Background: I work at OSU as a graduate teaching associate and lift at Ludus Magnus. I am a raw lifter who competes in the 105lb weight classes, and am currently prepping for my next meet (when grad school finally gives me a weekend off) . Currently, I am in the process of trying to accomplish my lofty lifting goals,survive graduate school, and teach undergraduates about what I really love, TRAINING..
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Eccentric Week2: ME LOWER (Saturday)
General Warm Up
1. Stepper
Neural prep
2. Jump over bench to box jump
3 x 3 x 10lbs
Training
3. Powerclean with pause at hip
start clean then pause for 3 count at hip then blast that sucker and finish the lift
-up to 135
miss at 140
*I alternate 3 weeks of deadlifts and 3 of cleans because (1)my rate of force development is terrible (2) I am the most (un)explosive deadlifter of all time (3) since my meet pull is sumo, I don’y have to worry about my conventional deadlift start position being ruined from using my clean position (the two should be different).
4. Max effort front squat with three count isomeric in bottom
-up to 170 (beltless)!
-5lb PR
Assistance circuit
5a. 3 position isomeric paused (3 count) high bar back squat
start to squat down, pause mid way down and count to three, then continue down and pause in bottom for three count, then start to come up and pause 3 inches out of hole, count to three, then finish lift. All that is one rep.
3 x 3
5b. GHR with 5 lb plate behind neck and three count pause
3 x 5
5c. Kb swing
3 x 20
Cool Down
ElifteFTS Sports Performance Seminar
Wow, what can I say. Saturday was an amazing reminder of how lucky I am to be part of a team of so many amazing individuals. I remember back when I went to my first strength and conditioning conference at the University of Florida. I was 18 years old, the youngest by a couple of years, and a sponge soaking up the words of Coach Marotti and Gittleson Fast forward more years than I want to admit, and students of the iron as young as ten and as old as too old to lie about their age were in the audience, as well as novices to some of the most well known coaches in the game, all with that same look of love and passion for coaching in attendance. What Mark Watts put together, a room of people who loved training their athletes from all walks of life, was a moment that can’t really be expressed. I mean shoot, he had coaches who used to have competing philosophies in training, sharing the podium, talking about their respect for one another (amazing, this is the kind of thing that moves fields forward). And so why can’t it be expressed? Because it wasn’t something I word can describe, it was more like the manifestation of passion for coaching itself. It was a living, breathing, manifestation of living, learning and passing on. (Note: if someone could describe it with words though, it would probably be Coach Chip Morton from the Bengals. Chip captivated the crowd and spoke to the hearts of many in his presentation describing the importance of caring about your athletes as people. He also started his talking giving props to others before him, which was awesome in its own right).
So, while I could tell you about all the awesome training knowledge that was shared, I am instead going to take a page out of Chip’s book and talk about some of the things that really touched me from the day, that had nothing to do with getting physically stronger and everything to do with the things we often do not talk about.
Dave Tate:
For those that don’t know me well, I’m not the mushy type. I don’t (or didn’t think) I believed in role models or inspiration, but watching Dave open up the conference, I realized I was a total liar in respect to both of those statements. I was inspired …and that man on the stage, he is none other than my role model (among many other things! ) You could see Dave’s mind running brim full of passion as he set the scene for the day. Very few people walk the walk, talk the talk, and love something just as much many years later as they did when they first got started. EliteFTS has, and will always, the words “life, learn, and pass on,” because it was founded by someone who believes in those things as if they were set in stone. When I first started teaching, I remembered I wanted to because I wanted to be able to bridge the gap between the application and the academics. Sometimes though, with my crazy research and workload, I’m just working towards accomplishing that end goal and forgetting to appreciate that it’s because of a role model like Dave that I was and am so inspired to be on the path of a lifetime of living, learning and passing on.
Buddy Morris
Gosh, I can’t say enough about how happy I was to see Buddy. Growing up, Buddy was THE COACH I looked up to (and Mike Woicik). By the time he started his first sentence I’m sure my smile was spread and plastered to my face from ear to ear. Not only is his wisdom endless, his passion infectious (for teaching, educating, learning and coaching) , and his humor unmatched, but he is also the kind of person can display his love of the field without every mentioning the words, “love, passion, and dedicated.” He is one of a kind. And thus, I’ll hit you with some of his amazing one-liners from the summit, not related to training. Note: he also gave props to those that helped him before beginning, which makes him one of seven that I have ever seen do that.
1. Talking about people: A cluttered desk is a sign of a clutter mind, I’m scared if I walk into your office and it’s empty. I want thinkers.
2. On talking about changes kids need to make: If your kid can’t buckle his seatbelt, let him figure it out.
3. On talking about his mind: I have post-it notes everywhere, including my bedroom
4. On talking about training his daughter: In my family you either train or buy a book.
5. After a rant: When I lose my train of thought, I’m like an alcoholic without a beer.
6. On training: Movement screens have been around forever, it’s called watching your athlete move.
7. On certain organizations: You want me to be certified, but you are teaching me wrong. You want me to be certified in being wrong?
8. On aging: When you get to be 50 years old you have have to pee every two hours.
In all
I'm pretty thankful to have such a great team, and to be able to watch knowledge that was once known by few become known by man. To the presenters (Joe Kenn, Buddy, Mike Robertson, Chip Morton, and Joe DeFranco), thank you for sharing what you know with the rest of us, it was great to hear you speak. To Dave and Traci, thank you for letting me be part of such an amazing team. To my teammates and members of EliteFTS, thank you for a family of amazing people. And the attendees, thank you teaching me new things and showing me how many people really have a passion for living, learning and passing on!
And I’ll leave you with, because somethings need to be felt, not read.
