Customer Reviews (2)

Real-life experience of an accomplished weightlifting icon.
The book is forwarded by Arthur Drechsler, which fulfills Kono's wish that "Weightlifting never dies, it gets better."The legendry feature of this book lies in its natural flow of thoughts that stems from the personal experience of a renowned weightlifter.

Kono competed and trained on three lifts: Clean and Press, Snatch, and Clean and Jerk. He witnessed the astronomical progress in human strength due to newly developed training routines. In this book, Tommy Kono does not confuse the epidemic commercialism of the fitness industry in America with the real and systematic training that leads to peak human performance.

The book's main theme focuses on: (1) quality of training, (2) standardized weightlifting training program, (3) flexibility, and (4) training for competition. It could be summed up as follows.

Section I: "The ABCs of Olympic Weightlifting", plunges into lower back strength, general conditioning, and nutrition. It discusses the "strong back arch" with habitual emphasis on lumbar arch. It then addresses shoulder and hip and leg flexibility in terms of four exercises for shoulder "loosening" using a wooden stick. It addresses the center of mass and acceleration in relation to the pelvis as the "Seat of Power". Weightlifting power is then exemplified in the essential "Pulls" from the floor to shoulder height. It starts by the describing the hand-grips of various pulls, then addresses the height of the pull for the Clean and the Snatch.


Section II:"The Olympic Lifts", starts with the Snatch lift posturing by David Rigert's arched back, then describes the three phases of the Pull through a case analysis of Ivanchenko's and Urrutia lift technique. The Clean starts with the initial pull through Nassiri's, Alexseev's and Patera's lift technique. It sums up the Clean into two pulls, body stretch, shrug, and bounding out.The Jerk, describes the grip, bar trajectory, and leg motion. It mainly deals with the split jerk.

Section III: "The Training Plan", describes the three phases of conditioning, strengthening, and competing. It discusses the differences between the American trend of expedient training for maximal and quick results versus the European trend of over-training for record breaking purposes. It then delves into the logical sequence of exercising for the high mobility of Olympic weightlifting. It discusses the specifics of weightlifting exercises, reps, sets, load, massing muscles, warm-up, stretch, and quality versus duration of training.

Section IV: "Facts and Fallacies", discusses technical specification of experience gained from practice, double-knee-bend pulls, merits of Power Clean versus Squat Clean, purpose and styles of Squat, lifting repetitions, and flexibility issues.

Section V: "Competition Preparation", describes how to prepare for contest, how the contest progresses, and lists 12 keys and tips for successful competition lifting


Section VI: "My Weightlifting Experiences", details personal experience from first competition, National Championship, Olympic Games, World Championships, and International participation in lifting contests that stretched from 1952 through 1963.

Section VII: "Weightlifting Wisdom", entails 150 snippets that sum up the author's reflection on weightlifting experience that led Tommy Kono attains International fame in such rare sport.


Section VIII: "State of Mind", attempts to convey to the reader real life stories on how others made it to the top. It starts by defining one's true potential. It then details the stories of the Spitz Brothers, Vinci and Faith, Schemansky, the George Brothers, Puleo and Ogata, and Kono & Pride.

Section IX: "Coaches' Notes", details coaching issues such as the One Arm Snatch, Priority Training, the Squat Program, Head and Shoulders, Efficient Lifting, Training Philosophy, and Progress in lifting.

Mohamed F. El-Hewie
Author of
Essentials of Weightlifting and Strength Training

Great Book by a Great Competitor !
Two time Olympic Champion, three time Pan American champion, six time world champion. Tommy Kono's book on Olympic Weight training and competition is a terrific book. Do a Google search and you can find Tommy's address and buy it directly from him. Well worth the $30. + $5. for shipping. It is a large format paper back, 272 pages, with many photos and great instruction on the Olympic lifts. ... Read more