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Thread: Podcast: Emily Socolinsky SSC discusses body image issues, the fallout from Ballet

  1. #21
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    • starting strength seminar april 2024
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Rippetoe View Post
    There are weight classes in competitive swimming?

    No, I understand there are no weight classes in swimming. It's just an ignorant assumption on my part. Swimming just always struck me as being one of those sports where athletes were discouraged from getting too big.

  2. #22
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    I had the opportunity to work with a collegiate swimmer for the past two summers. When she started as a freshman, she weighed 130 pounds, at 5'8". By her sophomore year, she was faster, but still not as fast as she would have liked. Her coach told her the only way she would get faster and more competitive was if she got stronger. Except he never showed her how. That's where Starting Strength came in. She came to us the summer before her junior year. She squatted 95 pounds her first day and could only press our 15 pound training bar. She left us that summer stronger and proceeded to swim faster her junior year. She maintained her strength during the school year, lifting on her own on Sundays in addition to her team training. By the next summer, she weighed close to 150 pounds and hit her goal of squatting 200 pounds. Her senior year of college, she swam even faster and broke all of her records. She finished her season this past February weighing close to 155lbs, 25 pounds heavier than when she came in as a freshman. She is stronger. She is faster in the water. She is bigger. In her case, she was encouraged to get stronger and in order to get stronger, she had to get bigger which gave her an advantage. Her teammates who got the bug from her and started lifting with her on Sundays also got stronger AND faster. This is a Division 1 school. She never had an issue with her weight and is delighted with her new body. Bigger and stronger. Her article is coming out on my blog this Monday.
    Last edited by Emily Socolinsky; 04-08-2016 at 01:58 PM.

  3. #23
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    Default Weight classes

    Interesting that no one observed that there are WEIGHT CLASSES in the weightliftifting sports. I wonder how many lifters diet to get into a lower weight class? Can it be a winning strategy?

    One of the great ironies in the sports world is found in rowing, a sport where strength is perhaps as important as skill, yet a distinction is made between lightweight and heavyweight crews. The cutoff at the collegiate level for lightweight women is 135 pounds. I'm hardly an expert, but I suspect most of the lightweight rowers tend to be shorter. My daughter is 5'10 but only 139. I think she understands that if she wants to row seriously, she needs to GAIN at least 10 pounds, if not more. All she needs to do is lift, but you can only lead a horse to water . . .

    One problem continues to be that coaches usually have their athletes do what that coach's coach made him or her do. My daughter's training schedule includes aggressive erging, but also stretching and "core" training. I had to bite my tongue last parents weekend when her advisor, who is also the assistant rowing coach and varsity swimming coach, told me that rowing requires a "strong core". I'm sure it does, but how you get that core strength would seem to be the issue. The biomechanics of rowing suggest that legs, torso, and arms and shoulders - in that order - contribute to propulsion. If that doesn't sound like squats and deadlifts at the very least, I don't know what does, but they don't do any of that. And last year the school's girls' V1 (4+) won the high school national championships!

    it seems to confirm M R's comment that gifted athletes may prevail in spite of coaching ignorance. I have given up sending gift sets of SS and PP to my children's coaches. None has ever noticed any change in the routines. My son's football coach still wanted him to bench as much as he squatted in his last year, same as his first. My son just ignored him and spent the summer doing SS routines. He got very strong (relatively), and in his third year said his plan was to "under-squat" at the tests so that his above body-weight bench would be considered acceptable.

  4. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by Thomas View Post
    My son's football coach still wanted him to bench as much as he squatted in his last year, same as his first. My son just ignored him and spent the summer doing SS routines. He got very strong (relatively), and in his third year said his plan was to "under-squat" at the tests so that his above body-weight bench would be considered acceptable.
    "Balance"

  5. #25
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  6. #26
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    Having been a skinny "flyer" in my younger days, Jackie's story brings back a flood of memories. The things we didn't know (or acknowledge) forty or so years ago...

    I hope this testimonial finds its way onto the desks of swim coaches (all coaches) everywhere.

    Great write-up!

  7. #27
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    I just sent this to one of my daughter's coaches. Thanks!

  8. #28
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    That will make you lots of new friends among her coaches.

  9. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Rippetoe View Post
    That will make you lots of new friends among her coaches.
    She appreciated it and is sending it on. Some of the coaches admit that they don't know about barbell training and are receptive to learning. It is a very big club with 900 swimmers, so change will be slow. They also swim both seasons so no summers off to purely train strength. The kids spend a lot of hours in the pool.

  10. #30
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    starting strength coach development program
    Just sent this to our swim coach,

    He's a good guy who believes in this philosophy %100-for about 6-8 weeks in the fall till they hit the water then I never see them again..

    I've been at this HS as a fulltime strength coach for five years now, it was a "battle" to get girls to lift when I got here and I'd say about %50 of the girls coaches were onboard with what I was doing. Top girls squats/cleans/DL's were 65-85lbs back then and as the head powerlifting coach I couldnt get one girl to go to a meet (no extra practice just show up for the meet and get a medal)..

    Fast forward five years and I have girls from several different sports that I've borrowed from to make our first ever full girls powerlifitng team AND we won our first girls team title at an nine team invite meet along with 10 regional qualifiers.

    I had girls on the team from soccer, volleyball, track, cross country, and basketball.

    Top girl's lifts in the wtroom during training now (not at PL meets, we wont get into that) are:

    Squats - lost count of the 225 squats, several at 275 and one at 315

    Cleans - almost everyone can clean the greens (95) several at 135 and five have done 155+

    DL - I dont have any that do below 135 now, 205-315 is normal for sets of 3-5 (330 top lift)

    Have a 100lb track sprinter who is getting ready for district meet this week, she has back squatted 205 and DL 260 and cleans 125.


    We've come a long way. I still remember back when I started I got a pair of 2.5's metal change plates for every platform so the girls would put SOMETHING on the bar.. Most refused too..

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