EDITOR’S NOTE: Welcome to our 12 reps feature. In each appearance of 12 Reps, our coaches, writers, and occasional guests will be answering the same twelve questions each time. Go “into the locker-room” with them and get to know our coaches and writers a little bit better!
12 Reps with Olympic Weightlifting Referee Dresdin Archibald
1. Who was your first coach and what did they teach you?
Bert Mozley, a one-time English Premier League soccer player (Darby County) and also a Olympic lifter, powerlifter, and bodybuilder. He taught me to appreciate the skills need to succeed in all sports.
2. Who is the coach you most admire?
Toe Blake, coach of the 1950s-60s Montreal Canadiens hockey Stanley Cup teams.
3. If you could have a superhero power, what would it be?
Super speed, so I don’t waste time in travel.
4. What athlete, dead or alive, would you most like to talk with?
Boxer Jack Johnson.
5. When did you know that coaching was your calling?
I’m still not a coach, Too frustrating if I were to do it full time. Writing suits me better.
6. What is the best and hardest part about being a coach?
The best is watching your athletes succeed. The worst is watching athletes quitting when they are just showing promise.
7. What is your favorite physical activity or exercise?
Olympic-style lifting, especially military presses now that I’m too stiff to do anything else.
8. What is your favorite “cheat” food?
Too many to count. Ice cream or pizza.
9. What is your biggest accomplishment?
In weightlifting, organizing the Canadian Weightlifting Federation Officials Program in 1975-77 that continues to this day.
10. What do you bring to your students/clients that is different than other coaches and programs?
In my informal advice giving, I stress that one lifts as they live. If you live cautiously, you tend to lift that way as well. I like to judge character by watching people train.
11. What is your favorite quote?
“We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow” – Lord Palmerston
12. What was/is your favorite sport and why?
Olympic lifting. It is very elemental but also requires enough skill to make it interesting. It is also applicable to all sizes of competitor and now sexes and ages as well.
Click here to read articles from Dresdin.
If you missed any editions of 12 Reps, be sure to check out our archives. You never know who we might talk to and what might get said!
