USAWA

by Al Myers

Last week I was fortunate to be in Las Vegas on business, so I took a little extra time to go visit with John Broz, owner of Average Broz Gym and venue site of the 2012 USAWA National Championships next summer.  For those of you that have been to Las Vegas, you are fully aware of the “hustle and bustle” of activity that goes on “around the clock” in Vegas.  But when I got to John’s Gym several blocks south of the strip, it was in a very peaceful neighborhood.  His Gym is located very close to the airport and is very easy to get to.   I am still in the process of finding a host hotel close by, of which details will be released later when this decision has been made.

I was completely overwhelmed by Average Broz Gym.  It caters pretty exclusively to Olympic Weightlifters, and has numerous platforms with full weight sets for each.  John has a major investment in bars and weights, and he has only the BEST STUFF – Eleiko bars and Eleiko bumpers.  It will be BY FAR some of the best equipment we have ever lifted on in any of our National Meets.  John is a very seasoned Olympic Lifter and Coach.  I greatly enjoyed our conversation together – I could have visited with him all day long but he had coaching responsibilities to attend to so I didn’t want to take too much of his time.  It didn’t take me long to realize that this venue will be the PERFECT SPOT to celebrate our 25th USAWA National Championships!

During our conversation we found that we knew several people in common.  The “brotherhood of weightlifters” is truly a small fraternity and there are alot of links between individuals.  John is originally from Cleveland.  He grew up lifting weights coached by the well-known allrounder and weightlifter John Schubert.  John had several stories of his experiences with John Schubert and it was obvious to me that John had been influenced quite a bit by him.  John was just recently in Cleveland following John Schubert’s death, and was involved in liquidating Schubert’s lifting equipment.  He plans to set up a display in his gym featuring some of John Schubert’s gym equipment.  So you can tell John is familiar with All Round Weightlifting and has even done several of the All Round Lifts in the past himself!  When I told him the lifts we would be doing, he knew exactly what I was talking about. 

I am very excited and looking forward to this meet.  It will be the first time the USAWA has ever promoted a meet in Las Vegas.  Start making plans now to attend because this is an All-Round meet you will not want to miss out on!