Interview: Jim Schmitz, Part 1
This month’s interview is a special one, maybe one of the most special we’ve published in this magazine. Why do I say that? Because it’s an interview with Jim Schmitz.
For those of you who don’t know, Jim is one of the most significant figures in American weightlifting history. It’s difficult to know where to start describing his experience in the sport, simply because he’s done so much. After learning weightlifting on his own in the 1960s and competing in his home state of California for several years, he eventually began attracting lifters who wanted to learn from him. He was smart and good at working with people, so he gradually developed into a coach.
He bought his own gym, the now-legendary Sports Palace in San Francisco, and started his own team from nothing. Athletes flocked, success grew, and the Sports Palace team became the dominant force in USA weightlifting, producing countless National Champions, American record holders, and Olympic Team members. We’re talking about names like Ken Patera, Bruce Wilhelm, and Mario Martinez, folks.
During the 1980s, since half the guys on the Olympic Team were his lifters, Jim was named US Olympic Team coach. Actually, he was basically the head coach of Team USA’s entire international program throughout the 80s and 90s. Olympic Teams, World Teams, Pan Am Teams….you name it, Jim coached it, all over the world.
But as crazy as it sounds, his coaching legacy is only a fraction of his experience. Jim was the President of USA Weightlifting until 1997, along with also being an IWF Executive Board member. He’s been a part of some of the most important landmark moments in our sport’s history, including being one of the driving forces behind the inclusion of women’s weightlifting in the Olympics in 2000. During the early years of my career, I met many of the original pioneer women who built weightlifting in this country, and every single one of them has told me that Jim was the first national-level coach who took women seriously and pushed to establish them as a legitimate part of the sport.
If you’ve been to a national meet in the US, you’ve seen Jim. He’s still there every single time, coaching, refereeing, announcing, weighing lifters in, and helping out in any capacity that’s needed. This guy is a legend in our sport, and no job is too small for him. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, has done more for Olympic weightlifting than Jim Schmitz. Olympic level, national level, local level, whatever. I’ve lifted in local meets in California that were held in tiny gyms with bare-bones conditions. Who was weighing in the lifters, refereeing, and then helping clean up after the meet was over? Jim Schmitz.
And because of his nature as a contributor, he gave me too much interview material for one issue. I’m going to divide Jim’s interview into two issues. This month will be part one, with part two following next month. Part one focuses on Jim’s beginnings in the sport, along with his rise in the coaching world. Every one of you who trains alone in your garage, owns a gym, or works with athletes should have a grin on your face as you read about how Jim started out just like all of you.
Next month, we’ll delve into the political aspect of Jim’s career, along with his thoughts about how our sport might be able to save itself from the disaster it’s currently facing. We’re privileged to have him as an interview subject, and the Performance Menu is honored to bring his story to you.
Obviously, you’ve got enough weightlifting experience to fill a book (or maybe several books). One of the areas we’d love to hear about is your coaching. You built the Sports Palace program into a dominant force in the 80s. Describe how the program started and evolved, and maybe tell us a little about your basic philosophy of coaching athletes.
I fell in love with sports, specifically football, basketball, and baseball around 12 years old in 1957. I noticed that those that were the best had better bodies, speed, balance, strength, and very good hand eye coordination. So, I thought I must build up my body and started following Jack LaLanne on TV and at almost 15, my parents finally relented to allow me to take up weight training. My first workout program was Joe Bonomo’s Barbell Training Routines, written in 1948. It included clean and presses, snatches, clean and jerks, squats, and all the other basic bodybuilding exercises, many that are part of CrossFit’s exercises. After about six months, I started buying Strength & Health Magazine and following the weightlifting, bodybuilding, and powerlifting routines they promoted each month. My freshman football coach in 1960 told me that lifting weights would make me slow and muscle bound. I didn’t listen and kept lifting. By the time I was a senior, I was the strongest kid in my school and excelled in football, basketball, baseball, boxing, and track.
Due to my size (5’9” 155#/70k as a fullback/linebacker), my choices of colleges to play football were Division 2. I selected San Francisco State College because they had a high level D2 football program and they had a weight room with a hodgepodge of weights, but they had the famous YORK Olympic Barbell and squat racks. That was the best equipped weight room I had seen in all the D2 colleges in Northern Calif. I also knew that the San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland YMCA’s had well equipped Olympic weight rooms and regularly held competitions. So, that brought me from Ukiah (120 miles north of SF) to San Francisco.
