Big thanks

[Guts]

I'm here to tell you doubters out there in the audience that Rip is an excellent Olympic lifting coach. I am a "competitive" weightlifter, I say competitive only to say I have been to competitions. I was and am still pretty awful and have yet to really reach a level that I would be happy with. I did an LP in 09' after learning about this whole starting strength thing and my lifts were at 415x5x3 squat, 495x5x1 dl, 200x5x3 press, 300x5x3 bp when I started at an olympic gym (Weights not specifically listed as Kg are in lbs if this isn't obvious from the numbers). I made zero progress in strength during this time doing that high bar squat and no deadlifts (it makes you slow off the floor guys) and lifted 100 Kg power snatch and 126 Kg power clean and jerk in my last Olympic competition after about 6 months of dedicated Olympic lifting. I was pretty disappointed with the whole affair. I eventually left that gym and the state of Florida behind (work and stuff).

I took a hiatus from the Olympic lifts for a few months trying to get strong and for lack of a gym to do them in, but eventually wanted to get back into it. I got my own warehouse and equipped it and started lifting again. I've gotten my lifts up to 115Kg snatch and 150Kg clean and jerk since February of this year. I've squatted 455x5x3, deadlifted 520x5x1, pressed 240x5x3, bench pressed 335x5x3 in the same time. My best power clean is 145 Kg.

I went to the Milwaukee seminar last month, Rip and the entire coaching staff stayed late Sunday evening after the weekend of lifting. Rip had already fixed my pull in the Deadlift and power clean portions of the weekend. He was then able to fix my jerk in about 10 minutes. I worked up and nearly PRed that evening. I believe I did PR clean and narrowly missed the jerk. We had to mix and match plates, I think it was around 152 Kg. I just wanted to say thank you to Rip and everyone else there for sticking around and helping me out. I made more progress in a weekend + 10 minutes with Rip than months of fiddling around in my supposedly dedicated Olympic lifting facility.

Here is a video of the second to last clean and jerk (A successful attempt)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-85xSInmWo

PS if I take a vacation down to WF, think you could get my snatch more than 3 Kg above my best power snatch?

Relevant video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaOvLHIAU8A



tl;dr; version: Rip is a fantastic coach who gave me better coaching and helped me achieve more progress in a weekend than a full time Olympic coach did in 6 months.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Thanks, Alex, but this was supposed to stay secret...

[Randle McMurphy]

*cough* Time for weightlifting eBook *cough*

I don't care what the 35 people on the various Olympic weightlifting forums type; if I did, I would have committed suicide long ago. A book on Olympic lifting would be a nice hobby project that I'd have to get very interested in doing, because it wouldn't sell well for various reasons. Maybe later. We're busy with other things just now.

You know you want to...We all know you are interested in teaching Olympic lifting, you're fooling no one...Do the right thing...Hahaaha

I might actually start a ePetition in Ends and Pieces to get you to write an eBook. How many people would you need to convince you?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Nope. It wouldn't sell. Why write a book that will not sell? Love? Ego? Not interested.

[tertius]

Nope. It wouldn't sell. Why write a book that will not sell? Love? Ego? Not interested.

I honestly wonder if this is true.

Certainly USA Weightlifting is unlikely to endorse it, and all that. But how many members do they have?
Not counting the ones Tbone signed up. And what can they do? Whine? Complain about how wrong you are?

Plus, it would give you the opportunity to say: 'Look, I wrote a fucking book containing my argument on the subject. I'm not going to repeat it here.'

Certainly it will not sell as well as the Book, but selling a quarter as many copies might be reasonable.
I don't know if that's worth your time, but I bet there's more market than you might be estimating.

And you could suggest that Starting Strength Gyms give people a copy of it and SS:BBT when people become members...

[Mark Rippetoe]

Are you sure you're a socialist, Tersh?

[Brian Harlin]

Are you sure you're a socialist, Tersh?

Wait, I thought he was an anarchist...well Tertius WHICH IS IT?

[tertius]

Are you sure you're a socialist, Tersh?

Ha! I'm an American, Rip. We're all a little bit of a Capitalist Pig, deep down.

[Randle McMurphy]

Nope. It wouldn't sell. Why write a book that will not sell? Love? Ego? Not interested.

I'll have to take your word on this, since you are in the book selling trade, and I am not. (I'm in the book lending trade, like Serge Redding).

What makes you think it won't sell? (I bet you said the same thing about the first editions of SS and PP).

Your arguments on Olympic Lifting are based on logic and reason. Other people's arguments are made on 'just believing on what is given to them' and 'just following convention'.

Remember what Howard Roark in The Fountainhead had to say on this?

"You must only be patient. Because on your side you have reason—oh, I know, it’s something no one really wants to have on his side—and against you, you have just a vague, fat, blind inertia

[Mark E. Hurling]

Ha! I'm an American, Rip. We're all a little bit of a Capitalist Pig, deep down.

Hm, do I hear banjos in the distance?