Coach Ted talks about this past weekend’s meet in Minnesota, the Team’s new Elites, and some historic lifts.
Meet Results from Minnesota
arrow_drop_down_circle
Divider Text
Meet Results from Minnesota
Season 3/Episode 16
November 15, 2021
[Block//Author//First Name] [Block//Author//Last Name] [Block//Date Added %M j, Y g:i a%+0d0h0m]
[Block//Comment]
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
0:04 Jon
Welcome to the TED O'Neill program.
0:13 Ted
Special Edition.
0:15 Jon
Yes, we have meet results
0:16 Ted
before we get into the results of the team and some of the amazing things that transpired this week and I want to make a special reference to our handlers and our helpers. Because whenever you take a group of people across multiple state lines to compete, there's a lot that goes into this. And it requires a significant amount of assistance. And so we had six of our members fly out on their own dime to help the team and that was Antonio, Joe Parker, Mike, Krystle, Mel and Gwen. So, everyone wrote and I hope I'm not forgetting anyone. Everyone’s really participated in supporting our lifters, which is huge. And I also want to make a special mention to Greg and Debbie and I go back with these folks probably 15 plus years now. And for me, it was great because I have not been to the gym, and Minnesota Twin Cities Barbell and I have to say the meet that they run is absolutely a first class meet from their support staff, who is just outstanding that a huge team, like 30 plus of their of their gym members, who all participated in around the Scores Table spotted and loaded and they were just on point everywhere the judging was super consistent, which is what I always look for, from a coaching standpoint just want to be consistent. zero complaints there. The calls didn't always go my way. But when it's in the hands of really established respected veteran judges, I never have any complaints about that. That's just that's just how this game goes sometimes. Yeah. So, props to Greg and Debbie they really not only ran a great meet, but I feel that they've over the last 10 years or so, have been really instrumental in keeping multiply powerlifting alive and providing great meets for people to go to. And, you know, I know that now that Greg and Debbie have been involved in the WTO which is kind of the Super Bowl of powerlifting. So, they've done a tremendous job in keeping this thing going and now the tide is turning and we're seeing this this part of the sport come back with a vengeance. And they've been right at the forefront of this providing a great venue for lifters to participate in. Terrific. Now, let's talk about our people. Okay, we had six lifters in this, and it didn't go completely the way I had envisioned but we still came out of this was some truly historic moments. So, let's talk about the history first. So a lot of people in our camp knew that Brie Romero was going for some historic lifts. In fact, she opened her squat with a world record. And he said yeah, and proceeded to go three for three my goal and the game plan that her and I had discussed in depth and was 617 at 123. There was a special reason for this outside of the world record which was 546 17 was a lift I thought was making well based on her making 600 in the gym. Now no woman in this in the history of the sport of powerlifting has ever made a five times bodyweight squat and to my knowledge, no one's ever even attempted it. So, to do it and one of the lighter weight classes if you just think about the concept of mass sometimes moves mass Yeah. So, you have this 123 pound body shoulder and an eight foot barbell, getting under that and getting up with 617 pounds. That actually ties the world record squat a full weight class above, from the girl who has the highest total and coefficient from any weight class. That's how significant that was to break a world record by 77 pounds is one thing. Yeah, I mean that alone is we could do a whole podcast on that to be the first to ever successfully attempt something like a five times bodyweight squat is astonishing. And it was a flawless one it was perfect. Now, here's the downside because this sometimes happens I think Bree was so physically mentally emotionally energetically spent after that lifted a definitely carry the one with expectedly be Yeah, it was she was completely locked in and we had a little bit of a short turnaround into the bench for her. And she wasn't able to negotiate a bench and so the lift doesn't officially count in the rankings. But you know what, that's okay, but she did it. Yeah, no one can ever take away the fact that she did that and officially sanctioned me and believe me, she's going to be back. Yeah. And she's going to take that whole-time class record, not just in the squad that thinks she'll actually beat that number next time. But I completely foresee this where she's going to take the total record also. So really, all she had to do was make one bench and the maker deadlift, and that would have been the all-time class record. So that's the highs and the lows and, you know, powerlifting is a sport sometimes of soaring highs and devastating lows. You know, the old show, Wide World of Sports when we grew up. That's the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, man that's a rough moment, but she really navigated that disappointment with a lot of poise and showed up for her team. Fantastic. Now, the polarity of that and our smallest female competitor to our largest male competitor, Dan Clark. Some ways kind of stole the show. He's never been to a meet. He's never been a spectator. never attended of me. He's never even bitten so that I'm telling the story of people no one's believing me. Dan squatted 1124 And he did so so convincingly the people in the audience didn't know what to make of this. I actually get So is he opened up 1052 He just absolutely destroyed it. I was afraid the ball was on pop off his back. Wow. On the top, he gets under 1124 and just and smashes maybe even better. I called for 1201 on the third and he had some trouble with the unrack wasn't successful in getting the weight out which is fine. 1124, went on to bench 584 deadlifted 750 2458 Total in his first meet. That's likely
6:37 Jon
the first one he's ever been to for.
