Dan John - Never Let Go: A Philosophy of Lifting, Living and Learning

Never Let Go
A Philosophy of Lifting, Living and Learning

Dan John

Introduction:
Pavel Tsatsouline

Foreword:
Dave Draper

Preface:
Dan John

On Target Publications
Santa Cruz, California

Never Let Go
A Philosophy of Lifting, Living and Learning

by Dan John

Introduction: Pavel Tsatsouline

Foreword: Dave Draper

Cover photo: Mark Twight

Articles originally published by Testosterone Muscle

Copyright 2009, Daniel Arthur John
Print book: ISBN-13: 978-1-931046-38-1
First ebook edition: 2011

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without written permission from the author or publisher, with the exception of the inclusions of brief quotations in articles or reviews.

On Target Publications
P. O. Box 1335
Aptos, CA 95001 USA
(888) 466-9185
www.otpbooks.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
John, Dan.
Never let go : a philosophy of lifting, living and learning / Dan John ; introduction, Pavel Tsatsouline ; foreword, Dave Draper.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-931046-38-1 (pbk.)
1. Weight lifting. 2. Weight training. 3. Bodybuilding. 4. Physical education and training. I. Title.
GV546.3.J64 2009
613.71301--dc22
2009012888

To all my mentors past, present and future

To Tiffini,
who believed in my dreams and became them

Contents

Introduction

by Pavel Tsatsouline

Any scientist who cant explain to an eight-year-old what he is doing is a charlatan.
Kurt Vonnegut could have said the same about strength coaches and bodybuilding writers.

My publisher, John Du Cane, once told me one chooses Latin words to impress, not to communicate. A great number of strength authors do just that, liberally sprinkling their books pardon me, opera, the plural of opus, Latin for work with the likes of transverse plane and transversus abdominis.

Not Dan John. Having reached the deepest understanding of his subject, this coach extraordinaire has no need to impress, only the desire to teach. A Fulbright Scholar with advanced degrees in history and religious education, he could have written his books entirely in Latin, yet he chooses to communicate with strong and simple Anglo-Saxon words of old England.

Like his language, Dans method is simple. Complexity on one level implies simplicity on another. There is even a scientific term, simplexity, which refers to the emergence of simple rules from underlying disorder and complexity.

Johns deceptively simple training plans cover a great many fitness attributes, safely and quickly, and are always a hit with athletes. I am writing this introduction on a plane on my way back from a Russian Kettlebell course (RKC) taught to a SEAL team. Using kettlebells no heavier than fifty-three pounds, in five minutes we safely smoked a group of extremely conditioned and tough men while simultaneously developing their hip flexibility, spine stability and breathing skills... with one of Dans simple workouts.

John has made an art form out of collecting the highest interest on the strength training his athletes put in the bank. His sixteen-year-old girls who compete in track can deadlift 300 pounds any time without touching anything heavier than 150 in training. Boys who train with a measly 35-100 pounds in Dans patented goblet squat can uncork 400 in the back squat any time they feel like maxing.

The pursuit of the quality Gray Cook calls durability stands out in Dan Johns training philosophy. He throws farther in his fifties than he ever has and routinely beats athletes with huge benches and zits. He and his athletes keep getting stronger without getting injured. If this does not personify coaching wisdom, I dont know what does.

The author of this book is open-minded in the best sense of that word. The majority of strength coaches and athletes fall into two categories. The first doggedly stick to the old training methods. The second fall for every new fad. Predictably, the former have limited success and the latter have only soreness to show for their efforts. Dan John has found the happy medium, that sweet spot between continuity and evolution. The art of progress, wrote Alfred North Whitehead, is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order. Dan has been doing exactly that, advancing the cutting edge without losing his roots.

When it comes to teaching strength, Dan John has no superiors and only a handful of equals such as Marty Gallagher or Arkady Vorobyev. I have learned a great deal from Dan over the years Ive known him, and have become a better athlete and coach for it. I strongly encourage you to read Never Let Go to do the same.

~ Pavel Tsatsouline
Author, Enter the Kettlebell

Foreword

by Dave Draper

Dan John can toss metal, hoist rocks, drag sleds, launch a discus and clean and jerk loaded Olympic bars with the biggest and best of strongmen. Give him a kettlebell and hell make it dance; give him a hammer and hell make it sing. With one hand, hell send a shot put whistling through the air into the next county. Hes a heavy-weight composer; hes a worldwide record-holder who never lets go.

Extraordinary power, marvelous skill and masterful technique have been earned through years of training and practice and scrutiny, failure and success. The road Dan traveled is long, the track circuitous and the field weedy and potholed. No other trek would do. A man doesnt get from here to there, if there is somewhere, by taking a shortcut, the easy way, a limo or a mule.

So what, the guy is super-persistent, disciplined, gutsy and powerful? Take away the aspirin, youve got another headache. Not exactly! Ive just begun to list Dan Johns attributes.

Get this: Hes intelligent, sharp and creative. He teaches, he coaches, he writes and he speaks. He has Masters degrees in history and religious education, and studied in Universities in Cairo and Haifa, as well as in good ole America. His day job was Head Strength and Track and Field Coach at Juan Diego Catholic High School in Utah.

How does one so devoted to education spare the time to lift, tug and press? The same way one who loves to lift and tug finds time to learn. He has blended the two as one. This brings me to the point of my comments: Dan craves knowledge and understanding, and is compelled to pass along what he discovers. Knowing is not enough; applying what he knows helps; instructing makes him complete.

A generous servant, a giver of gifts, his words come alive with experience and fact for the reader, the hungry student, the one bound to learn. Dan doesnt design a paint-by-number and help you pick out the colors. He draws a picture and invites you, encourages you, inspires you to become a part of it.

Hes done more research in the physics and mechanics of hefting and heaving, and knows clearly what makes man a more efficient, enduring and forceful machine. Hes applied the knowledge to himself, observed it in his colleagues, shared it with competitors and fine-tuned the learning for his subsequent applications. Dans wrapped, unwrapped and rewrapped knowledge and fact and theory and invention until theyre his without doubt or missing parts.

Me? Id rather listen to the ocean than study a thing. Im nowhere near lazy, but I want to get down to doing lifting and living and learning and growing. Dan takes you to those places in a marvelous journey of words and word pictures and unfolding truths and bare facts. Further, comprehensive methodology is barren without philosophy and purpose. These, too, are colorfully, critically woven into the raw materials of power and might.