This is a very short post due to time constraints. A while back, John Broz asked me to take down the interview with Pat Mendes because he was looking for some big sponsors; the sight of Pat cursing and discussing steroids was not ideal for these circumstances, so I took it down for him. I decided to put the full thing back up on my blog however, because this will not be as widely spread--as is nine and a half people read this blog--and Pat actually has a very interesting story to tell, so here it is:
Showing posts with label Pat Mendes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pat Mendes. Show all posts
Tuesday 4 January 2011
Sunday 27 June 2010
Saturday's sloppy slip up
I was away on holiday for a week and I got back home at around three thirty on Saturday morning. The Leinster Open was on a few hours later in Crossfit Ireland and it was great fun, but my lifting was not the Mae West--108/132 which is roughly 90% of my best. I had not touched a bar in nine days and I was finding it quite difficult to focus my mind. I still enjoyed myself though and was happy to see everyone again. I am really looking forward to the next two months where I can train to my heart's content and continue setting up and establishing East Coast Barbell. By the way, I am setting up an ECB youtube account and will publish my four part interview with John Broz on it and switch over a few of my other interviews also. Here is the first part of John's interview:
I have talked about Pat a few times now, but I have neglected to discuss his training partner. Rob Adell is a 94kg lifter who is training with the Average Broz club; he is around 97kg and is about 5"7 in height. I have never met anyone like him physically: he is like a mutant shark in human form. The man is a perfect fit for the 94kg class and with his background of heavy lifting since he was 12 and his lifestyle, weightlifting is a match made in heaven. The first assumption that jumps to mind is that he is using, but when you realise his lifestyle and fanatical devotion to nutrition, my opinion evolved.
Rob is only 19 and he does not drink, smoke or eat junk food of any kind. So when people jump on the bandwagon and assume him and Pat are using, they are using a mind set that is completely alien to both athletes. People cannot understand their lifting and this means they try and work out in their minds how THEY could do it and gear is the only way they can imagine it. Of course I will not preach how these guys are using steroids or not, but what people need to understand is that there are far more important things to understand. The problem is that Pat's and Rob's brains do not work like ours. In Average Broz gymnasiun, Rob's lifting is treated as a tragic Greek drama: so much potential that has come nowhere near realised due to the main protaganist's conscious decision to ignore the calling of fate. Neither Rob or anyone else in the gym are anywhere even remotely satisfied with his lifts. Now that Rob has decided to focus on lifting and not football, we will see his results sky rocket.
When he was 17 years old he had Cleaned either 180kg or slightly less after little over a year of training. Himself and Pat started training at the same time and Rob was actually making better progress than Pat, but he was still playing football and actually hardly training with John for about a year. He is back and we will be hearing a lot more about him soon. In an interview I will show when Blogger stops being a stubborn 8 year old girl who just got her first Barbie taken off her on Christmas day so that she will eat her dinner, he was so tired from his week's training that he was practically a walking zombie and was not nearly as articulate as he would be normally. I will put up the rest of John's interviews over the next few days.
I have talked about Pat a few times now, but I have neglected to discuss his training partner. Rob Adell is a 94kg lifter who is training with the Average Broz club; he is around 97kg and is about 5"7 in height. I have never met anyone like him physically: he is like a mutant shark in human form. The man is a perfect fit for the 94kg class and with his background of heavy lifting since he was 12 and his lifestyle, weightlifting is a match made in heaven. The first assumption that jumps to mind is that he is using, but when you realise his lifestyle and fanatical devotion to nutrition, my opinion evolved.
Rob is only 19 and he does not drink, smoke or eat junk food of any kind. So when people jump on the bandwagon and assume him and Pat are using, they are using a mind set that is completely alien to both athletes. People cannot understand their lifting and this means they try and work out in their minds how THEY could do it and gear is the only way they can imagine it. Of course I will not preach how these guys are using steroids or not, but what people need to understand is that there are far more important things to understand. The problem is that Pat's and Rob's brains do not work like ours. In Average Broz gymnasiun, Rob's lifting is treated as a tragic Greek drama: so much potential that has come nowhere near realised due to the main protaganist's conscious decision to ignore the calling of fate. Neither Rob or anyone else in the gym are anywhere even remotely satisfied with his lifts. Now that Rob has decided to focus on lifting and not football, we will see his results sky rocket.