6:39 Ted
Yeah. The biggest total he's ever seen was the one he put up in his first meet. Wow. Yeah, that was that was something just absolutely ridiculous. Right. And Dan is still scratching the surface. He's put in a lot of work. We have a lot of work to do. I think right now based on his strength, if he had his technique and focus to match that amazing strength he's cultivated through the hard work. He's probably already at 2700 and the total, so I predict we're going to see that within a year mazing so we're going to follow that progress. Moving on. We have three new elites. So that now pushes our total I think up to around 5556. Yeah, elites. Two of them were first meet elites.
7:24 Jon
This first meet elite syndrome you've created. I like it. It's a similar thing on the ridiculous.
7:30 Ted
I want to say six of our last 10 competitors in their first contest made an elite total six in the last 10. That's significant as I think less than 1% of competitive lifters making li total
7:45 Jon
Yeah, it would be it would be impressive if six of the last 50. Yeah, would make an elite total, statistically speaking,
7:55 Ted
right, but six of the last halves of the last two, so we're kind of on a roll. I think this whole thing that we're doing it's a little bit counter to just looking at training as the means of moving a barbell are moving weights around training has a lot more depth and many more facets to it. And I think the integration of the pair physical training model that's a proprietary technology out of Diablo barbell and Dr. Andrew bits is emotional sobriety curriculum is clearly contributing to some of these outlandish results. Some of our three new elites Isa Hines first meet elite. He said when we first meet elite, he's only really been training. I don't know if he's even trained with the group for six months yet. And he's tall he's, I don't know maybe 510 And he competed as a 181. So in an old school Diablo standards, your 510 Year 275 or a 308 He says naturally lean and is just been so impressive in training that I gave him one of our top six spots. I'd picked this meant to be our top six. So I gave him a shot at up I thought he was right there He squatted 705 and his first contest totaled 1685 and the 180 ones for an elite total. Dan Clark was the second first meet,
9:15 Jon
hang on I just want to interject let's build like a cornerback lifts like an offensive lineman.
9:23 Ted
Probably stronger than almost all the offensive lineman in the NFL with that 75 squad and he's just scratching the surface uh, yeah, we talked about them and technique because again, being a relatively new lifter is very, very new. And when we work out some of those kinks that natural athleticism and drive the T has. This is a focused young man I put them in my squat group. Yeah, and he's right there. I think he's if he commits to this as a long-term pursuit, he's going to be a name in the sport. When it's all said and done. Sure. I said if your first Okay. All right and then Rawad? Yes, he had a couple rough meets back to back and didn't want to do this meet. He felt he needed a little bit of a little bit of mental clear a little bit of space. I kind of forced him into it. And I know that for a long stretch, he wasn't particularly happy with me about that. But sometimes in the sport of powerlifting, you have to have both short term and long-term memory. When things aren't going well. It feels like they're never going to go well again. Okay. And coming off a rough meet he was little bit dinged up and will get fatigued and his CNS was a little shot. And halfway to the training cycle, he's telling me no, there's no way I can compete and I told him it just I know that it seems that way but just recognize that only seems that way. That's not true. You didn't lose your strength and he responded here by going out and squatting. 909 So we have a new 900-pound squatter 242 class that's a pretty significant lift. He made his he made a good bench in the meet and hold close to 700 pounds for a 2076 total. So that's another 2000-pound total for us out into the collective.