While I was working out in my bedroom and backyard patio, many of my friends and teammates would join me for workouts and I would coach them. Unfortunately, none lasted too long, but that was my first experience training others how to lift weights. Since I was getting bigger, faster, and stronger and excelling in all the sports, many trained with me, but unfortunately didn’t stick with it. When I went to SF State College in 1963, I trained in the school’s weight room and also in a weight room I set up in the dormitory storeroom. Since I was the most experienced, dedicated, and strongest, I also became the unofficial weight coach there, too. However, there were others who had lifting experience and we would share what we knew and follow each other’s routines and exercises.
In 1964, I met Walt Gioseffi, a California State middleweight champion and nationally ranked lifter. He taught me the hook grip and the thigh brush, which became legal in 1964. I learned a lot from him and we trained together often. Walt talked me into competing in my first competition in April of 1966. In 1968, I bought a one-third partnership in Alex’s Sports Palace at 24th & Mission Street in San Francisco. This is where I officially became a weightlifting coach and trainer for bodybuilding, power lifting, and fitness. Since Olympic weightlifting was my focus, I set up two platforms with pretty good, but not the best Olympic barbells and weights. I was fortunate to be able to buy a 137.5 kg set + Eleiko Barbell set in 1969. Then I was able to buy a 200 kg Russian barbell set from a gym that went out of business. Now other lifters started coming to Alex’s Sports Palace and enjoying the facilities, my coaching, and success. Because of Walt in 1971, Dan Cantore moved to SF to finish his college degree at UC Berkeley. Now my coaching method at this time was actually learning from Dan and Walt and giving them my feedback. And most importantly, they were having success. Also, in 1971 Ken Patera came to the Bay Area for a competition in San Jose. He took a workout at my gym and we hit it off on weightlifting training and I started writing his programs. Also, in 1971 a 15-year-old boy named Ken Clark joined my gym to build himself up for football. More on him later. In 1972 Walt, Dan, and Ken all had lifetime best performances at the Olympic Trials with Dan and Ken setting National Records and making the Olympic team.
So, now I was officially a weightlifting coach. What I had to offer besides organized, sensible training programs was an eye for what weights they should take based on what I saw with their warmups and first attempts. I learned early watching other lifters fail with weights they wished they could lift and not what they were capable of on that day. It’s a knack that I just had and I believe all successful coaches have too. I always kid people that I wish I could play the horses and stock market as well as I can call the weights that someone can successfully do! My knack was watching a lifter’s technique and how it would change with heavier weights, plus I could read their eyes and facial expressions that told me whether they could lift 2.5 kilos or five kilos more.
My basic philosophy is to keep it relevant and simple. I studied and tried the Russian, Polish, Hungarian, and Bulgarian programs that I read in Strength & Health Magazine. I realized that those programs didn’t work for my lifters as they had jobs and/or school, so they couldn’t train six to nine+ workouts a week. I learned from Tommy Kono “Quality not Quantity Training” and adapted all that I learned to my lifters. So, I developed programs for three to four workouts per week. In each workout, they do some form of snatches, clean and jerks, pulls, squats and stretching. I also used four to six-week cycles varying the load and volume from light, medium, heavy and maximum. I use many combinations and complexes to teach and correct technique in order to lift more weight as that is the goal, to lift more weight!
You coached multiple Olympians, and you were also the Olympic Team coach for the United States. I would never ask you to name a favorite athlete, but tell us about a few of your favorite experiences in coaching.
Yes, asking me my favorite athlete is like asking a parent who their favorite child is. However, here goes. Ken Patera was the strongest, Bruce Wilhelm was the best athlete, Mario Martinez was the best weightlifter, Dan Cantore was the most enthusiastic, Tom Hirtz was the most determined, Butch Curry was the biggest surprise, David Langon got the most out of his body, Tom Stock was the most explosive, John Bergman was the smartest, and Thanh Nguyen came the farthest, from a Vietnam refugee camp in the 1970’s to the 1996 US Olympic Team. Ken Clark grew up just two blocks from the gym and joined in 1971 to build himself up for football, saw the guys doing Olympic Lifting, and asked if I would teach him how to do it. Ken made steady progress 2.5 kilos at a time and was on the first Jr World Championships team in 1975, placing 6th. He won 6 US National Championships, 5th place at the 1984 Olympics, placed second at the 1987 Pan Am Games and set many National records in the C&J and Total. Not only did he never miss a workout, he was never late, showed up with clean workout gear every workout, followed his program and always weighed in at what he was supposed to. Also, he always helped at local meets, setting up, loading, officiating, and cleaning up. Just an all-around great guy.
