Hail to the Dinosaurs!
In Dinosaur Training, I wrote, "A dinosaur is a man
with character." Let me give you an example of what
I mean.
At the World weightlifting Championships of 1950,
John Davis, the defending World and Olympic Champion,
was in a ferocious battle with the Russian heavyweight,
Jakov Kutsenko.
Davis was leading after the first lift, the press,
but it was very close as they went into the second
lift, the snatch.
Now, for those readers who aren't familiar with
Olympic weightlifting, the snatch is a non-stop
lift where the athlete powers the bar from the
platform to arms length overhead in a single
movement. It happens so fast you can barely see
it. Less than one second. Boom! Just like that.
And with incredible weight on the bar.
Scientists have run tests, and Olympic weight-
lifters performing the snatch are the fastest of
all athletes.
Nowadays, a lifter will drop down into a squat
as he pulls the bar. This is called, naturally
enough, the squat snatch.
But back in John's day, most lifters performed
the split style snatch. To do this, they pulled
the bar up and dove under it, splitting their
legs so one foot was forward and one foot was
far behind them.
The split style was the style that John Davis
used.
Now, the key to success in the split style of
snatching is to drop as low as possible under the
bar. Sometimes, a lifter would go so low that the
knee on his trailing leg would touch the platform.
If that happened, the lift was no good. Touching
your knee to the platform was a disqualification.
So here's John Davis, neck and neck with the big
Russian -- and on his second attempt in the snatch,
John calls for 325 pounds. If he makes the lift, he
is virtually assured of winning the
World championship.
John chalks his hands -- steps onto the platform --
approaches the bar -- gets set -- and pulls high and
hard.
The bar shoots upward, and John drops under it like
a flash, his legs scissoring into the split position.
He makes the lift, the officials give him three white
lights, and the crowd roars in approval.
But wait -- something's wrong!
John walks over to one of the officials, and speaks to
him quietly but earnestly.
The other officials join them.
They almost seem to be arguing.
Then they walk over to the scoring table.
John tells the scorer that the lift was no good. His
knee touched the platform. It happened so fast the
officials didn't even see it. They counted the lift
as good. But John knew the truth. And he refused
to take credit for a bad lift.
"Nobody had seen it," he said later. "But I didn't
want to go around with a weight on my mind."
When the crowd learned what had happened, they cheered
louder than when they thought he had made the lift.
On his third attempt, John once again threw the bar
overhead -- and this time, it was a perfect lift.
And John went on to beat his Russian rival handily --
and to retain his World championship.
It was a remarkable example of CHARACTER -- and it
gives you a deep insight into one of the most important
aspects of championship performance in weightlifting
or any other sport.
Go back and reread John's explanation for why he did
what he did.
"I didn't want to go around with a weight on my
mind."
Neither do I. And neither do you. The bar is heavy
enough. You don't ever need any additional weight on
your mind.
And that's a secret to gold-medal performance.
As always, thanks for reading, and have a great day.
If you train today, make it a good one.
Yours in strength,
Brooks Kubik
P.S. You can grab a copy of Dinosaur Training at the
Dinosaur Bookstore -- and you can learn quite a bit
about John Davis in it. You also can learn more about
John Davis and other lifters of his era in the Legacy
of Iron books:
http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html
