The other night I was talking to a client about business opportunities in the strength and conditioning industry. We are both aware of DeFranco’s gym in the US, where he concentrates on getting great results for his clients in the NFL Combine, which is the equivalent of the AFL draft. We don’t have anything like that here for the AFL draft.
Prospects come from all over to DeFranco’s, success at the Combine could mean a million dollar contract. The training there is incredible, these boys push themselves very hard, for they know what’s at stake.
Sadly, there is little hope of this succeeding in Australia. We are many years behind the US, strength is not taken seriously here, nor is it tested at the draft camp. Funny that, all I hear from AFL clubs is that there youngsters aren’t ready, they have a boy’s body. At the NFL Combine we have guys benching 100kg for 45 reps.
The best result in 2010 was 100kg x 45 by Mitch Petrus, an offensive linesman. Most of you will say “yeah, but he’s probably huge” No shit, most guys that bench 100kg x 45 ARE huge. The worst result was 100kg x 10, from a punter. I doubt there would be any boy that could bench 100kg x 10 at our draft camp, ever, yet that was their worst result.
The problem here is most won’t pay. Most in Australia don’t see the value in paying for quality strength coaching. I have a mate of my sons who lives 10 minutes away, is in 2 elite squads, has 2 false starts at PTC, and I’ll be surprised if he makes it. He is the size/type of player that will make up the bulk of draft camp, he’ll need something to stand out. Yet he sees the progress Max has made, he wont make the commitment to improve. The mind set here is that will happen once we’ve made it. Usually, thats too late.
Okay, so what does this have to do with PTC? Well, since I’ve got around 15 lifters competing at the CAPO State Powerlifting Titles next month, I thought I should buy some calibrated Powerlifting plates. I recently purchased 2 x 25kg and 2 x 20kg Ivanko plates. These are the type used at World Championships with dead accurate weight, and they are not cheap.
I also added a ladies Olympic weightlifting bar with needle bearings. I already have a Zhang Kong bar from Beijing, Eleiko training plates and calibrated competition bumpers.
I have kettlebells from the lightest available weight to the heaviest. I have state of the art power rack’s, I have elite standard Olympic bars, not a cheap piece of equipment in sight.
I now also have a client list hell bent on getting stronger. I also have lots of clients. What started as a one on one gym has now changed dramatically. It’s not possible for me to supervise every lifter perform every lift.
I have spent weeks coming up with a program that can take any lifter from a 40kg PB to 320kg and beyond. This program can last a lifter a lifetime. I have it pinned to my wall and each lifter knows exactly what he has to do that session. Recently I started to sell this program to lifters outside PTC. I’m stunned at the amount of people that have bought it. I suppose at $20 its as cheap as any program out there.
They work in teams and get the job done. They don’t have to think, ask or plan, it’s all done in this program. I have had 3 versions of it, we had to change it a fair bit. Lifters missing lifts early on was an indicator that it wasn’t right.
We are quite a few weeks in and nearly every lifter is progressing well. Some may have been optimistic in choosing their goal weight, but we make adjustments and corrections. The beauty of this program is IT tells you where you’re at. You may select to go for a 120kg bench press, but if you fail early on you may need to reassess and go for 115kg.
So all the clients that are doing this program simply walk up to the wall, read the chart, see what they’re doing this session, and off they go. The novices and lifters that need corrective work take up most of my time.
This is the way an Elite training facility works. We have a long way to go, but we’re a long way removed from the early days. To walk in and see lifters motivated and doing it for themselves, like sisters, is very inspiring to me.
By having calibrated plates, we now know that our lifts are accurate. We were already using calibrated bumpers, but to the average gym junkie, he couldn’t tell how much we were lifting in our vids. To put this in perspective, I have never trained in a gym with calibrated plates. I know Steve Brown has them at his gym as I recently discovered. I have always had calibrated bumpers, well before it was PTC, but I’m now turning all my plates over, to only include calibrated weights.
I am well aware that the lifts my guys do at PTC and PTC comps can be questioned. It was a very insular setting. We are now stepping out into the big world of organized powerlifting. This will be an exciting stage for the guys, to compare how they go against lifters from lots of other gyms.[FONT="][/FONT]
Too many cock jockeys hiding behind keyboards questioning lifts, technique etc. I hope some of them step on stage and compete with some of these guys. We are even travelling to NSW to compete at their State titles in April. We are not simply moving out of PTC, we are venturing out of the state.
All I want is the lifters to replicate their gym lifts, because that’s all they are, on the big stage. Maybe some of these wankers hiding behind keyboards can show us what they can do.
I doubt it. In my experience, the strong lifters are humble, they seldom criticize a fellow strength athlete. They know how hard it is to get strong, Lycra wearing lat pull down specialists are not so quiet. Best way to tell if a forum member is strong or not is by his criticism.
I just finished watching the European Weightlifting Championships on Foxtel, some of the worst form I have ever seen. That’s what happens when performing a PB. Lifters running across the stage with weights overhead, offset grips to hide unevenness, knees knocking coming out of the clean. You name it, I saw it.
These guys are the best of the best on a big stage, yet, weights aside, they look like amateurs.
Anybody can make a 50kg clean look good, it’s a bit harder with 250kg.
These twits on treadmills have no idea but they comment anyway.
I see PTC as a haven away from knob jockeys, somewhere where you can go and have your efforts appreciated.
I don’t for one minute think that only lifters outside PTC make poor comments. Tonight I had a guy who has been absent from PTC for a year comment on Nicks 160kg squat where his knees touched. I posted that pic on some forums, you should have read the comments. That was a year ago.