When he was 17 years old he had Cleaned either 180kg or slightly less after little over a year of training. Himself and Pat started training at the same time and Rob was actually making better progress than Pat, but he was still playing football and actually hardly training with John for about a year. He is back and we will be hearing a lot more about him soon. In an interview I will show when Blogger stops being a stubborn 8 year old girl who just got her first Barbie taken off her on Christmas day so that she will eat her dinner, he was so tired from his week's training that he was practically a walking zombie and was not nearly as articulate as he would be normally. I will put up the rest of John's interviews over the next few days.
Friday 18 June 2010
Friday's fare thee well moment
Here are the latest installments from my series of interviews where I talk to Pat Mendes, who is training to become Olympic champion. He discusses the physical and mental process of his journey and hopefully you will enjoy watching it.
When people discuss Pat, the issue of steroids is raised every time and what is not realised, is just how much time, effort and dedication have gone into his training. Pat has put everything in his life on hold for the last two and a half years in order to become a world champion. Everything that we take for granted in life such as going out with friends whenever we want, college, romance and even the feeling of vitality every day-- these things are not applicable to Pat. He has dedicated his life one hundred percent to achieving his goals. There is no luck in this equation; every fibre of his being is invested in becoming Olympic champion. Can people like us relate to this? No. Pat's progress is one of the major reasons that people assume he is taking drugs, as is his lack of competing in a tested competition in the last year and a bit. As I said before, it is not my job to explain his and John's decisions and quite frankly, it is none of my business either.
Aside from the fact that Pat is simply a really nice guy, the main reason I conducted these interviews with John's lifters and the equally hard working lifters in California Strength, is so that we can change our perspective on what is possible. Glenn Pendlay and John Broz have dedicated a major part of their lives to the sport as have the lifters I trained with. They are professional lifters, but their mindset is different and Pat's is almost even more intense again.
I will be away for the next few days on a non weightlifting holiday. I can't remember the last time I went without a week of training, but I will rest up and enjoy it. I will be back the night before the Leinster Open on June 26th and I am really looking forward to competing and enjoying myself. When I come back I shall finish off my series of interviews with a John Broz four part finale.
Some of you may know already that I am starting up an athletic performance centre and weightlifting club in Bray. It is going to be called East Coast Barbell and it is around 20-30 minutes from Dublin, depending on what time of day one is travelling at. We shall be opening up around the beginning of July, so my summer shall be dedicated to training as hard as I can and turning East Coast Barbell into one of the best training centres in the country.
When people discuss Pat, the issue of steroids is raised every time and what is not realised, is just how much time, effort and dedication have gone into his training. Pat has put everything in his life on hold for the last two and a half years in order to become a world champion. Everything that we take for granted in life such as going out with friends whenever we want, college, romance and even the feeling of vitality every day-- these things are not applicable to Pat. He has dedicated his life one hundred percent to achieving his goals. There is no luck in this equation; every fibre of his being is invested in becoming Olympic champion. Can people like us relate to this? No. Pat's progress is one of the major reasons that people assume he is taking drugs, as is his lack of competing in a tested competition in the last year and a bit. As I said before, it is not my job to explain his and John's decisions and quite frankly, it is none of my business either.
Aside from the fact that Pat is simply a really nice guy, the main reason I conducted these interviews with John's lifters and the equally hard working lifters in California Strength, is so that we can change our perspective on what is possible. Glenn Pendlay and John Broz have dedicated a major part of their lives to the sport as have the lifters I trained with. They are professional lifters, but their mindset is different and Pat's is almost even more intense again.
I will be away for the next few days on a non weightlifting holiday. I can't remember the last time I went without a week of training, but I will rest up and enjoy it. I will be back the night before the Leinster Open on June 26th and I am really looking forward to competing and enjoying myself. When I come back I shall finish off my series of interviews with a John Broz four part finale.
Some of you may know already that I am starting up an athletic performance centre and weightlifting club in Bray. It is going to be called East Coast Barbell and it is around 20-30 minutes from Dublin, depending on what time of day one is travelling at. We shall be opening up around the beginning of July, so my summer shall be dedicated to training as hard as I can and turning East Coast Barbell into one of the best training centres in the country.