11:05 Jon
It's been doing a lot of work on all of the facets. Yeah, all these guys. So that's true. And so to approach this meet, like a relief pitcher, mentioning the short term memory Yeah, is is great. Not surprising.
11:23 Ted
Yeah. And so, I was really proud of him for pulling this together. And then Jake and Steven, you know, two guys who I don't worry about at all, I'll talk about Siebert first Jake Siebert. He came to Diablo with an 815 squad took them about a year and a half or left to get the 1052 Now Jake, I said, don’t worry about him. He's just the consummate Pro. And he's a guy who is maybe the most level headed lifter I've ever coached. So, when he when he has something, he needs to fix he gets about it. And he takes advantage of everything. Yeah, all of the programs, the mental training, the emotional training, all these things he's all in. So, here's a guy who's just all in all the things and it's showing him this result and you know, it just it wasn't his day. We had a bit of an equipment issue. I believe, I think he was opening to light for the equipment he was wearing. So, we made some unsuccessful adjustments and he just wasn't able to get a lift in. But Jake is going to be back and he's another guy where, you know, a couple of years from now he's going to be at the top of that. Of that. List. He already in this meet was we were looking at 2500 pounds total, which is no small feat. I mean, that's, that's 2500 in my mind, it's a world class total. No matter what weight class you're in, when you're making legitimate lifts, and Jake's lifts are always legit. So yeah, I was really excited to see him put up some big numbers and it just it just didn't go his way but I have no doubt he's going to be back and he's going to be better than ever. And really looking toward bigger things. And then Steve Bartlett, who I referred to often as my son. Yeah, you know, 16 years ago he started at Diablo I want to say so this can we go way back and this is Steve's third tour of duty at Diablo he went up a weight class for this meet and he struggled with some balance issues and timing he was ending up easily with over 100 pounds in the squat rack the topic of losing the balance and falling back. So, we have some little things to work out there and Stephens another guide never worry about. He's been around. He's got a great head on the shoulders. He's focused, he does the work. In fact, sometimes he does too much of the workout to pull him back a little bit. So, and this is what I meant when we started this it's it doesn't always go the way that you want the way that you envision but there's always something to take away from this. And I have no doubt that Steve and Jake and brave you know, three amazing lifters absolutely all Paul pro level world class level lifters are going to be back and better than ever. And I think you know, one thing I want to mention, especially for maybes people who aren't familiar with our process or who Diablo is, but we've been around for 20 plus years. This is what I call the fourth era because sometimes these things kind of go in areas where you have people who stick on the powerlifting team and they might be there for five 810 years. And so, this was a total rebuild of this team started two and a half years ago. I had essentially either liquidated the entire team or people move people aged out of it. People burned out we had a really long tenured group in the third era and this thing totally disintegrated. And I wasn't even sure I was going to continue coaching powerlifting after nearly 20 years Wow. And then Bree Romero came in, and I didn't even have a place to put her so I started teaching her beliefs and then others started to follow him before he knew it. We had a team again, and then all of a sudden, we're the biggest team. We have 25 competitors right now. And all of which are new, barring like Steven, right? So they're all homegrown products. They're all brand new. And so, to be even in the mix, where we're going to bigger meets, and they're attempting or making, not just high-level lifts, but elite to world class lifts to things I've never even been tried before is really a testament to the fast track that they're on. So, there's going to be some disappointment sometimes when you come out of the gates that way, doing so much in such a short period of time. There's going to be some speed bumps and we're encountering that right now. But our group from top to bottom is the most solid it's ever been.
15:49 Jon
Yeah, well at this level of play. There is always there is always an amount of variable. There's a lot at stake. So, there are going to be as you said high highs and some low lows. I think that the emotional makeup of this team rings a lot of bells and there are so much there's so many team members with a varied amount of experience to bring to the table that collectively they're just you know, it's a remarkable thing that I consider myself not even on the team just lucky to be in the presence of
16:28 Ted
What's really cool for me. You know, this whenever a total rebuild is usually these eras kind of bleed one into the next year and see how it's like a football dynasty.
