I think Chick-Fil_A is WAY over hyped.
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Rip has such amazing advice I can’t believe people would even doubt him. Look how amazingly helpful he is
You, sir or ma’am, may count yourself fortunate this thread is flame-free!
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Dont get me wrong… I do not have hate for Rip myself nor do I think he gives out terrible advice. Matter of fact I can respect allot of what he says. But that doesn’t mean I agree with 100% of what he says which is my prerogative … There is some strange mentality that goes on,more so on the internet. That somehow you MUST agree 100% with someone be it whom ever it is that has a big following at any given time. Otherwise you risk the wrath of the FANBOYs marching through the village with their torches and pitch forks… Which i am pretty much over
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That’s me and Jim Wendler. I think his approach is great, while there are parts I don’t exactly disagree with but find either superfluous or less useful.
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A few years back, Olympic weightlifter Jon North got into a bit of an argument with Rippetoe on the Starting Strength forum and basically said, “Yeah well, who’ve you ever coached?” The context of the thread/argument was Olympic weightlifting, but this was Rip’s reply:
"My resume is far less extensive and much less impressive, even though I know more about me to type here. I have been doing the two lifts as a part of my training since 1979. I was a competitive powerlifter, but we snatched and C&Jed as a part of training with Bill Starr. I have snatched 82.5 and C&Jed 105 as lifts that were not my competitive sport. My best clean was 275 many years ago – power, I believe.
I have been coached by Bill Starr, Tommy Suggs, Jim Moser, Dr. Kilgore, Glenn Pendlay, Angel Spassov, Harvey Newton, Mike Conroy, John Thrush, and many fellow lifters. I have never claimed to be a good weightlifter, but I have coached the lifts since 1984. I obtained my USWF Level III certification in 1988 at the OTC in Colorado Springs with Mike Stone, Harvey Newton, and Angel Spassov on faculty. I obtained my USAW Senior Coach certification in 1999 at the OTC with Lyn Jones, John Thrush, Mike Conroy, et al.
I was invited, as an Olympic weightlifting coach, to the Olympic Solidarity course at the OTC in 2000. Dr. Kilgore and I taught both the USAW Club Coach course and the Sports Performance Coach course from 1999 through 2005. I have served as the president of the North Texas Local Weightlifting Committee of USAW since 2004.
I have coached and participated in the coaching of James Moser, Glenn Pendlay, Dr. Kilgore, Josh Wells (Junior World Team 2004) most of our national and international-level athletes, and the members of the collegiate team at Midwestern State University (I’m still actively coaching the MSU people) and Wichita Falls Weightlifting, which I hosted and helped coach in my gym from its inception in 1999 through 2006. I still actively coach the sport on a daily basis here at WFAC, and the power clean and power snatch at our seminars around the country every month.
I hope that answers your question."
He’s owned his own gym since 1984 and has been using the Starting Strength methods with members there the entire time. That’s over 30 years of non-competitors following the plan successfully, in addition to his work with competitive athletes, and the coaching/seminars/certifications he runs.
According to another of his gym’s pages, Rip shifted away from powerlifting in 1997 and focused more on Olympic weightlifting, and while coaching the Wichita Falls Weightlifting team along with Glenn Pendlay, the team “had over 80 national champions in the AAU and USAW, along with winning a whole bunch of team national championships including 3 Junior National team titles, and the members of the 8 Collegiate National Championship teams from Midwestern State University have been WFW members.”
I kinda feel like the “I haven’t heard of anyone he coached, so he must not have coached anybody significant” argument is lazy, flawed, and worn-out. If anyone’s looking for specific names and literal who’s who, do your own footwork and/or ask the guy directly on his site. He does have a Q&A forum there.
(For the record, I’m not a super-Rip fanboy just because I tend to “come to his defense” in these types of threads/discussions. It’s just that it’s irksome to see swipes at him that are ignorant of facts.)
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To clarify, I have done this, and I’ve gotten nothing back. It’s why I ask the question so much. I genuinely hope to find the answer. What you posted is one of those things that makes it so confusing to me. There are so many instances of being a coach and of accomplishments, but I just don’t know where these athletes are.
I can point out athletes trained by Louie Simmons and Joe DeFranco and Borris Sheiko and etc. I can say “This is the result of this coaching”. When I try to find the same for Rippetoe, I simply can’t find it.
People interpret the question of "who has he coached’ as something malicious, but seriously, I want to know who he has coached.
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what is it about you, do you think, that makes everyone take your questions as rhetorical rather than face value? It really is quite fascinating.
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My opinion on Rip, not that it matters:
He’s just a resource to be considered like any other resource. If you try and squat the way he coaches and it feels good? Great. If it doesn’t? No big deal.
I think anyone who’s taken part in this endeavour for long enough can see that no matter how much you love a particular coach/author/whatever you’d be an idiot just to follow their advice blindly.
Example: I love Eric Cressey. Eric Cressey told me all I needed to do were compound lifts and I wouldn’t need to worry about lagging bodyparts. Eric Cressey was wrong (in this instance). Others might take his advice and find he was right. Doesn’t mean I don’t love EC anymore but I sure as hell am not going to blindly believe everything he says.
Rip also has the benefit of being really fucking funny sometimes.
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I really wish signatures existed again, so I could sign off every post with “none of the above questions are rhetorical; please answer them”
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Sometimes you ask questions that have Big answers. 2 or 3 years ago you asked me why I would want to avoid injury in training. I’m still kinda thinking it over.
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Got a big question for everyone to mull over.
If your boy sends you a dick pic, and you screenshot it. Who’s gay?
Simple answer: both of you.
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But what if he sent it by accident and you said no homo?
Freud said there are no accidents.
You’re both gay
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Childhood is intense these days.
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In a rather snarky world, being genuine can be a bit odd at times. Especially without being able to hear tones lol.
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Yelling out your safe word doesn’t nullify the act.
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And understand… my point has to do with the more zealot guys you see on forums regarding their favorite guy and how the will some times go nuts if you dont agree 100% .As I stated above I have no hate for Rip and agree with allot of his view points but not 100% as I stated.