Thursday 22 April 2010
Thursday's tenor
I was determined to have a short and sharp one hour workout and that I did. I Snatched up to 90% and Front Squatted up to what I want to Clean and Jerk for two singles. I did a short and effective joint and muscle warm up and followed that with some bar work and got straight into it. I have decided to make my workouts a lot shorter by reducing my rest times and simply demanding more from myself. Here is what I did:
Snatch--1x2@50, 50, 50, 70 1x1@80, 90, 95, 100, 105
Funnily enough, what I have been working on the most: my starting position--went exactly what the way I wanted it to. However, as you will see in the video below, I was far too relaxed and that was something I was actively trying to do. I was trying to stay as relaxed as possible, but I will need to to get the back as tight as it needs to be as well as keeping the arms and traps relaxed for speed. As Murph said a few days ago: chest up, back tight, hips in. There is no need to worry about it though, because this was something I tried that did not work out. I know I can easily fix this on Saturday.
Front Squat--3x3@70 in order to do mobility squats. Consistency is the key here. It feels like I am not improving, but my body will learn eventually, I just have to make it. I can feel my joint mobility improving because I work on it every day. I need to do the same with my hips.
Have a look at the video below and let me know what you think. I am really looking forward to competing on Saturday; it is the start of my competition training period which will culminate in the end of May in the Ulster Open. Every session I contine to improve in a variety of ways and that is my main goal as an athlete and a lifelong learner. Constant and never-ending improvement is what I must have.
Most people will hve already seen this but, it is even more awesome every time you watch it. If you click on John Broz or Pat Mendes in the menu to your right, you can read about and watch he videos.
Snatch--1x2@50, 50, 50, 70 1x1@80, 90, 95, 100, 105
Funnily enough, what I have been working on the most: my starting position--went exactly what the way I wanted it to. However, as you will see in the video below, I was far too relaxed and that was something I was actively trying to do. I was trying to stay as relaxed as possible, but I will need to to get the back as tight as it needs to be as well as keeping the arms and traps relaxed for speed. As Murph said a few days ago: chest up, back tight, hips in. There is no need to worry about it though, because this was something I tried that did not work out. I know I can easily fix this on Saturday.
Front Squat--3x3@70 in order to do mobility squats. Consistency is the key here. It feels like I am not improving, but my body will learn eventually, I just have to make it. I can feel my joint mobility improving because I work on it every day. I need to do the same with my hips.
Have a look at the video below and let me know what you think. I am really looking forward to competing on Saturday; it is the start of my competition training period which will culminate in the end of May in the Ulster Open. Every session I contine to improve in a variety of ways and that is my main goal as an athlete and a lifelong learner. Constant and never-ending improvement is what I must have.
Most people will hve already seen this but, it is even more awesome every time you watch it. If you click on John Broz or Pat Mendes in the menu to your right, you can read about and watch he videos.
Monday 3 August 2009
Saturday's sandy beaches in Santa Barbara
I had a very short and not so sharp 45 minute workout in Crossfit Santa Barbara. Thanks to Tyler for hooking me up and letting me train there. All that I did was Power and Squat Snatch up to 85kg for two doubles and Power Clean, Front Squat and Jerk a single with 115kg. These are approximate weights because they were in pounds, not kilograms. My traps were were a bit sore from my session in Vegas: I have never Cleaned 130 seven or eight times before. Otherwise, I am enjoying the sunshine and am currently in Monterey after visiting Carmel by the sea today. I will arrive in San Francisco on Wednesday and I will be having two sessions with Jim "I am an absolute legend" Schmitz.
Here is a video of some of the lifts from Thursday with John lifting as well as his three athletes. There are some great lifts here, so enjoy and leave any constructive criticism that will help.
Here is a video of some of the lifts from Thursday with John lifting as well as his three athletes. There are some great lifts here, so enjoy and leave any constructive criticism that will help.
Saturday 1 August 2009
Thursday's tantalising Vegas jackpot
I stayed in Vegas for three nights and I managed to organise a training session with John Broz, an American super heavyweight, who also coaches a group of young lifters in the "Average Broz" club. This was definitely a session to remember because I learned a lot from John, I really enjoyed watching his young lifters--they were all 19--and I lifted well for my own standards also.
I have a great interview with John Broz below, and it is particularly interesting because he lived with Antonio " I have Snatched the biggest weight in history" Krastev for three years. Listen to what he has to say and I can guarantee it will have you looking at your own training in a new light.