16:39 Jon
Yeah, usually leftover.
16:40 Ted
You have leftovers. You have people passing the torch. Yeah, this was a total scratch built right. I
16:44 Jon
mean, you have the veteran presence of Steve Bartlett who got his elite total back Rex was the best cook. So how old is he? 28
16:55
No, Stevens like 35 Right? Yes, but he's Yeah, so he's young. So yeah, from all standpoints. And you know, I think this team is just beginning to find its pulse and its rhythm. Yeah. You know, because a lot of these folks I would say, I don't know, maybe 30% They weren't made back that up. They weren't lifting weights. I'm going to say they weren't lifters. Now they weren't even training at all. Right, like Dan Clark wasn't a guy who have been lifting weights for 10 years. The first time I worked with Dan I stopped him at 225 in the squat because it was like it was getting more dangerous.
17:30 Ted
And He squatted 1124 In less than
17:34 Jon
meet and is opening me two years later. Yeah. So, this is this is this dynamic we have right now with this group is really gelling and coming together. And it's a lot of positive energy. Some great personalities, but we don't have as the loose cannons that we've had in the past who are just a little bit unfocused and causing drama and disruption. You know, we never had a huge problem with that maybe in the early years, but we don't have the apathy that we had in that last era. We have a lot of really focused really excited really high-quality people. And this as we get more of these newbies in the competition, now this group begins to find its pulse of and its identity as who is this group as a team? Yeah, so that's going to be really exciting for me. To get to see over the next coming months. We have some meets coming up, and over the next coming years this is going to be it's going to be big.
18:24 Ted
Fantastic. Well, I'm glad things went smoothly and showed promise in the, you know, in the sport in general. It looks like there was quite a mark made. And so everybody's now going into a new season of competition. With some eyeballs pointed out,
18:44 Jon
let's find out what's next.
Welcome to the TED O'Neill program.
0:13 Ted
Special Edition.
0:15 Jon
Yes, we have meet results
0:16 Ted
before we get into the results of the team and some of the amazing things that transpired this week and I want to make a special reference to our handlers and our helpers. Because whenever you take a group of people across multiple state lines to compete, there's a lot that goes into this. And it requires a significant amount of assistance. And so we had six of our members fly out on their own dime to help the team and that was Antonio, Joe Parker, Mike, Krystle, Mel and Gwen. So, everyone wrote and I hope I'm not forgetting anyone. Everyone’s really participated in supporting our lifters, which is huge. And I also want to make a special mention to Greg and Debbie and I go back with these folks probably 15 plus years now. And for me, it was great because I have not been to the gym, and Minnesota Twin Cities Barbell and I have to say the meet that they run is absolutely a first class meet from their support staff, who is just outstanding that a huge team, like 30 plus of their of their gym members, who all participated in around the Scores Table spotted and loaded and they were just on point everywhere the judging was super consistent, which is what I always look for, from a coaching standpoint just want to be consistent. zero complaints there. The calls didn't always go my way. But when it's in the hands of really established respected veteran judges, I never have any complaints about that. That's just that's just how this game goes sometimes. Yeah. So, props to Greg and Debbie they really not only ran a great meet, but I feel that they've over the last 10 years or so, have been really instrumental in keeping multiply powerlifting alive and providing great meets for people to go to. And, you know, I know that now that Greg and Debbie have been involved in the WTO which is kind of the Super Bowl of powerlifting. So, they've done a tremendous job in keeping this thing going and now the tide is turning and we're seeing this this part of the sport come back with a vengeance. And they've been right at the forefront of this providing a great venue for lifters to participate in. Terrific. Now, let's talk about our people. Okay, we had six lifters in this, and it didn't go completely the way I had envisioned but we still came out of this was some truly historic moments. So, let's talk about the history first. So a lot of people in our camp knew that Brie Romero was going for some historic lifts. In fact, she opened her squat with a world record. And he said yeah, and proceeded to go three for three my goal and the game plan that her and I had discussed in depth and was 617 at 123. There was a special reason for this outside of the world record which was 546 17 was a lift I thought was making well based on her making 600 in the gym. Now no woman in this in the history of the sport of powerlifting has ever made a five times bodyweight squat and to my knowledge, no one's ever even attempted it. So, to do it and one of the lighter weight