I don’t what to overlook my female lifters, Rachel Silverman, Giselle Shepatin, and Carol Cady, who were world team members, medalists, and record makers. They were tough, determined, hardworking, great athletes, pioneers in woman’s weightlifting, and broke the misconceptions of why women shouldn’t do weightlifting. I coached many other women who didn’t achieve championships and records, but loved weightlifting just as much. We all grew together and adjusted to women getting into and allowed to do weightlifting.
My biggest thrill out of so many was Mario Martinez’s performance at the 1984 Olympics. He went 6 for 6 (175, 180, 185 & 210, 220, 225 for 410) setting a personal record C&J and American Record total. It was an awesome performance, but unfortunately Australia’s Dean Lukin came from 12.5 kilos behind after the snatch to C&J a personal and Australian record 240 to beat Mario with a 412.5 total. We were happy and disappointed at the same time. I really undoubtedly feel Mario lifted the most he was capable of that day. However, you always have to wonder, could he have done 2.5 more in the C&J? In a local competition 6 months later, Mario did 185 and 230 for 415, but not the same pressure. Mario would place 4th at the Seoul Olympics in 1988 with 407.5 total and a US Record 232.5 C&J and then at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, placed 8th with a 385 total. Mario trained with me from 1973 to 1996 and it was an amazing journey.
Some of your stories are the stuff of legend, Jim. Mario’s 1984 Olympic experience, the development of women’s weightlifting, the building of the Sports Palace…these are cornerstones of USA weightlifting. Next month, our readers will get to hear about your thoughts on the current political predicament of our great sport.
For those of you who don’t know, Jim is one of the most significant figures in American weightlifting history. It’s difficult to know where to start describing his experience in the sport, simply because he’s done so much. After learning weightlifting on his own in the 1960s and competing in his home state of California for several years, he eventually began attracting lifters who wanted to learn from him. He was smart and good at working with people, so he gradually developed into a coach.
He bought his own gym, the now-legendary Sports Palace in San Francisco, and started his own team from nothing. Athletes flocked, success grew, and the Sports Palace team became the dominant force in USA weightlifting, producing countless National Champions, American record holders, and Olympic Team members. We’re talking about names like Ken Patera, Bruce Wilhelm, and Mario Martinez, folks.
During the 1980s, since half the guys on the Olympic Team were his lifters, Jim was named US Olympic Team coach. Actually, he was basically the head coach of Team USA’s entire international program throughout the 80s and 90s. Olympic Teams, World Teams, Pan Am Teams….you name it, Jim coached it, all over the world.
But as crazy as it sounds, his coaching legacy is only a fraction of his experience. Jim was the President of USA Weightlifting until 1997, along with also being an IWF Executive Board member. He’s been a part of some of the most important landmark moments in our sport’s history, including being one of the driving forces behind the inclusion of women’s weightlifting in the Olympics in 2000. During the early years of my career, I met many of the original pioneer women who built weightlifting in this country, and every single one of them has told me that Jim was the first national-level coach who took women seriously and pushed to establish them as a legitimate part of the sport.
If you’ve been to a national meet in the US, you’ve seen Jim. He’s still there every single time, coaching, refereeing, announcing, weighing lifters in, and helping out in any capacity that’s needed. This guy is a legend in our sport, and no job is too small for him. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, has done more for Olympic weightlifting than Jim Schmitz. Olympic level, national level, local level, whatever. I’ve lifted in local meets in California that were held in tiny gyms with bare-bones conditions. Who was weighing in the lifters, refereeing, and then helping clean up after the meet was over? Jim Schmitz.
And because of his nature as a contributor, he gave me too much interview material for one issue. I’m going to divide Jim’s interview into two issues. This month will be part one, with part two following next month. Part one focuses on Jim’s beginnings in the sport, along with his rise in the coaching world. Every one of you who trains alone in your garage, owns a gym, or works with athletes should have a grin on your face as you read about how Jim started out just like all of you.
Next month, we’ll delve into the political aspect of Jim’s career, along with his thoughts about how our sport might be able to save itself from the disaster it’s currently facing. We’re privileged to have him as an interview subject, and the Performance Menu is honored to bring his story to you.