There were three 19 year old lifters who I trained with: Pat Mendes, a super heavy weighing 125kg who I watched Power Snatch 135 and Power Clean 170; Taylor Smith, a 94kg lifter who I watched Snatch 120 and Clean and Jerk 145; and Brett, a 110kg lifter who Clean and Jerked 145 and Power Snatched 110. This was the fifth or sixth time he has ever Snatched or Jerked. Pat and Taylor have been training for just over a year and Brett for six months. Their power was astonishing and to say they have incredible raw talent is like saying Cathal Byrd has massive calves: both statements are gospel. I have videos of these three lifters along with my own lifts from the session to follow soon.
As far as my own training went, it got a kick up the proverbial, because these guys were strong and that pushed me forward also. I did the following:
Snatch doubles: I worked up to a double with 100kg for a pb. Then I followed it with a double with 102.5 and after missing the second Snatch with 105kg in two sets, I got both the third time. This was an 8kg pb in the Snatch double so I was pretty chuffed. With the doubles, the technique is never as pretty as with singles, but I was happy. John was urging me to be more aggressive with how I turn the bar over and pull it into the proper recieving position over the head.
Power Clean and Power Jerk: I worked up to 125kg and I Cleaned 130 maybe six times, missing the Power Jerk each time due to a slow lockout. I am still not used to the Power Jerk, but it is getting better gradually. John was making the points that I was too tense in the rack position--Andy Murphy has said likewise--and also that I was not being forceful enough with how I drive and lock the bar into the right position over my head.
Back Squat--I worked up to a double with 160kg. I mentioned to John that my legs have not felt strong since I got over here, and he said that this was because of all the walking I have been doing, being on holiday and all. He also mentioned that I was Snatching well because my back was fresh, but my legs were not, which affected my Cleans and Squats.
I don't have the time or inclination to write down all I learned from John, but I will say this: He gives his lifters an international perspective and steers clear of national focus. He plays the old school Ironmind training hall tapes and world championship videos during training sessions so that the guys have proper form to watch. I felt like I was given an injection of adrenaline after training in his gym and that is something that I think we all need from time to time. Do yourself a favour and watch the video below. You may or may not agree with everything John says, but it will certainly make you think.
I have a great interview with John Broz below, and it is particularly interesting because he lived with Antonio " I have Snatched the biggest weight in history" Krastev for three years. Listen to what he has to say and I can guarantee it will have you looking at your own training in a new light.
There were three 19 year old lifters who I trained with: Pat Mendes, a super heavy weighing 125kg who I watched Power Snatch 135 and Power Clean 170; Taylor Smith, a 94kg lifter who I watched Snatch 120 and Clean and Jerk 145; and Brett, a 110kg lifter who Clean and Jerked 145 and Power Snatched 110. This was the fifth or sixth time he has ever Snatched or Jerked. Pat and Taylor have been training for just over a year and Brett for six months. Their power was astonishing and to say they have incredible raw talent is like saying Cathal Byrd has massive calves: both statements are gospel. I have videos of these three lifters along with my own lifts from the session to follow soon.
As far as my own training went, it got a kick up the proverbial, because these guys were strong and that pushed me forward also. I did the following:
Snatch doubles: I worked up to a double with 100kg for a pb. Then I followed it with a double with 102.5 and after missing the second Snatch with 105kg in two sets, I got both the third time. This was an 8kg pb in the Snatch double so I was pretty chuffed. With the doubles, the technique is never as pretty as with singles, but I was happy. John was urging me to be more aggressive with how I turn the bar over and pull it into the proper recieving position over the head.
Power Clean and Power Jerk: I worked up to 125kg and I Cleaned 130 maybe six times, missing the Power Jerk each time due to a slow lockout. I am still not used to the Power Jerk, but it is getting better gradually. John was making the points that I was too tense in the rack position--Andy Murphy has said likewise--and also that I was not being forceful enough with how I drive and lock the bar into the right position over my head.
Back Squat--I worked up to a double with 160kg. I mentioned to John that my legs have not felt strong since I got over here, and he said that this was because of all the walking I have been doing, being on holiday and all. He also mentioned that I was Snatching well because my back was fresh, but my legs were not, which affected my Cleans and Squats.
I don't have the time or inclination to write down all I learned from John, but I will say this: He gives his lifters an international perspective and steers clear of national focus. He plays the old school Ironmind training hall tapes and world championship videos during training sessions so that the guys have proper form to watch. I felt like I was given an injection of adrenaline after training in his gym and that is something that I think we all need from time to time. Do yourself a favour and watch the video below. You may or may not agree with everything John says, but it will certainly make you think.
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