Re: Vardanian (was Serge Reding's jumping ability)

December 7, 2000

Jan Baggerud Larsen Produktsjef 8366 <JBL@...> wrote:

<I've heard rumors about the extreme jumping abilities of the former great

OLer Yurik Vardanian (sp). I have a few video clips from his lifting in the

1980 Olympic Games. After his 222.5 kg world record C & J he jumps over the

" magnesium stand " (the box where they keep the chalk). I don't know how tall

the stand was, but the jump looked unbelievable. ........

Dr Siff or others: Do you know what his vertical jump was? I've heard he did

a 12 meter triple broad jump and also a 3.68 meter broad. IIRC the broad jump

world record is 3.69 meters. I'm not sure if this record is official though.>

***The first time I met Vardanian was at the 1979 World Weightlifting

Championships in Thessaloniki, Greece. Several of us, including Vardanian

and the Cuban, Urrutia, went our dancing at Greek Taverna and the

conversation not suprisingly strayed to lifting techniques and performances.

Fortunately, our Greek host from the Greek Weightlifting Federation, could

speak Russian and he interpreted what Yurik was saying.

Apparently, in addition to his 3.68m standing broad jump, his high jump was

2.14m (over 7ft) and his 100m time was 10.6 secs, so there is no doubt that

Yurik was a very explosive athlete. Now, if you have access to a copy of

" Supertraining " , you will see a photograph on the first page of Vardanian

(and Rachmanov) standing beside me and it is easy to see that he is quite a

short man, which makes that high jump even more laudable. When I returned

home to analyse the films that I had taken of all the competitors at that

event, I timed Vardanian's snatch and found that it took him only 0.69 sec

from the start of the snatch to the overhead position.

Who said that weights " make you slow and stiff " ?

Dr Mel C Siff

Denver, USA

mcsiff@...

December 7, 2000

Dr Siff wrote...

<<***The first time I met Vardanian was at the 1979 World Weightlifting

Championships in Thessaloniki, Greece. Several of us, including Vardanian

and the Cuban, Urrutia, went our dancing at Greek Taverna>>

Thanks Mel! You just " implanted " a visual image in my mind that will keep

me chuckling throughout the day!

Burkhardt

Strength and Conditioning Coach

UC Irvine

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