BrianNassar
02-14-2009, 10:13 PM
I was honored to interview the GREATEST powerlifter of all time! For you younger lifters, NOBODY even comes close to comparing with Eddy!!
ED COAN INTERVIEW
Brian: Thanks for taking out the time and doing this interview!
Eddy: No problem Brian, glad to do it.
B: Well let’s get right down to it then. Why do you stick to USPF lifting standards?
Eddy: That is the way it’s supposed to be, and that is the way it’s always been. I’m not against double equipment and stuff like that, but for me I am. That’s not the standard I grew up with. Even the APF started off with high standards regarding equipment and judging. I was one of the founding guys in the APF; a lot of people don’t know that. Doug Furnace and I came over to the APF because Ernie and Larry Pacifico were friends of ours and their standards were high. In those days if you got caught with double equipment in a meet you were kicked out because it was considered cheating. Well then all of a sudden it’s not cheating anymore because the Federation allows it. Well that’s OK for some people, but in my eyes it doesn’t work that way.
When you have squats extremely high like in the IPA, in my eyes they are high. I don’t want to say the squats are high and have people rip on me, but as far as I would judge them they would be high. If a squat is high from the front watching them, then it is even higher from the sides. Part of being strong, and I’ve said this all along, and made no secrets about it, is being able to take the weight off the rack and being able to walk back and set up with it. That’s part of being strong. It’s like what; all of a sudden are you going to wear straps on the deadlift because you can’t hold on to the bar? People say it [Mono-Lift] helps save injury, well it’s a man’s sport, well women too – as Liz Willett stares at me (laughs). It’s like playing flag football in the NFL so you don’t get hurt. You know it’s a tough sport, stuff happens. You can’t take all the elements of danger out of it or else its not the same sport anymore. Part of the performance of the lift is being able to set up with it. If you change that, what are you doing, a leg press? Enough is enough! There’s got to be limits!
B: How do you feel about squat briefs?
Eddy: I’ve tried a double suit and I don’t think I got as much out of it as I got out of single ply. There’s something lost in the spring. When I did my 1,019 I had a four-year-old Inzer Z-suit on – regular suit, no briefs, no nothing. I think I was good for a 1,050 that day! I felt great. (Update 2007 – Is that not AWESOME or what?!?!)
B: What about your knee wraps? How come you don’t crank those suckers tight?
Eddy: I can’t hit it how I want. I want to be able to feel the weight. I want to be able to go down how I want. It takes me out of my groove if the wraps are too tight.
B: Are those wraps good luck or something?
Eddy: I still have a few pairs of semi-new Double-Goldline sets that I like. But considering Inzer has the best wraps when you wrap tight. They stretch so much that when I wrap myself I can’t wrap them that tight and I don’t like them that tight. So if I get down to the bottom and the wraps still gives I’m losing a lot in the spring. Everything else of Inzer’s I wear, John has always treated me well.
B: Speaking of Inzer, do you get your bench shirts all tweaked out?
Eddy: No, I’m going to try and work with someone this time just to get some more out of my shirt. I’ve never listened to John like I should have, so maybe I’ll actually listen to him this time and I will bench 600 very soon. I actually like benching now. I used to hate it!
B: (I also asked hoe Ed’s training was coming along for the Mountaineer Cup IV. He said this has been one of his best off-seasons ever, and sees his bench at 600, his deadlift back up to 900, and his squat at 1,050!)
B: Will you do the WPO ever again?
Eddy: I think they have to fix a bunch of things, they have to fix the judging, and they have to fix the equipment. The lifters say that they don’t care what people say about us, etc, etc. But do you know how big the WPO would be if they fixed the equipment and the judges? The whole freakin’ world would be competing for the money. They would also have more sponsors, but they just don’t get it. That’s a fact. People may give me crap about that, but that’s the way it is. The rest of the world laughs at it because the rest of the world goes by a different standard.
B: How did your 1,038 feel at the WPO in Orlando?
Eddy: The weight was effortless. I know I cut it a little bit, but it was good depth for them. I was going for the money. I didn’t feel right doing it though. I felt better about my 1,019. That’s the way I was taught it should be done. You cannot compare a canvas, Mono-Lift squat with a jack stand poly suit squat.
B: Regarding the squat, what do you think of some of the training systems that downplay the role of the quads in the squat?
Eddy: That’s bull****! Tell that to an Olympic lifter. Quads are very important in the squat! I’m working on building my quads as we speak. It was a weak point that I will overcome. (We talked much more about “training systems” off the record. To bad I had to turn off my tape recorder!)
B: Are you going to continue to support the USPF?
Eddy: Yeah, I like the USPF. They were just caught between a rock and a hard place. The USPF has very good judges with IPF standards. In the squat you have to break below parallel. I’ve never seen an IPF squat that has to go 3 inches below parallel or any of that crap. But they did not have the resources that the USAPL had for drug testing, so they were caught in-between. They still use jack stands, outlaw the extra equipment, and the Mono-Lift. I think there is going to be resurgence back to a little bit older style of lifting. I think it is so freakin’ ridiculous where people will start saying enough is enough! At one time lifters said that as crazy they would go was a double poly shirt. But now in the APF as long as it’s one piece, it can have big Kevlar patches all over it and be 5 layers thick. Which with that federation is fine. But guys did it before without equipment, KAZ did a 661 bench raw, and there were many other incredible raw lifters back in the day.
B: Eddy seems to be one of the sane voices of reason in a quagmire of different rules and federations. Eddy is a down to earth powerlifter, and content with competing his way and when he wants to. Maybe one day he can lead a new standard back into powerlifting in the U.S. (2007 Update: Eddy has now retired, going out in the USPF this year. He continued to squat and lift HIS WAY until his last meet. Unfortunately since this interview about 5 years ago, the powerlifting equipment has become so ridiculous it is a totally different sport now.)
