The Tragic Death of the Military Press

[stef]

The Tragic Death of the Military Press in Olympic and World Championship Competition, 1928-1972

by John D. Fair

For most of the twentieth century, the press was the standard means by which the strength of an athlete, especially in weightlifting, was measured. “How much can you press?” was the usual question directed by friends and fellow athletes to any young man who started training with weights... by the end of the century that the new query became “How much can you bench press?”

Article

Resources page

[Hawkpeter]

Sadly, people dont even brag about how much they bench anymore.

More articles from John Fair please.

[Mark Rippetoe]

In the works.

[IronMind]

Along the lines of most SS articles, this one had amazing depth and quality. Thank you for providing

[ptarleton]

The strict press might be the most unpopular of the barbell exercises. Bench is obviously #1, then high squats, curls, ugly shrugs, and the occasional guy who sees deadlifts in a Men's Health article and tries them out. I even see more people snatch than strict press.

I think the 2007 release of starting strength and the more recent release of 5/3/1 breathed back some life into the strict press. If it weren't for at least one of these books my main shoulder exercise would probably still be seated dumbbell presses or worse, lateral raises.

[Carlos Daniel]

Interesting if a little dry. But incredibly informative.

[80smediumsized]

Well, one nice thing about the elimination of the press is that olympic lifting meets are usually quite short. Powerlifting meets are often 8+ hours. I almost feel like it would be a better sport if it consisted of only snatch and clean+press instead of c+j. That way there's 1 pure speed strength movement and 1 absolute strength movement. Saying that the press was eliminated because of judging errors feels like a weak copout. There's a lot of judging errors and politics in the clean and jerk as well with the pressout rule.

[kabuki]

Great article. A bit long, but I enjoy reading detailed, well written texts about history. Thank you very much.

By the way, is it just me or is information about some of the lifters from earlier times hard as hell to find? I speak Korean fluently and tried to look up Sung Yip Kim and only found one article about him.

[Gunnhild Bruno]

By the way, is it just me or is information about some of the lifters from earlier times hard as hell to find?

It's not just you.

[Gunnhild Bruno]

By the way, it seems there is a typo. The name seems to be Kim Seong-Jip. And trying to find something in English would be plagued by all kinds of Romanization inconsistencies.

Here's a site that has a photo of him, identified as Sun Jip Kim.
http://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2008/12...s-charles.html

No idea where that photo was originally published, though.

Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Seong-Jip

And : http://www.sports-reference.com/olym...ong-jip-1.html
(FYI, this one gives the Hangul 김 성집 -- not sure whether it will render on your computer.)