Obviously, you’ve got enough weightlifting experience to fill a book (or maybe several books). One of the areas we’d love to hear about is your coaching. You built the Sports Palace program into a dominant force in the 80s. Describe how the program started and evolved, and maybe tell us a little about your basic philosophy of coaching athletes.
I fell in love with sports, specifically football, basketball, and baseball around 12 years old in 1957. I noticed that those that were the best had better bodies, speed, balance, strength, and very good hand eye coordination. So, I thought I must build up my body and started following Jack LaLanne on TV and at almost 15, my parents finally relented to allow me to take up weight training. My first workout program was Joe Bonomo’s Barbell Training Routines, written in 1948. It included clean and presses, snatches, clean and jerks, squats, and all the other basic bodybuilding exercises, many that are part of CrossFit’s exercises. After about six months, I started buying Strength & Health Magazine and following the weightlifting, bodybuilding, and powerlifting routines they promoted each month. My freshman football coach in 1960 told me that lifting weights would make me slow and muscle bound. I didn’t listen and kept lifting. By the time I was a senior, I was the strongest kid in my school and excelled in football, basketball, baseball, boxing, and track.
Due to my size (5’9” 155#/70k as a fullback/linebacker), my choices of colleges to play football were Division 2. I selected San Francisco State College because they had a high level D2 football program and they had a weight room with a hodgepodge of weights, but they had the famous YORK Olympic Barbell and squat racks. That was the best equipped weight room I had seen in all the D2 colleges in Northern Calif. I also knew that the San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland YMCA’s had well equipped Olympic weight rooms and regularly held competitions. So, that brought me from Ukiah (120 miles north of SF) to San Francisco.
While I was working out in my bedroom and backyard patio, many of my friends and teammates would join me for workouts and I would coach them. Unfortunately, none lasted too long, but that was my first experience training others how to lift weights. Since I was getting bigger, faster, and stronger and excelling in all the sports, many trained with me, but unfortunately didn’t stick with it. When I went to SF State College in 1963, I trained in the school’s weight room and also in a weight room I set up in the dormitory storeroom. Since I was the most experienced, dedicated, and strongest, I also became the unofficial weight coach there, too. However, there were others who had lifting experience and we would share what we knew and follow each other’s routines and exercises.
In 1964, I met Walt Gioseffi, a California State middleweight champion and nationally ranked lifter. He taught me the hook grip and the thigh brush, which became legal in 1964. I learned a lot from him and we trained together often. Walt talked me into competing in my first competition in April of 1966. In 1968, I bought a one-third partnership in Alex’s Sports Palace at 24th & Mission Street in San Francisco. This is where I officially became a weightlifting coach and trainer for bodybuilding, power lifting, and fitness. Since Olympic weightlifting was my focus, I set up two platforms with pretty good, but not the best Olympic barbells and weights. I was fortunate to be able to buy a 137.5 kg set + Eleiko Barbell set in 1969. Then I was able to buy a 200 kg Russian barbell set from a gym that went out of business. Now other lifters started coming to Alex’s Sports Palace and enjoying the facilities, my coaching, and success. Because of Walt in 1971, Dan Cantore moved to SF to finish his college degree at UC Berkeley. Now my coaching method at this time was actually learning from Dan and Walt and giving them my feedback. And most importantly, they were having success. Also, in 1971 Ken Patera came to the Bay Area for a competition in San Jose. He took a workout at my gym and we hit it off on weightlifting training and I started writing his programs. Also, in 1971 a 15-year-old boy named Ken Clark joined my gym to build himself up for football. More on him later. In 1972 Walt, Dan, and Ken all had lifetime best performances at the Olympic Trials with Dan and Ken setting National Records and making the Olympic team.
So, now I was officially a weightlifting coach. What I had to offer besides organized, sensible training programs was an eye for what weights they should take based on what I saw with their warmups and first attempts. I learned early watching other lifters fail with weights they wished they could lift and not what they were capable of on that day. It’s a knack that I just had and I believe all successful coaches have too. I always kid people that I wish I could play the horses and stock market as well as I can call the weights that someone can successfully do! My knack was watching a lifter’s technique and how it would change with heavier weights, plus I could read their eyes and facial expressions that told me whether they could lift 2.5 kilos or five kilos more.