classes if you just think about the concept of mass sometimes moves mass Yeah. So, you have this 123 pound body shoulder and an eight foot barbell, getting under that and getting up with 617 pounds. That actually ties the world record squat a full weight class above, from the girl who has the highest total and coefficient from any weight class. That's how significant that was to break a world record by 77 pounds is one thing. Yeah, I mean that alone is we could do a whole podcast on that to be the first to ever successfully attempt something like a five times bodyweight squat is astonishing. And it was a flawless one it was perfect. Now, here's the downside because this sometimes happens I think Bree was so physically mentally emotionally energetically spent after that lifted a definitely carry the one with expectedly be Yeah, it was she was completely locked in and we had a little bit of a short turnaround into the bench for her. And she wasn't able to negotiate a bench and so the lift doesn't officially count in the rankings. But you know what, that's okay, but she did it. Yeah, no one can ever take away the fact that she did that and officially sanctioned me and believe me, she's going to be back. Yeah. And she's going to take that whole-time class record, not just in the squad that thinks she'll actually beat that number next time. But I completely foresee this where she's going to take the total record also. So really, all she had to do was make one bench and the maker deadlift, and that would have been the all-time class record. So that's the highs and the lows and, you know, powerlifting is a sport sometimes of soaring highs and devastating lows. You know, the old show, Wide World of Sports when we grew up. That's the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, man that's a rough moment, but she really navigated that disappointment with a lot of poise and showed up for her team. Fantastic. Now, the polarity of that and our smallest female competitor to our largest male competitor, Dan Clark. Some ways kind of stole the show. He's never been to a meet. He's never been a spectator. never attended of me. He's never even bitten so that I'm telling the story of people no one's believing me. Dan squatted 1124 And he did so so convincingly the people in the audience didn't know what to make of this. I actually get So is he opened up 1052 He just absolutely destroyed it. I was afraid the ball was on pop off his back. Wow. On the top, he gets under 1124 and just and smashes maybe even better. I called for 1201 on the third and he had some trouble with the unrack wasn't successful in getting the weight out which is fine. 1124, went on to bench 584 deadlifted 750 2458 Total in his first meet. That's likely
6:37 Jon
the first one he's ever been to for.
6:39 Ted
Yeah. The biggest total he's ever seen was the one he put up in his first meet. Wow. Yeah, that was that was something just absolutely ridiculous. Right. And Dan is still scratching the surface. He's put in a lot of work. We have a lot of work to do. I think right now based on his strength, if he had his technique and focus to match that amazing strength he's cultivated through the hard work. He's probably already at 2700 and the total, so I predict we're going to see that within a year mazing so we're going to follow that progress. Moving on. We have three new elites. So that now pushes our total I think up to around 5556. Yeah, elites. Two of them were first meet elites.
7:24 Jon
This first meet elite syndrome you've created. I like it. It's a similar thing on the ridiculous.
7:30 Ted
I want to say six of our last 10 competitors in their first contest made an elite total six in the last 10. That's significant as I think less than 1% of competitive lifters making li total
7:45 Jon
Yeah, it would be it would be impressive if six of the last 50. Yeah, would make an elite total, statistically speaking,
7:55 Ted
right, but six of the last halves of the last two, so we're kind of on a roll. I think this whole thing that we're doing it's a little bit counter to just looking at training as the means of moving a barbell are moving weights around training has a lot more depth and many more facets to it. And I think the integration of the pair physical training model that's a proprietary technology out of Diablo barbell and Dr. Andrew bits is emotional sobriety curriculum is clearly contributing to some of these outlandish results. Some of our three new elites Isa Hines first meet elite. He said when we first meet elite, he's only really been training. I don't know if he's even trained with the group for six months yet. And he's tall he's, I don't know maybe 510 And he competed as a 181. So in an old school Diablo standards, your 510 Year 275 or a 308 He says naturally lean and is just been so impressive in training that I gave him one of our top six spots. I'd picked this meant to be our top six. So I gave him a shot at up I thought he was right there He squatted 705 and his first contest totaled 1685 and the 180 ones for an elite total. Dan Clark was the second first meet,
9:15 Jon
hang on I just want to interject let's build like a cornerback lifts like an offensive lineman.
