Topic: Please Introduce Yourself

[Norman Kelsick]

Welcome to The Weightlifting Exchange

As part of our effort to build community in the sport of weightlifting, we would like to give all of our members an opportunity to introduce themselves here. Our membership includes athletes, coaches, researchers, and people from all walks of life who have a special appreciation for this fantastic sport.

Here is a suggested format for your introduction. Please feel free to use it (copy and paste), or not. Please post your introduction as a response to this announcement:

Name: Norman Kelsick
Age:  44
Gender: Male
Occupation: General Manager , Hospitality Industry
Location: Calgary Alberta
Team:
How did you get started/involved in weightlifting? Through a buddy who was a bobsledder
Years involved in weightlifting:on and off for 7
Athletic achievements: amateur boxer, hockey player, football and socer
Role in weightlifting: for a hobby
Coaching/educational credentials:
Favorite weightlifter: Dimas
Interests other than weightlifting: FAMILY
Other information you would like to share:

[Ronald Coleman]

Name: Ronald aka "Ronaldinho"
Age: 30-40
Gender: Male
Occupation: Student
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Team: None
How did you get started/involved in weightlifting?: 2006
Years involved in weightlifting: 1 year consistently
Athletic achievements: None
Role in weightlifting: N/A
Coaching/educational credentials: N/A
Favorite weightlifter: None
Interests other than weightlifting: Muay Thai, Krav Maga, martial arts, self-defense, combat sports.
Other information you would like to share: I enjoy a combo of OL, PL, and plyometric exercises.  Would like to incorporate sandbag, sledgehammer, and some strongman training in the future.

[Rick_Blanco]

Name: Rick Blanco
Age: 22
Gender: Male
Occupation: Student
Location: Miami, FL
Team: None
How did you get started/involved in weightlifting?: 2007
Years involved in weightlifting: 3 months
Athletic achievements: Do high school fights won count?
Role in weightlifting: newb
Coaching/educational credentials: Computer Science undergrad at FIU
Favorite weightlifter: Rigert, Alexeyev, Dimas
Interests other than weightlifting: World of Warcraft, UNIX, reading
Other information you would like to share: I'm here to learn and maybe make some friends.

[Dave Bateman]

Name: Dave Bateman
Age: 45
Gender: M

Occupation: Physicist/Consultant

Location: Dahlonega, GA

Team: None

How did you get started/involved in weightlifting?: Read Arthur Drechsler's book to augment my training knowledge.

Years involved in weightlifting: Maybe 3 months...

Athletic achievements: USA Cycling Cat 3 racer, State 100m finalist in H.S.

Role in weightlifting: Neophyte

Coaching/educational credentials: USA Cycling Expert Coach

Favorite weightlifter: Conan

Interests other than weightlifting: Cycling, T&F, Baseball, Aerobatic Flying

Other information you would like to share: I would appreciate info on coaches/places to train in N. Georgia...

[DAVE PETERSON]

Name: Dave Peterson
Age:  61 years young
Gender: Male
Occupation:I was an auto worker for 40+ years (GM) and retired last July!
Location:Lansing,Michigan
Team:Cougars WLC -Lansing,Mi.
How did you get started/involved in weightlifting:From the influence of my older cousin and my buddy's father who lifted in the 30's & 40's it really got me going.
Years involved in weightlifting:35
Athletic achievements:A few state titles and a 3rd at the National Masters
Role in weightlifting:Meet director,National Referee,announcer,coach and generally trying to "spread the word"!
Coaching/educationals credentials:I've never taken any "coaching coarses",but certainly have learned a lot from training with smart & common sense lifters like Fred Lowe.
Favorite weightlifters:Fred Lowe,Norb Schemansky,Joe Puleo,Rick Holbrook and of course I can't leave out Chris LeRoux who proved like Fred Lowe - Don't sell a guy "short" just because he's over 30 years old - because he'll leave you way behind scratching your head wondering- How did he do it?? That's easy -- Experience !!
Interests other than weightlifting:Farming,classic cars,trucks and tractors,gardening,bicycle touring and so on !
Other information you would like to share: Don't worry my wheels are always turning ! Oh yes, its more than just interesting to watch your kids grow up,mature and find out what the real world is like for them !! i'm sure that Mike Burgener and others can more than just relate to that subject.

[Les Kernodle]

Name: Les Kernodle
Age:   50   ( in 2007)
Gender:  Male
Occupation: Systems Technical Architect (translates to programmer & analyst)

Location:: Memphis Tennessee

How did I get involved in lifting:
Started as 120 lb weaking inspired by Hercules movies and TV  wide world fo sports showing some of 1970 Worlds , then 71 worlds.  began home workouts with one of those 110 lb sets with plastic plates filled with concrete.

