGER Than YOU!!!!! Some of our strongest powerlifters take time to work with the least experience powerlifters, and the converse is also true, some of the newest to the game, take the time to run the monolift, hold a bench board, count the plates to avoid misload, turn-up that lifters favorite song, whatever it take for them to support the team member who supports them, all the while supporting each member of the team. Make no mistake, this does not mean that all the team trains with all the other team members, as each pod has their own agenda for the day, each pod is helping to hone-in a lifter for a meet, each pod has its own diagram for that specific session, yet are still aware and supportive of the larger team as a whole. *Photo: Dave Tate has created Team EliteFTS, another example of a symbiotic team.  

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So what does this mean for the other lifters at that gym who don’t compete or are just “working-out.” Well, their role is also important, but in a different way. Their membership helps pay for the rent, the bills, the next piece of EliteFTS equipment, etc. The periphery lifters while not part of the competitive team merely by their existence as gym members, ultimately still serve the team albeit not in the same manner as the individuals in the pods or larger competitive team as a whole. The reality is, bills must be paid and those peripheral members help in that very regard.   *Photo:  Four members of Team EliteFTS (THE Casey Williams, House of Pain's Clint Darden, MGG's Eric Maroscher, the legendary Steve Goggins).

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Does this mean that anyone can be on the team if they are a great lifter? Not a chance. Once a lifter becomes a detriment to the team, lifting prowess becomes unimportant as a disruption to the body, the entity, the spirit that is a true team is unacceptable. Once the distraction has reached critical mass, extraction takes place immediately. “You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here!”

The accompanying video gives you a glimpse of just one powerlifting team, the Maroscher Powerlifting Team out of Monster Garage Gym, as there are many great teams. [In Illinois alone you have gyms like Jakked Hardcore, Barbell Central, 2XL, etc. with highly functional teams and you can see the results of those true and highly functioning teams at meets all over the country].

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p7hf6OiQJc]

In the accompanying video you will see the pods training together, as well as a moment or two where the entire team stops to support a team member going red-line, as on a true team, we each know the other’s red-line. You will also see some powerlifting Padawans, as they are the future of the team and this sport. The little guys are just as important as the big guys, because at one time in their life, those big guys were Padawans as well.

In this particular video of this particular training night, although the entire team is not all present, there are the following pods of the larger team training: Monsterettes (comprised of the lady powerlifters of MGG), the RAW squad (comprised of majority RAW lifters), the Pro-Team (comprised of lifters who have totaled Elite and in some cases are on All Time lists), the Newbies/Intermediate (comprised of those either new to powerlifting, or new to competition), the Master lifters (comprised of those lifters in their 40’s-50’s). *These pods have individuals who vacillate as some master’s train with the pro team, the RAW guys work in with the other pods too. There are not hard-fast pods as the team is fluid in its pods and that is one of its strengths. Also there are days when the team wears gear, days when they train RAW, go heavy, go high volume. The training has a good deal of variety as do the pods. Note also that everyone spots everyone as safety is paramount and the true team wants everyone safe and healthy in a sport that 110% guarantees injury. There are also individuals on the team that train in different pods/groups depending on the given day as there is room for everyone who is serious about their powerlifting. On the lighter days of the week, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday the team that trains is smaller and trains more-so as one larger unit as there is not the constraint of too many lifters per training station. Those days are equally as fun and rewarding and supportive as the big team training days.

As the main training of the big thee lifts finishes, the pods break up for the most part into looser versions of themselves or individuals and they work on the ancillary movements that serve to complement the big three lifts.

What the training video does not show is the team traveling together as the team travels well as it works to support the other members at their powerlifting competitions.  Additionally not shown in the training video above is the time in and outside of the gym when the team is enjoying being just that, a team.  As a true team enjoys time together outside of the gym as well. The video below captures a little bit of that for you as well as it include everything EXCEPT for the training. *Can you find the King, Ed Coan in the video......?

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0POOrTIQAc]

As you look to start your own team or join a team, or enhance the team you are on consider this information as a true team, outside of the effort you put into your own training, will be the single most important element to attaining and surpassing your powerlifting goals.

If you like our coaching log content, please peruse the MONSTER GARAGE GYM online store and consider buying a MONSTER GARAGE GYM and/or Monsterette shirt: http://shop.monstergaragegym.com/

All of the training footage in this coaching log is filmed in HD.

You can find ALL of the prior EliteFTS/Maroscher Coaching Logs at this link: https://www.elitefts.com/author/eric-maroscher/

You can follow the MONSTER GARAGE GYM/MAROSCHER POWERLIFTING TEAM powerlifters at https://www.facebook.com/MONSTER-GARAGE-GYM-122378057784944/
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As always, thank you for following EliteFTS and the MONSTER GARAGE GYM. We hope you find this coaching log as a whole of use to you in your training. Please let us know by your comment(s) if these logs are useful to you and what we can do to make the better. If you like them, we would appreciate it if you would share them. Ever Onward, Eric Maroscher.
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