ED COAN INTERVIEW
Brian: Thanks for taking out the time and doing this interview!
Eddy: No problem Brian, glad to do it.
B: Well let’s get right down to it then. Why do you stick to USPF lifting standards?
Eddy: That is the way it’s supposed to be, and that is the way it’s always been. I’m not against double equipment and stuff like that, but for me I am. That’s not the standard I grew up with. Even the APF started off with high standards regarding equipment and judging. I was one of the founding guys in the APF; a lot of people don’t know that. Doug Furnace and I came over to the APF because Ernie and Larry Pacifico were friends of ours and their standards were high. In those days if you got caught with double equipment in a meet you were kicked out because it was considered cheating. Well then all of a sudden it’s not cheating anymore because the Federation allows it. Well that’s OK for some people, but in my eyes it doesn’t work that way.
When you have squats extremely high like in the IPA, in my eyes they are high. I don’t want to say the squats are high and have people rip on me, but as far as I would judge them they would be high. If a squat is high from the front watching them, then it is even higher from the sides. Part of being strong, and I’ve said this all along, and made no secrets about it, is being able to take the weight off the rack and being able to walk back and set up with it. That’s part of being strong. It’s like what; all of a sudden are you going to wear straps on the deadlift because you can’t hold on to the bar? People say it [Mono-Lift] helps save injury, well it’s a man’s sport, well women too – as Liz Willett stares at me (laughs). It’s like playing flag football in the NFL so you don’t get hurt. You know it’s a tough sport, stuff happens. You can’t take all the elements of danger out of it or else its not the same sport anymore. Part of the performance of the lift is being able to set up with it. If you change that, what are you doing, a leg press? Enough is enough! There’s got to be limits!
B: How do you feel about squat briefs?
Eddy: I’ve tried a double suit and I don’t think I got as much out of it as I got out of single ply. There’s something lost in the spring. When I did my 1,019 I had a four-year-old Inzer Z-suit on – regular suit, no briefs, no nothing. I think I was good for a 1,050 that day! I felt great. (Update 2007 – Is that not AWESOME or what?!?!)
B: What about your knee wraps? How come you don’t crank those suckers tight?
Eddy: I can’t hit it how I want. I want to be able to feel the weight. I want to be able to go down how I want. It takes me out of my groove if the wraps are too tight.
B: Are those wraps good luck or something?
Eddy: I still have a few pairs of semi-new Double-Goldline sets that I like. But considering Inzer has the best wraps when you wrap tight. They stretch so much that when I wrap myself I can’t wrap them that tight and I don’t like them that tight. So if I get down to the bottom and the wraps still gives I’m losing a lot in the spring. Everything else of Inzer’s I wear, John has always treated me well.
B: Speaking of Inzer, do you get your bench shirts all tweaked out?
Eddy: No, I’m going to try and work with someone this time just to get some more out of my shirt. I’ve never listened to John like I should have, so maybe I’ll actually listen to him this time and I will bench 600 very soon. I actually like benching now. I used to hate it!
B: (I also asked hoe Ed’s training was coming along for the Mountaineer Cup IV. He said this has been one of his best off-seasons ever, and sees his bench at 600, his deadlift back up to 900, and his squat at 1,050!)
B: Will you do the WPO ever again?
Eddy: I think they have to fix a bunch of things, they have to fix the judging, and they have to fix the equipment. The lifters say that they don’t care what people say about us, etc, etc. But do you know how big the WPO would be if they fixed the equipment and the judges? The whole freakin’ world would be competing for the money. They would also have more sponsors, but they just don’t get it. That’s a fact. People may give me crap about that, but that’s the way it is. The rest of the world laughs at it because the rest of the world goes by a different standard.
B: How did your 1,038 feel at the WPO in Orlando?
Eddy: The weight was effortless. I know I cut it a little bit, but it was good depth for them. I was going for the money. I didn’t feel right doing it though. I felt better about my 1,019. That’s the way I was taught it should be done. You cannot compare a canvas, Mono-Lift squat with a jack stand poly suit squat.
B: Regarding the squat, what do you think of some of the training systems that downplay the role of the quads in the squat?
Eddy: That’s bull****! Tell that to an Olympic lifter. Quads are very important in the squat! I’m working on building my quads as we speak. It was a weak point that I will overcome. (We talked much more about “training systems” off the record. To bad I had to turn off my tape recorder!)
B: Are you going to continue to support the USPF?
Eddy: Yeah, I like the USPF. They were just caught between a rock and a hard place. The USPF has very good judges with IPF standards. In the squat you have to break below parallel. I’ve never seen an IPF squat that has to go 3 inches below parallel or any of that crap. But they did not have the resources that the USAPL had for drug testing, so they were caught in-between. They still use jack stands, outlaw the extra equipment, and the Mono-Lift. I think there is going to be resurgence back to a little bit older style of lifting. I think it is so freakin’ ridiculous where people will start saying enough is enough! At one time lifters said that as crazy they would go was a double poly shirt. But now in the APF as long as it’s one piece, it can have big Kevlar patches all over it and be 5 layers thick. Which with that federation is fine. But guys did it before without equipment, KAZ did a 661 bench raw, and there were many other incredible raw lifters back in the day.
B: Eddy seems to be one of the sane voices of reason in a quagmire of different rules and federations. Eddy is a down to earth powerlifter, and content with competing his way and when he wants to. Maybe one day he can lead a new standard back into powerlifting in the U.S. (2007 Update: Eddy has now retired, going out in the USPF this year. He continued to squat and lift HIS WAY until his last meet. Unfortunately since this interview about 5 years ago, the powerlifting equipment has become so ridiculous it is a totally different sport now.)