My basic philosophy is to keep it relevant and simple. I studied and tried the Russian, Polish, Hungarian, and Bulgarian programs that I read in Strength & Health Magazine. I realized that those programs didn’t work for my lifters as they had jobs and/or school, so they couldn’t train six to nine+ workouts a week. I learned from Tommy Kono “Quality not Quantity Training” and adapted all that I learned to my lifters. So, I developed programs for three to four workouts per week. In each workout, they do some form of snatches, clean and jerks, pulls, squats and stretching. I also used four to six-week cycles varying the load and volume from light, medium, heavy and maximum. I use many combinations and complexes to teach and correct technique in order to lift more weight as that is the goal, to lift more weight!
You coached multiple Olympians, and you were also the Olympic Team coach for the United States. I would never ask you to name a favorite athlete, but tell us about a few of your favorite experiences in coaching.
Yes, asking me my favorite athlete is like asking a parent who their favorite child is. However, here goes. Ken Patera was the strongest, Bruce Wilhelm was the best athlete, Mario Martinez was the best weightlifter, Dan Cantore was the most enthusiastic, Tom Hirtz was the most determined, Butch Curry was the biggest surprise, David Langon got the most out of his body, Tom Stock was the most explosive, John Bergman was the smartest, and Thanh Nguyen came the farthest, from a Vietnam refugee camp in the 1970’s to the 1996 US Olympic Team. Ken Clark grew up just two blocks from the gym and joined in 1971 to build himself up for football, saw the guys doing Olympic Lifting, and asked if I would teach him how to do it. Ken made steady progress 2.5 kilos at a time and was on the first Jr World Championships team in 1975, placing 6th. He won 6 US National Championships, 5th place at the 1984 Olympics, placed second at the 1987 Pan Am Games and set many National records in the C&J and Total. Not only did he never miss a workout, he was never late, showed up with clean workout gear every workout, followed his program and always weighed in at what he was supposed to. Also, he always helped at local meets, setting up, loading, officiating, and cleaning up. Just an all-around great guy.
I don’t what to overlook my female lifters, Rachel Silverman, Giselle Shepatin, and Carol Cady, who were world team members, medalists, and record makers. They were tough, determined, hardworking, great athletes, pioneers in woman’s weightlifting, and broke the misconceptions of why women shouldn’t do weightlifting. I coached many other women who didn’t achieve championships and records, but loved weightlifting just as much. We all grew together and adjusted to women getting into and allowed to do weightlifting.
My biggest thrill out of so many was Mario Martinez’s performance at the 1984 Olympics. He went 6 for 6 (175, 180, 185 & 210, 220, 225 for 410) setting a personal record C&J and American Record total. It was an awesome performance, but unfortunately Australia’s Dean Lukin came from 12.5 kilos behind after the snatch to C&J a personal and Australian record 240 to beat Mario with a 412.5 total. We were happy and disappointed at the same time. I really undoubtedly feel Mario lifted the most he was capable of that day. However, you always have to wonder, could he have done 2.5 more in the C&J? In a local competition 6 months later, Mario did 185 and 230 for 415, but not the same pressure. Mario would place 4th at the Seoul Olympics in 1988 with 407.5 total and a US Record 232.5 C&J and then at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, placed 8th with a 385 total. Mario trained with me from 1973 to 1996 and it was an amazing journey.
Some of your stories are the stuff of legend, Jim. Mario’s 1984 Olympic experience, the development of women’s weightlifting, the building of the Sports Palace…these are cornerstones of USA weightlifting. Next month, our readers will get to hear about your thoughts on the current political predicament of our great sport.
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Matt Foreman is the football and track & field coach at Mountain View High School in Phoenix, AZ. A competitive weightliter for twenty years, Foreman is a four-time National Championship bronze medalist, two-time American Open silver medalist, three-time American Open bronze medalist, two-time National Collegiate Champion, 2004 US Olympic Trials competitor, 2000 World University Championship Team USA competitor, and Arizona and Washington state record-holder. He was also First Team All-Region high school football player, lettered in high school wrestling and track, a high school national powerlifting champion, and a Scottish Highland Games competitor. Foreman has coached multiple regional, state, and national champions in track & field, powerlifting, and weightlifting, and was an assistant coach on 5A Arizona state runner-up football and track teams. He is the author of Bones of Iron: Collected Articles on the Life of the Strength Athlete. |
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