Choosing the Path Less-Traveled

[gzt]

With all the praise old-time weightlifters have been getting on the internet lately, I think we should note that in 1962, as a light heavyweight 82.5kg lifter, Tommy Kono snatched 135kg and clean and jerked 170kg. In this year's World Weightlifting Championship, both USA 77kg and 85kg lifters outlifted Tommy Kono with 144kg/175kg and 150kg/180kg respectively. They each finished in the 20th and 25th position... Ken Patera in his best performance would have finished 10th in this year's World's.

Just a little perspective.

This is true, but Patera is universally acknowledged as being a press specialist, so it's not quite fair to compare his other performances to the press. The other two are a lot more comparable, but I would just say that the sport has changed a lot since the 60s. I think in terms of raw strength training, there haven't been any real advances. Don Reinhoudt, in the early 70s, squatted 934 raw. Pat Casey benched 600# and Jim Williams benched 700#, those are all still world-class performances. Several "raw" PL records from the 70s still stand, though that is in part because people didn't start competing raw again until recently. To get back to your point though, yeah, any A session lifter from today would destroy anybody from the 60's and most people from the 70's in the biathlon, usually with their openers.

[MarkFu]

After watching the Green Bay Packers rack up 4 more injuries to key players in one game alone against the Redskins, I thought immediately some blame has to come back to the strength and conditioning coordinator. In an article I read shortly after watching that game, a top NFL doctor, blames astroturf for many of the injuries. It made sense to me but it did not fully answer my question especially since the 4 players that got injured today were playing on the natural Turf at FedEx Field in D.C. Why there are so many injuries, especially at the pro level, still needed a better explanation and I believe Bill nailed it I came across Mr. Starr's article later in the day and when I got to the part of pro football's weight training systems and their deficiencies, lights went off and bells rang for me. It was excellent on many other points as well. Fascinating and well-written!