Terminal City Training Vancouver Personal Trainer Strength & Conditioning

My Visit to the Semiahmoo Weightlifting Club.
http://semiweightlifting.com
coach: Dieter Stamm


On August 25th I made the very long bus trip to South Surrey/White Rock to visit Coach Dieter Stamm at his Semiahmoo Weightlifting Club. Apart from possessing an irrepressible sense of humour and play, Coach Stamm's other standout quality is that he has been coaching weightlifting for longer than I have been alive. He founded the Semi club in 1970. Coach Stamm has committed much of his time and considerable energy to recruiting and developing young athletes for a career in weighlifting, aided by his former position as chemistry teacher at Semiahmoo Secondary School, where his club is still based. He has had and continues to have success both in developing character and in getting athletes ready for major international competitions. I was privileged to train with one of his athletes who is about to leave, in three weeks, for both the World Championships and the Commonwealth Games.

I originally had the pleasure of meeting Coach Stamm during the National Coaching Certification Program's “Club Coach” course put on by B.C. Weightlifting. He was a facilitator, I was a participant. As I missed an afternoon of the course we arranged for me to visit his club to do a make-up session. I won't bore you with the details of the drills he put me through but I will mention that he shared stories about chatting and observing many of the world's stand-out lifters and figures including Alexeyeev, Starr, Rigert, Hoffman and others. As a lover of sport history and tradition as much as the training I had an awesome time!

I feel compelled to mention the atmosphere of the gym. There were only two others training besides myself, and the atmosphere was focused but casual and friendly. Alot of assistance exercises were the order of the day: clean high pulls, jerks behind the neck, jerks from the rack, presses, back squats. I loved the material atmosphere of the gym, by which I mean that the gym is old, full of aging bumper plates, and imbued with character. Some of the equipment was used in the World Championships of 2003. I hope that the photos can do it some justice.

If you are in the South Surrey/ White Rock area or just feel like making the trip I strongly recommend getting in touch with Coach Stamm and paying the Semiahmoo Weightlifting Club a visit.