9:23 Ted
Probably stronger than almost all the offensive lineman in the NFL with that 75 squad and he's just scratching the surface uh, yeah, we talked about them and technique because again, being a relatively new lifter is very, very new. And when we work out some of those kinks that natural athleticism and drive the T has. This is a focused young man I put them in my squat group. Yeah, and he's right there. I think he's if he commits to this as a long-term pursuit, he's going to be a name in the sport. When it's all said and done. Sure. I said if your first Okay. All right and then Rawad? Yes, he had a couple rough meets back to back and didn't want to do this meet. He felt he needed a little bit of a little bit of mental clear a little bit of space. I kind of forced him into it. And I know that for a long stretch, he wasn't particularly happy with me about that. But sometimes in the sport of powerlifting, you have to have both short term and long-term memory. When things aren't going well. It feels like they're never going to go well again. Okay. And coming off a rough meet he was little bit dinged up and will get fatigued and his CNS was a little shot. And halfway to the training cycle, he's telling me no, there's no way I can compete and I told him it just I know that it seems that way but just recognize that only seems that way. That's not true. You didn't lose your strength and he responded here by going out and squatting. 909 So we have a new 900-pound squatter 242 class that's a pretty significant lift. He made his he made a good bench in the meet and hold close to 700 pounds for a 2076 total. So that's another 2000-pound total for us out into the collective.
11:05 Jon
It's been doing a lot of work on all of the facets. Yeah, all these guys. So that's true. And so to approach this meet, like a relief pitcher, mentioning the short term memory Yeah, is is great. Not surprising.
11:23 Ted
Yeah. And so, I was really proud of him for pulling this together. And then Jake and Steven, you know, two guys who I don't worry about at all, I'll talk about Siebert first Jake Siebert. He came to Diablo with an 815 squad took them about a year and a half or left to get the 1052 Now Jake, I said, don’t worry about him. He's just the consummate Pro. And he's a guy who is maybe the most level headed lifter I've ever coached. So, when he when he has something, he needs to fix he gets about it. And he takes advantage of everything. Yeah, all of the programs, the mental training, the emotional training, all these things he's all in. So, here's a guy who's just all in all the things and it's showing him this result and you know, it just it wasn't his day. We had a bit of an equipment issue. I believe, I think he was opening to light for the equipment he was wearing. So, we made some unsuccessful adjustments and he just wasn't able to get a lift in. But Jake is going to be back and he's another guy where, you know, a couple of years from now he's going to be at the top of that. Of that. List. He already in this meet was we were looking at 2500 pounds total, which is no small feat. I mean, that's, that's 2500 in my mind, it's a world class total. No matter what weight class you're in, when you're making legitimate lifts, and Jake's lifts are always legit. So yeah, I was really excited to see him put up some big numbers and it just it just didn't go his way but I have no doubt he's going to be back and he's going to be better than ever. And really looking toward bigger things. And then Steve Bartlett, who I referred to often as my son. Yeah, you know, 16 years ago he started at Diablo I want to say so this can we go way back and this is Steve's third tour of duty at Diablo he went up a weight class for this meet and he struggled with some balance issues and timing he was ending up easily with over 100 pounds in the squat rack the topic of losing the balance and falling back. So, we have some little things to work out there and Stephens another guide never worry about. He's been around. He's got a great head on the shoulders. He's focused, he does the work. In fact, sometimes he does too much of the workout to pull him back a little bit. So, and this is what I meant when we started this it's it doesn't always go the way that you want the way that you envision but there's always something to take away from this. And I have no doubt that Steve and Jake and brave you know, three amazing lifters absolutely all Paul pro level world class level lifters are going to be back and better than ever. And I think you know, one thing I want to mention, especially for maybes people who aren't familiar with our process or who Diablo is, but we've been around for 