 SO afer that at my community center - started taining locally with Paul Wrenn , (who went on to National and Worlds (1981) PowerLifting champion with a squat world record around 975 lbs). Paul trained a group of local kids,) started us on basics , then OL and PL , eventually only myself and another guy stayed. He would take us to contests as he went, educate us on training and told us which lifters to watch & learn. This was 1972 - 73 when Paul began to gain weight up from 242 and realized his path lay more in Powerlifting than olympic lifting. Encouraged me to apply myself Olympic Lifting as I had the style and abilities for it. Before he left Memphis he hooked my up with some guys at the University were I trained on weekends and also in a  "shed" with my own YORK iron (still have it) weekdays. We had had a seminar and visit  from Russ Knipp and followed a modified version fo his program. The fellows (Wayne Poweroy and Bill Gandy) used the clubs money to buy an Eleiko bar after we lifted on Russ's "touring barbell" it was great, until I drifted out of sport at 18 years old.

Years competed in  weightlifting:  3 years
  in late 73 reached Class III as lightweight , continued on and off after that to reach bests lifts 175 press , 175 snatch , 225 jerk at a bodyweight of 163 in 1976 after sparodic training .
At 1973 Tennessee State meet was Best Teenager (pound for pound) in state at 148lbs bdywt .
Competed in appox 12 contests throughout south both power & Olympic and saw some great lifters in both arears of the sports.
( Russ Knipp, Dane Hussey, Tom Stock, Tom Hirtz, Gary Glenney, Gary Drinnon, Sal Domenguiez, Davey Jones, Lee James, Michael Cohen as olympic lifters.  PoOwerlifters influenced by Paul Wrenn , was standing beside Don Reinholdt when he made 911 squat to be 3rd man to lift over 900, Saw George Crawford set squat records and Doc Rhodes set total records in the middleweights, Bob McKee lift big deadlifts,,,, knew Mike Cross the deadlift king of the 123 lbers

Current role in lifting .
   WEIGHTLIFTING HISTORIAN .. (of sorts) pouring over old magazines of the day and communication, listening and noting comments about Lifting's rich history.
   COLLECTOR of lifting action photos , records , results etc... from old mags from the sports, have an extensive selection of thousands of pics currently and more to go.
    Also trying to collect old medals , programs , trophies , of our lifting past

Current training in LIfting :
   training VERY limited again with wishful eye on possible " Masters Level Competition" , I will be introducing my
2 young boys (now 10 and 14 years old) to lifting, so coaching is my eventual interest. If I can establish a good base of boys and pass on what was given to me.

Coaching/educational credentials: NONE , except watched some good lifters and had established sounds training methods that worked adapting Russ Knipp's principles and combined with the basic ABC learned from Kono's writings.
Read Tommy's latest book.

Favorite weightlifters:
   (Norbert Shemansky, Tommy Kono, Russ Knipp, Fred Lowe , Mike Karchut, Bednarski , Dube,  ALexeev , Reding , Rigert, Ivanchenkov, Phil Grippaldi, Kolev of Bulgaria.  and the guy called "pocket Hercules")

Interests other than weightlifting:  Collector of old Comic Books , pre-1970 , have most of MARVEL characters SPiderman 1-38 , Fantasic Four 1 - 102,  X-Men  1 - 19, Iron Man run in Tales of suspense, most of THOR's issues,
Superman and many others.     Collector of vinatge late 50s early 60s TOYS , Marx Playset figures, Monster and SpaceMan figures, SUperhero figures , Warriors of the World etc...... OLD STUFF THATS COOL

[cathal byrd]

Name: Cathal Byrd
Age: 21
Gender: M
Weightclass: 69kg
Best Lifts: 102/130

Occupation: Physical Education student

Location: Limerick, Ireland

Team: University of Limerick Weightlifting Club

How did you get started/involved in weightlifting? Started general resistance training to improve strength for soccer when I was 14, got more and more into weight training gradually and then decided to take up Weightlifting and compete when I was 18.

Years involved in weightlifting: Nearly 3

Athletic achievements: Have represented Ireland in international competition at the Euro u23's, Euro Small Nations and World University Games

Role in weightlifting: Athlete

Favorite weightlifter: Galabin Boevski

Interests other than weightlifting: Soccer

[Mehmet Ege]

Hello everyone

Name: Mehmet Ege
Age: 24
Gender: Male
Occupation: Student
Location: Blacksburg, VA - Istanbul, Turkey
Team: Weightlifter Wannabe Squad
How did you get started/involved in weightlifting?: I'll get started very soon
Years involved in weightlifting: 0
Athletic achievements: Transition from a weak fat person to a fit person
Role in weightlifting: Wannabe
Coaching/educational credentials: None
Favorite weightlifter: Naim Suleymanoglu
Interests other than weightlifting: Boxing, Rowing
Other information you would like to share: Long time fan of weightlifting, particularly after seeing the epic struggle between Naim and Leonidas in 96 games. I'd like to get started in a good direction and get stronger/more explosive.