Thanks for bringing those videos to our attention, Jim.
The only interaction I ever had with Suggs was a short conversation outside the York gym in 1966, at the time of the Senior Nationals, which were held in York that year.
To correct what was stated at the outset, Suggs was not the editor of S&H for “many” years; rather, he was the editor for a few years.
There are a few points that could be added to what Suggs stated in the 2nd video. To press efficiently, you want to avoid pressing “around” you head, as that would be inefficient. (Unfortunately, that is how Kono pressed.) Instead, you want to press straight up and that means you need to get your head out of the way!
I could write a paragraph about how to do that but the best example of how to do so that I have seen are the sequence photos of Tony Garcy doing a heavy press that were given in an issue of S&H circa 1963. He seemed to press somewhat differently at the ’66 Senior Nationals but when I discussed that with him then, he didn’t seem to pick up on the point I was trying to make.
I believe that Suggs is now 76 and is much smaller than he was when he was in his prime. At 5-11 (I think), he was ideally suited for the 242 pound class, and he became one of the top contenders for national honors when that class was created. Hoffman said that Suggs doing a heavy snatch was like “poetry in motion”, and there is one action shot in S&H that was a great illustration of pulling through on a snatch, as he was high up on his toes at the top of his pull.