20 plus years. This is what I call the fourth era because sometimes these things kind of go in areas where you have people who stick on the powerlifting team and they might be there for five 810 years. And so, this was a total rebuild of this team started two and a half years ago. I had essentially either liquidated the entire team or people move people aged out of it. People burned out we had a really long tenured group in the third era and this thing totally disintegrated. And I wasn't even sure I was going to continue coaching powerlifting after nearly 20 years Wow. And then Bree Romero came in, and I didn't even have a place to put her so I started teaching her beliefs and then others started to follow him before he knew it. We had a team again, and then all of a sudden, we're the biggest team. We have 25 competitors right now. And all of which are new, barring like Steven, right? So they're all homegrown products. They're all brand new. And so, to be even in the mix, where we're going to bigger meets, and they're attempting or making, not just high-level lifts, but elite to world class lifts to things I've never even been tried before is really a testament to the fast track that they're on. So, there's going to be some disappointment sometimes when you come out of the gates that way, doing so much in such a short period of time. There's going to be some speed bumps and we're encountering that right now. But our group from top to bottom is the most solid it's ever been.
15:49 Jon
Yeah, well at this level of play. There is always there is always an amount of variable. There's a lot at stake. So, there are going to be as you said high highs and some low lows. I think that the emotional makeup of this team rings a lot of bells and there are so much there's so many team members with a varied amount of experience to bring to the table that collectively they're just you know, it's a remarkable thing that I consider myself not even on the team just lucky to be in the presence of
16:28 Ted
What's really cool for me. You know, this whenever a total rebuild is usually these eras kind of bleed one into the next year and see how it's like a football dynasty.
16:39 Jon
Yeah, usually leftover.
16:40 Ted
You have leftovers. You have people passing the torch. Yeah, this was a total scratch built right. I
16:44 Jon
mean, you have the veteran presence of Steve Bartlett who got his elite total back Rex was the best cook. So how old is he? 28
16:55
No, Stevens like 35 Right? Yes, but he's Yeah, so he's young. So yeah, from all standpoints. And you know, I think this team is just beginning to find its pulse and its rhythm. Yeah. You know, because a lot of these folks I would say, I don't know, maybe 30% They weren't made back that up. They weren't lifting weights. I'm going to say they weren't lifters. Now they weren't even training at all. Right, like Dan Clark wasn't a guy who have been lifting weights for 10 years. The first time I worked with Dan I stopped him at 225 in the squat because it was like it was getting more dangerous.
17:30 Ted
And He squatted 1124 In less than
17:34 Jon
meet and is opening me two years later. Yeah. So, this is this is this dynamic we have right now with this group is really gelling and coming together. And it's a lot of positive energy. Some great personalities, but we don't have as the loose cannons that we've had in the past who are just a little bit unfocused and causing drama and disruption. You know, we never had a huge problem with that maybe in the early years, but we don't have the apathy that we had in that last era. We have a lot of really focused really excited really high-quality people. And this as we get more of these newbies in the competition, now this group begins to find its pulse of and its identity as who is this group as a team? Yeah, so that's going to be really exciting for me. To get to see over the next coming months. We have some meets coming up, and over the next coming years this is going to be it's going to be big.
18:24 Ted
Fantastic. Well, I'm glad things went smoothly and showed promise in the, you know, in the sport in general. It looks like there was quite a mark made. And so everybody's now going into a new season of competition. With some eyeballs pointed out,
18:44 Jon
let's find out what's next.
LISTEN TO MORE EPISODES
LISTEN TO MORE EPISODES
clear
Lifted Academy™ is the forge of human reinvention — recognized as the "Best Personal Development Program in California" (2025), we provide elite training to accelerate humanity's conscious evolution. Our mission is to build the most fulfilled, self-led, empowered humans on earth.
Turn your biggest weakness into your greatest strength.