New Iron Icons installment: John Kuc & Jim Williams part 2

[Mark Rippetoe]

Marty Gallagher tells us the stories we need to hear. This one is good.

http://startingstrength.com/index.php/site/kuc2

[Rezart Erindi]

Thanks to you Rip, and thanks to Marty. These are very inspirational stories. Please keep them coming.

[Lou Guerra]

It's interesting how much individual variation in technique a lot of these world class lifters had - almost like a professional baseball player's swing. Along the same lines, I'm curious if these guys established their style at a young age and just went with it b/c it worked for them and no coach would dare screw with it, regardless of any "textbook" flaws.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Most of these guys were essentially uncoached through most of their careers. They figured it out the best they could, and it worked for them.

[djl236]

Thanks to you Rip, and thanks to Marty. These are very inspirational stories. Please keep them coming.

Agreed. I've enjoyed all of them so far.

[Corrie]

Mark, isn't it sad how so much of this information seems to have been forgotten or lost over the years?

I tried to use google to find some information about a few competitions and lifts Marty spoke about in an interview and almost nothing came up. Maybe I wasn't looking in the right places, but Gallagher doesn't even have a wikipedia page, and to me that's sad.

Thanks for taking the time to get some of these experts to put their thoughts down on paper. This information otherwise might be lost forever.

[Immortal_k]

Great article! Thanks to both you and Coach Gallagher.

[bbuszard]

These articles are a great resource, and it's good to get them on record, if only electronically. So first off, many thanks. Has anyone considered refining it all down into a narrative history of weightlifting / powerlifting? Even if the work only records the U.S. history it would make a great read, and a book would be better suited to preserve the traditions than several articles. It would also provide some context for the relative importance of various lifters at various times, and would show how they all motivated and mentored each other.

[Rezart Erindi]

These articles are a great resource, and it's good to get them on record, if only electronically. So first off, many thanks. Has anyone considered refining it all down into a narrative history of weightlifting / powerlifting? Even if the work only records the U.S. history it would make a great read, and a book would be better suited to preserve the traditions than several articles. It would also provide some context for the relative importance of various lifters at various times, and would show how they all motivated and mentored each other.

Well Marty's book, the Purposeful Primitive does just that (along with giving training, nutrition and mental aspects advice), and focuses mainly on the best of the best (even though it had to leave some stories untold, which are being wonderfully written by Marty on this website).

[hbriem]

There used to be a website, American Powerlifting Evolution or similar, that was a great resource for PL history. However, it was taken down a few years back, supposedly because a book or DVD was planned. Nothing came of it, I don't think. I can't remember who ran the site, but it was a good one.