There’s a fella named John Broz coaching some serious weightlifting in Las Vegas. He runs Average Broz Gymnasium — a small and purposeful weightlifting gym that has the feel of a proper club.
Barry Kinsella is an Irish traveler who made his way around America to train with and interview various successful Olympic weightlifting coaches and their lifters. He has made at least two stops to Broz’s gym, and interviewed him both times. Now, why should you bother watching an interview with John Broz? Well, his favorite weightlifter is 70’s Big Co-Captain Anatoly Pisarenko and he lived with Antonio Krastev (you know, the guy who still holds the snatch world record of 216kg). Other than that, he coaches Pat Mendes and Rob Adell. Both of them are about 20 years old, and both of them are real fucking strong. Rob won second place in the 94kg category at Junior Nationals, and Pat has become quite the internet sensation with videos showing a 200kg snatch and a 230kg clean and jerk — phenomenal numbers.
There is also a lot of controversy (at least on the GoHeavy Forums) about Pat.To get you up to speed, Pat wants to win a gold medal, and probably will. He’s focused, devoted, and strong as three week old piss. But he wants to earn a living doing it. Pat has dual citizenship in the US as well as Brazil, but USA isn’t known for supporting its lifters. Thus, Broz and Pat are waiting to see if anyone is willing to pay the young lifter to bring home some gold.
In any case, Broz has a unique style of programming that he developed from three important coaches he has had in his life (including Krastev). The following videos dive into how he learned from those coaches and what his general training philosophy is. I hope you enjoy them — Barry is pretty good at gaining insight from his interviews.
Here are parts 1 and 2:
15 thoughts on “Broz Interviews”
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Justin, what is your opinion on bulgarian style training?
Most of the teams who use it have had issues with substance abuse and have been banned, eg iran, bulgaria, greece.
I think the turks are the only ones who are not banned. Though halil mutlu did get banned.
Straight up Bulgarian training the way Abadzhiev coached it isn’t possible for most people. You’d have to be incredibly advanced (as in being selected for weightlifting as a kid and doing it consistently since then) or on drugs. If you watch the Broz interviews, he talks about how Krastev’s system was a very watered down Bulgarian method, and that’s what Broz implements.
I believe that to get useful practice out of the Olympic lifts (for competition preparation), a lifter would need to lift at least 80% on a regular basis. A proper strength base is a pre-requisite. I guess you could say this applies the vague principles of the Bulgarian method to a mid-level Oly lifter — they need at least moderate amounts of weight in practice, and usually closer to heavy. There’s quite a few reasons for this, but I’ll save it.
–Justin
I’m still a rank newb at the O-lifts, but if Mendes wants to go somewhere that will support him, more power to him. Sad to see a shot at a gold medal go to Brazil though.
I watched Barry lift in a comp last week.
He is pretty intense.
So you were at the Irish meet at that CrossFit affiliate?
–Justin
Justin, I need your advice. How many times should I see the new Twilight movie? Is 3 enough?
You’re lucky I don’t change your password.
–Justin
I’d say that depends on whether you’re into sparkly vampires, WODing werewolves, teenage boys, or all three.
“…WODing werewolves…” I fuckin’ lol’d.
The first time I saw an interview with Broz and he was like “we squat to max twice a day Monday through Saturday, and once on Sunday”, I was like “this guy is fucking insane, and that completely flies in the face of everything I know about training.” But apparently it works….even though it shouldn’t work. Go Pat!
I saw an interview with Pat Mendes where he stated it took him over a year for his body to adjust to the style of training used with Broz. Untill he got used to it every single day was a grind physically and mentally.
ahahaHAHAHAHAHHAAAHAHAHAH WODing werewolves HAHAHAHAHA
I have huge doubts whether any of his serious lifters would test clean. Meet attendance records bit odd if you look at them. Still an impressive coach and group no doubt.
Do a little gumshoe research on why they don’t attend meets. They have a reason. Whether you agree or disagree with it is another matter altogether.
I’ll address the drug comment.
–Justin
There’s another bit in the Mendes interview that caught me, when he says the second time he ever squatted, he used 315. Don’t know whether to be inspired or just depressed!
@dave h: Keep in mind, it was in highschool and I’m sure you have heard about how highschool squats go. Not trying to take anything away from Mendes, hes a freak, but chances are good it wasn’t very deep. Its also worth noting that I probably couldn’t have even walked 315 out on my back the first month I started lifting.
I really enjoyed the interview, seems to have cleared up alot of the questions or mystery around his training style I had. Seems his philosophy is not quite as insane as I once thought.
The fact that he feels lifters should not have relationships, jobs, etc…is pretty intense, but I suppose if you are looking to train world champions, it takes that kind of dedication. Sounds like he has his lifters in an environment like the OTC almost. Still not too sure if I believe his lifters are “clean” or not, but I don’t really give a shit. Though if all you have to do is eat, sleep, train…it makes it a little easier to believe.
I don’t remember Broz saying they shouldn’t have relationships. I think he meant it in a way that serious training doesn’t really leave energy to accommodate those things, and he cited his own experience as the example.
–Justin
Broz talks about this in this clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU_ybeBZVQI
To get to the point go to minute 7. He discusses about having all aspects of your life in order, not just your training. There is not much of a sample to compare Pat to, to make any real judgment on his abilities. How many people do you know, at a young age, that put essentially every other aspect of their life on hold to pursue this one thing?
The last minute is a great response.
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