It’s been almost a week since Jon North retired as an
athlete from the sport of weightlifting.
When I first found out that he was leaving the sport at age 27,
seemingly at the peak of his athletic career, I was dumbfounded. Having watched him lift and followed
his career for years, and listened to him speak with such passion about the
sport of weightlifting, I couldn’t believe that he was calling it quits, with
so much athletic ability and so many goals left. Now, about a week removed from reading his blog post that
made his retirement official, I’ve been able to put his retirement into
perspective, and I’ve come to a realization: Jon North has been one of the greatest if not the greatest professional
athlete, role model, and influence I’ve come across in my life.
For those of you who have no idea who Jon North is, he was a
Pan Am games team member representing the USA, former National Champion,
two-time Arnold Classic Championship member, American Open Championship member,
and Olympic hopeful in the sport of weightlifting. As a 94 kg weightlifter he has trained under one of the most
respected coaches in the United States in Glenn Pendlay. He has pushed to the brink of the
American record in his weight class in the snatch, and clean and jerked over
400 pounds. Recently, he opened
his own gym called “The Attitude Nation,” where he lifted and coached before
finishing his career this year as a gold medalist in the clean and jerk at the
National Championship of weightlifting.
First and foremost I want to make this clear, I’ve never
interacted with Jon on any level.
I don’t know him and he doesn’t know me. But even so, just doing what he does has influenced me in
everything I do to such a great extent that I think it deserves recognition.
I remember vividly the first time I saw Jon lift. Sometime in 2011, I was scrolling
through my newsfeed when I saw a video that someone had shared entitled, “No
Crying…Inspiration from Cal Strength.”
I was curious, so I clicked on it, for the next three minutes, I watched
three guys lift immense barbells from the ground overhead in the most badass
display of strength and athleticism I had ever seen. At the time I knew nothing about Olympic weightlifting, so
my mind was absolutely blown. How
the hell were these three guys, who I later found out were Jon North, Donny
Shankle, and Spencer Moorman of California Strength Weightlifting, putting
three and four hundred pounds over their head? In that moment I knew I had to learn more about this and try
it out myself, and right then and there, my love for what I now know is the
sport of weightlifting, was born.
I quickly realized that Cal Strength had an expansive
library of weightlifting videos on Youtube, and began to go through each an
every one, while simultaneously taking my interest to the gym. I would stay late after morning
football lifts and come back for second sessions to work on my snatch and clean
and jerk, and receive tips and coaching from the weightlifters and coaches at
FDU. Though I was just starting
out I was a quick learner and already very strong from years of lifting for
football. I fell in love with the
challenge of weightlifting, and soon came to admire the combination of speed,
strength, and technical mastery that was required to be successful.
Though Jon was a superior lifter who initially drew me into
his career with blazing speed and technical mastery, his actions and
personality off the platform may have been even more influential. Jon is a controversial figure in the
sport of weightlifting. As a loud,
outgoing, often borderline cocky athlete, he earned as much negative attention
as he did praise for his antics on the platform. However, the one thing that no one can argue about Jon is
that he demands attention.
Realizing this, he has parlayed his success in weightlifting into a blog
viewed by hundreds of thousands of people, a podcast named “Weightlifting
Talk,” and his own gym and brand name, “The Attitude Nation.”
In recent months, it has been his blog and podcast that have
affected and inspired me the most.
As an athlete with a blog myself, I have come to realize that I have an
unbelievable opportunity to say what I want and express myself through my
blog. Sure, the basis of the blog
is weightlifting and strength and conditioning, but lately I have broadened the
blog topics. I have expressed
myself, written more literary pieces, and even a couple short stories that try
to capture moments in time, placing the reader in the shoes of an athlete.
Additionally, following his retirement, Jon has talked on
his podcast about giving up the sport of weightlifting in the prime of his
career. He states that it was not
due to injury or lack of passion.
It had nothing to do with feeling he was too old or unable to compete at
a level that he wanted to anymore.
He left the sport as an athlete because he wants to devote himself
full-time to his passion: coaching
and helping others achieve their dreams and enhance their lives as his coaches
did for him throughout his career.
His message spoke to me, and made me realize that coaching is so much
more than technique and programming.
It means having a genuine passion and concern for the lives of your
athletes. You have to truly care
about their success, and desire to do everything in your power to help them
succeed.
For the last couple years I have been solely focused on my
own success. That’s perfectly
fine. As a football player and
aspiring weightlifter, it’s important to care about how well my training is
going. However, as an aspiring
coach, Jon has taught me a great deal about what it means to impact the lives
of others. He is doing with “The
Attitude Nation” exactly what I want to achieve with JMSB. He has brought together a community of
like-minded people and inspired them to work hard, lift heavy, and pass their
love and knowledge on to the people around him.
Jon has also shown me that if you truly believe in and want
something, you should never let anyone stop you. Jon’s rise to the top of American weightlifting is a
remarkable story. He has family
issues, at one point was addicted to drugs including Meth, and was arrested for
DUI among other problems that he could have let destroy his life. He came from the bottom, but after
finding the sport of weightlifting, he got his life back on track. Now, after achieving success in the
form of victory in weightlifting, he travels the world, holding seminars,
writing blogs, creating radio talk shows, as well as owning and operating his
own performance gym. Along the
way, there have been numerous people who have doubted him, hated on him, and
tried to drag him down. Yet he has
paid them no mind, forging his own path to success and achieving his dreams.
Jon has inspired me to ignore the naysayers, and to surround
myself with people who believe in me and who share my passion. I will continue to write my blog,
improve myself as a coach, improve myself as a lifter, and expand “JMSB” with
the dream of one day owning my own gym, and establishing a community just as
Jon has.
The point I hope to make by writing this is to not only
educate people about Jon, who has influenced my life so positively, but to
illustrate to people that in a day and age where you can’t turn on the TV
without seeing a professional athlete breaking the rules or acting
selfishly, there are top-level
athletes out there that care about helping others and having a positive influence
on people’s lives. Without Jon, I
may never have been exposed to the great sport of weightlifting, which has
already given me so much joy, and will continue to long after my football
career is over. But more
importantly, I may never have seen the opportunity to influence and inspire
others with my passion, and the platform I’ve created.
Even though I may never get the opportunity to thank Jon, I
hope that this can hit home to those who read it, and that they may derive
inspiration from Jon’s career and message that I have. I will continue to push JMSB and build
a community of hard working, committed, passionate people, and it would never
have happened if it hadn’t been for Jon North.
“Attitude Nation salute!”
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