I informed him that Nick now squats 162.5kg x 20 and 220kg x 1, in perfect form. Sadly the guy commenting, who is a valued friend and meant no harm, has regressed in his lifting in the time Nick has gone forward.
He had decided to train for a sport, a fighting sport where strength is still valued highly. This is a poor reason to let your lifts slide. He had made tremendous progress and was a very much liked member at PTC. Let’s not forget that Max too lifted for sport, in fact during his 2 years of lifting he also trained for soccer twice a week and played 2 games a week. He has every excuse under the sun for slow progress, yet that’s not what happened. Max and this boy, let’s call him “Jarrod” were pretty even in a 5 lift comparison back then when Jarrod left. In fact “Jarrod” totalled 465kg to Max’s 450kg. “Jarrod” is nowhere near 465kg at the moment, and Max is at 725kg.
I believe this is wholly to do with your training environment. “Jarrods” focus is more to the sport rather than the lifting. Would “Jarrod” be better at his sport if he was totalling 725kg right now? Absolutely no question about it.
Why? Because
STRONGER IS ALWAYS BETTER.
Max, Nick, Alen, Dim, Kelly, James, Simmo, Sean, Annie, Dimi and a heap of others I won’t name right now are constantly progressing. That is due in equal parts to coaching, environment and effort, not genetics.
I have brilliant equipment and the best clients. What I lack is room and a brilliant lifting platform. Max lifted on one that was used in Beijing today. He so wants it, sadly its way out of our price range. There is another one we can afford, so it should be in our gym shortly, hopefully.
With the support I get from Rick at Australian Kettlebells, Wayne at Australian Barbell Company and Adrian at Gym Direct, hopefully PTC will one day be the elite facility I’ve always envisioned it to be. These places take time and money. I have been very fortunate in getting the right cliental from pretty early on. The atmosphere is superb, the lifting makes me proud, and the effort and commitment can’t be questioned.
Hopefully we will soon see these lifters perform well outside our gym walls, and receive a little recognition. I will list results in our newsletters and on our website.
The first comp we will be at is the CAPO NSW State titles. Details as follows.
New South Wales
State Powerlifting Championships
25.04.2010 - 25.04.2010
Supershape Gym - Albury
New South Wales
The next event will be the CAPO VIC State Titles.
Victoria State Championships - Raw & Equip
16.05.2010 - 16.05.2010
[FONT="]Glenferrie Oval, “Ferguson Stand”[/FONT][FONT="] [/FONT]
[FONT="]34 Linda Crescent [/FONT]
[FONT="]Hawthorn [/FONT]
[FONT="]VIC [/FONT]
Anybody remotely interested in lifting and strength should really get down there, the venues are top class and it’s the only federation in Australia that has a RAW lifting category.
Those in charge of CAPO are really passionate and are committed at making these shows as good as they can.
We have the National Titles in November and I hope that some of the PTC lifters qualify to lift in them.
I really urge all PTC clients and friends to get down there to watch the Vic State Titles. The 15 competing would be thrilled to get your support, as would the other lifters on stage.
As I get more equipment I’ll let you guys know on these pages. I’ll always strive to provide the best conditions, equipment and atmosphere that I can.
Hope to see you guys at the Vics, don’t be shy either, come up and introduce yourselves.
THE PTC PROGRESSIVE POUNDAGE PROGRAM
As I explained earlier, this came about due to the ever increasing numbers at PTC.
The problem I see with most lifters and programs are that all you get is sets and reps. The onus is on the lifter to increase the weights at regular intervals. This seldom happens.
So I’ve sat down and worked on a program that lists not just the sets and reps, but the weights to be used and the frequency. That’s every weight, rep and set till you are handling over 300kg on the squat, bench and deadlift.
Providing the lifters at PTC their workout for the day, sets and reps wasn’t enough. Let’s be honest, athletes are incredibly dumb. I would get constant questions as to what weight they should use. Legitimate questions. With up to 12 lifters in the gym at the same time, this was getting increasingly difficult. Invariably somebody would not make a set, then more questions, which is why they pay me.
Now with this program, they know the rules. Miss a set, repeat the week next time you’re doing that lift. Miss the lift 4 times, you’ve chosen too heavy a target or you’re not eating enough. Easily corrected on both counts.
It works on 4 cycles a year, each lasting 11 weeks, with 2 weeks at the end of each cycle to freshen up with a different type of program, anything the lifter wants to do really.
Experienced strong lifters should choose smaller jumps, up to 5-10kg per cycle, which will still result in 20-40kg increases per year. To me, once you’re squatting well over 200kg and benching over 150kg raw, a 10kg increase each 12 months is great progress. Novices might not think so, but a 150kg bencher benching 200kg raw in 5 years is a superb effort.
Novices can gain much, much more. I know Max and Alen are aiming for around a 25-30kg increase in their squat in 11 weeks. Imagine if they fail and only gain 20kg, Max will be squatting 195kg just after his 18th birthday. Both boys are 4 weeks in and doing well. I envision they will miss a lift along the way, that’s a given, but the program keeps them on track, forever.
And that is the key, staying on track. Guys don’t simply increase their squat from 140kg to 300kg overnight. By systematically increasing their weights over time, the results come. The average lifter gets sidetracked when they fail to make continuous progress.
That’s the best point about this program. I’ve deliberately kept the price low at $20, stronger lifters make this place a better place, let’s see if we can get the earth to tilt on its axis just a little bit.
Stay strong, stay raw
Markos
