Phil Sims Taught Me to Lift
OK, so the title could be considered click-bait. However, there is some truth to it. I began lifting like most young men—in the high school weight room training for football. My dad was the strength coach at my high school, and I began lifting consistently in the spring of my 8th grade year. Towards the spring of my freshmen year, I got the idea that I wanted to compete in a weightlifting sport. Since my dad had been a powerlifter, I asked him if I could compete in powerlifting. We talked about it a little bit and even looked at different federations on the internet. I never competed in powerlifting, because luckily for me, fate would intervene a few weeks later.
A couple weeks after my idea to compete in powerlifting, my dad and I went to West Virginia to meet with Tim Swords, coach of Team Houston, and my dad’s best friend. We met him at his mom’s house and trained in the same basement he and my dad worked out in decades before. We were there so Tim could teach us how to power clean better. We worked on the lift along with overhead squats and jerks—all lifts we did for football. That is when Tim suggested I compete in weightlifting. I told him I was going to powerlift. I don’t remember his exact words, but knowing Tim, I’m sure he forcefully told me I should compete in weightlifting instead.
I don’t remember how the conversation went on the ride home, but my dad and I decided I would compete in weightlifting. So we began training for the AAU Junior Olympics, which were in August that year. Since it was only April, we had plenty of time to train. I completed the normal football workout on Mondays and Wednesdays, and on Friday, we went in early before the football team, and I trained just snatches and clean and jerks. I joined the rest of the team when they came. Things were going OK, considering we didn’t really know what a snatch was or how to train it. I had done power cleans and jerks, so we put them together. I figured out how to squat clean, but the snatch proved exceptionally challenging for a couple of newbies.
Even with the snatch struggles, I was not deterred. I really liked weightlifting, and I began to watch lifting in my free time. My only source was a tape of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics my dad recorded from NBC. I had the coverage of the 91kg and 108+kg weight classes. I watched that tape over and over again. I especially enjoyed the fluff piece on Andre Chemerkin, which can be found now on Youtube. One day while watching the super heavyweight session, I happened to catch something Phil Sims (yes, the former New York Giants quarterback) said while commentating on the lifting. Ronny Weller of Germany had just snatched 200kg to take the lead, and on the replay, Sims said, “You can see, he hits it with his hips.” That clicked. I turned the tape back and watched it again. Sure enough, Weller had “hit” the bar with his hips. This is what I was missing.
The next day I snatched I tried hitting it with my hips as Phil had observed, and the lift went up much easier. I continued with this “new” technique, and the snatch lift started progressing again. Phil must have known what he was talking about because I went on to win the Junior Olympics that summer shortly after my 15th birthday. That began a lifelong obsession with weightlifting that continues to this day—some 24 years later. As they say, the bug had bit, and I have to give Phil Sims some of the credit because, without his commentary, I may not have figured out the snatch and won the Junior Olympics. The obsession may have died before it started.
Thanks, Phil!