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Thread: Atlanta Seminar Nov 2012

  1. #1
    Join Date
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    Default Atlanta Seminar Nov 2012

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    I wanted to be first to start a thread about how awesome the SS seminar in Atlanta this weekend was.

    More when I have time, but first things first:
    - Thanks to coach Wolf and fellow student (though actually an accomplished coach) Darren for fixing my squat.
    - Thanks to coach Jordan and Darren again for fixing my press.
    - Thanks to coach Stef for fixing my clean.

    And thanks to Rip for his (ahem) lifestyle advice re: how I might have more luck completing a respectable novice SS run. Seriously, I'll be following up on that.

    I liked the advice Adam got better actually...
    Last edited by Charlie Davies; 11-20-2012 at 09:02 AM. Reason: Get Jordan's name right, geez I suck at names. And Mike Wolf worked with my squat group, Steve was with deads.

  2. #2
    Join Date
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    This event was everything I hoped for and more. Well worth the money! Wish I had done this two years ago. Nothing like receiving personal coaching from the best coaches available and then getting to see 15 other guys lifting and getting coached on their issues. This helps your own lifting, your ability to see form in others, and gives better understanding of the method. Thanks to the staff - Rip, Stef, Steve, Jordan, and Wolf - and to Darren for a great facility and to all the other attendees who were great to work with and contributed to my knowledge.

    This event and the staff have also motivated me to keep my log on the forum to chart my progress and get further feedback where needed. Thanks!

  3. #3
    Join Date
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    OK so here's my SS Seminar trip report.

    I'm an enthusiastic newbie lifter, not strong and definitely not a coach. I got a lot out of the seminar and am really glad I went. My goals were to improve my form and learn the basics of coaching, because I have 3 sons I hope train eventually.

    Our seminar had (I think) 16 students, maybe a third of whom were professionals seeking the SS Coach's certificate. Another third were not coaches but already strong, and the rest were like me still beginners. We had no women in our group, which apparently is unusual.

    Not once was anyone mocked for being weak or for being bad at lifting. No one was told they were too fat. In fact weight was mentioned only in passing, when thin guys were told they would have to gain weight to get stronger.

    Matt was told to gain 80 pounds, for example :-) I can't imagine how strong he'd be at that point, since he's at least as strong as I am at 30 pounds less than me now...

    Re: Rip-isms -- Rip is less grumpy in person than he sometimes gets on the forum.
    One of the assistant instructors was mocked for his moustache ("that's not a moustache, it's a stain") and one student was teased for his Vibram shoes ("silly-ass shoes") but Rip (and Stef, Steve, Mike, and Jordan the assisting coaches) were all consistently kind and helpful. But loud, blunt, and crude of course, what else would you expect!

    Preparing for the SSS, I re-read the Starting Strength book for the third time, and skimmed Kilgore's Anatomy without a Scalpel book. Previously I've read (but not thoroughly understood) the Practical Programming book and watched the SS DVD.

    This probably counts as obsessive overprep except for a coaching candidate, but I'd recommend anyone going to the seminar read the SS book carefully and write down questions about what you don't understand, so you know what to listen for later. There's no way you could absorb everything if you were hearing it for the first time at the seminar, it's very information-dense.

    The classroom stuff was great, it really clarified the book(s) for me. You need to understand the theory behind the lifts if you want to go beyond rote repetition into being able to make judgement calls and handle special cases (weird body shapes for example). This stuff would be golden especially for coaches.

    The biggest benefit for me as a newbie lifter was of course the platform work. Even though I've studied videos of my own lifts and done online form checks, I still had major form flaws that I was completely unaware of in a couple lifts. The other lifts were closer to right, but still were improved by good coaching.

    As part of the teaching method, all students are required to (attempt to) coach another student through the standard SS teaching method for each lift. It really helped drive the basics into everyone's brains. This was of course my huge weak point as a non-coach. I could see when someone's form was bad, but was usually not able to come up with a fast, succinct cue in real-time to help them.

    We had an expert coach with each group of 4-5 students who would coach the student-coaches and step in to directly coach the lifter when the student "coach" was incompetent as in my case. Everyone got to a decent squat, and in the technically simpler lifts (like bench) pretty much everyone got to quite good form.

    The q&a session Sunday night was a high point. It got loud, crude, and funny, and I actually learned a lot of interesting stuff from everyone else's questions. One thing I would change if I did this again would be to schedule my return flight later. They were still going strong when the seminar was technically over at 7:00, and I missed part of it.

    Another high point was when Damond (who was very new to deadlifts) demonstrated his new deadlift form for everyone at 135 and Rip accused him of sandbagging and made him repeat it at 185, then at 225 which still went up fast! I see some heavy pulls in Damond's future.

  4. #4
    Brodie Butland is offline Starting Strength Coach
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    Charlie--

    Glad to hear you had such a great experience. I attended the June 2012 Wichita Falls seminar, and can echo much the same sentiment. I got plenty of good-natured ribbing for my blindingly-white skin and funny back curvature, but I just can't say enough about the incredible staff...really any words wouldn't do them justice. It's truly amazing to me how a good coach can turn a completely crappy lift (Juli told me "you're going to hurt yourself" on my second set of power cleans...yes, they were that bad) into something acceptable.

    So, here's another shameless plug for the seminars. Seriously, do it...don't worry about whether your lifts are "too low" to attend (they never are) or whether you have any coaching experience (the first person I've coached in my life was on the squat platform at the seminar)...there's no better way to better your own lifting.

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