Doc from AdventureFit Travel had the amazing opportunity to travel to New Zealand, as part of the Nomadic New Zealand Trip with his crew.
As part of the adventure, the team got to meet up with two time Olympian and three time Commonwealth Games Athlete Richie Patterson.
Doc sits down with the big man and gives us an insight into the epic trip!
Enjoy!
AdventureFit Travel & Richie Patterson
2 Minutes with 2 x Olympian – Richie Patterson
Functional Strength Workshop Day 1
So here we were, 11 CrossFitters from different boxes all Australia, some weightlifters, some not, some experienced, some not, down in the home of 2 x Olympian, 3 x Commonwealth weightlifterlifter (one gold medal, one bronze) Richie Patterson. As I was in the planning of the trip I was looking to find the best athletes available to train with so I enquired with the NZ Weightlifting Association and they pointed me in the direction of Richie. And how thankful we were that they did. Richie and his new wife Pip run an amazing box/weightlifting club, Functional Strength NZ. A CrossFit box and weightlifting club that holds NZ records through all age bracket and gender. Young and old, if you wanna be the best in New Zealand you train here.
The start of the workshop started with Richie explaining himself, his gym and introducing us to Pip. Within a few minutes he actually gave us the thrill of holding and passing around his gold medal. I won’t name names but there was an accusation of some AdventureFitters rubbing Richie’s gold on their body to try to lather themselves in some Richie Patterson goodness. It’s not every day you find yourself in the presence of someone who has not only represented his country on the world stage but represented their country on the world stage and won! We were very lucky little lifters.
So as all good lifting workshops do we begun with the snatch. A good hour of whiteboard, videos and theory, or as Richie likes to call them tangents, behind the world’s fastest lift before we hit out and got moving. Using a combination of techniques discovered through his early time following German training techniques, his move to Bulgarian training, his time in Finland and also techniques he had discovered along the way, Richie had us using techniques some of us had truly never heard of before. It’s really an awesome feeling when you have that light bulb moment and something clicks within you and then the snatch somehow feels easy. It feels like it was meant to feel. I think we all had this feeling at one point today.
So the mid way point of the day we got to watch Pip lift. Pip finished 6th this year in her first ever Commonwealth Games. Richie described their relationship in a very simple way. Richie runs the show in the gym and Pip runs the show at home. So, basically Pip’s the boss. But today it was lifting. The guys were in awe of someone who moves as well as Pip. You can definitely tell the difference between someone who weightlifts and someone who is a weightlifter. Pip is a weightlifter. She never grips the bar and hits a sloppy lift. She moves with intent. It was a great little lifting session to watch.
After watching Pip throw down for a while and a bit more theory we started to load up the bars and hit some snatches ourselves. The deal was, we were allowed to go reasonably heavy but we had to limit ourselves to lifts that we could hit perfectly and then we had to hit 5 of them. We only had 12 attempts for this. So off we went. One at a time with Richie’s watchful eyes on us we lifted. For some of us it enhanced our lifting, some not so much. But all in all it was an awesome experience. AdventureFitter Elise hit the first 5 perfect snatches, followed up by Becc with another perfect 5. Wilbur and Doc had their chances after 4 straight perfect snatches but crumbled horribly under the pressure of the watchful eyes.
After our lifting session it was back to the hotel for a quick bit of R’n’R for the gang. Well deserved. Once we had regained a bit of energy we headed down to Ponsonby Rd to a quality Mexican restaurant for some non paleo (we are on holiday) tortilla’d goodness.
So off to bed like excited little children we were in order to be up early for day 2 of our epic workshop with Richie Patterson.
AdventureFit Travel & Richie Patterson – Functional Strength Workshop Day 2
So after another big breakfast at the hotel we were up, at it and raring to get at some more weightlifting goodness at the hands of the man himself. When we arrived we were assured that Richie had gotten all of his tangents out of the way the day before. I don’t think he knew but that’s kinda what we were getting the most out of. Don’t get me wrong, his actionable cues and progressions for the barbell stuff was all time but it was his story of backstage tactics and national events, his impersonations of German weightlifting coaches and his left of field stories that kept us the most intrigued.
So with some more work on the jerk, a little theory and lunch we came back in to a pretty awesome sight. We got to watch the guys train for a good half an hour. Pip, Cam (junior Olympian and national junior record holder), Cody (Commonwealth Games athlete) and even Richie himself were going through a standard session and commentating on their lifts as they go. Truly inspriring to see how these guys address the barbell every time with such purpose. They are explosive too! The speed with which they hit their positions and through the middle was a sight to behold.
Throughout the session Cam and Cody were having a little competition. The deal was Cam had to jerk more than Cody could clean for the day and Richie who got on board late had to power clean more than their weights. The stakes were high. For Cody and Cam, the loser had to buy the other a meal from their favourtite burger joint and for Richie, if he beat the boys they had to mow his lawns. Richie had a chance to win it with his last clean but 6 weeks off basically post Comm Games meant that his legs wouldn’t allow him to power clean the weight. The weight was 151kg’s. It was a pretty impressive spectacle.
Then it was our time to lift. We warmed up for the clean and jerk and then started loading some weight onto the bar. Leonie, Lynda, Becc and Elise were all moving like the stars that they are. They moved pretty well before the workshop but a few little adjustments Richie threw their way were really starting to get them nailing the lifts. Richie was going to be a bit more lenient with going heavy today. And we were pumped! We only had 10-12 minutes but if we were moving well Richie was ok if we wanted to have a crack at setting a new 1RM. Some of us were successful, some not but the environment was pretty electric either way. The highlight was probably Hank Scorpio (CF Westgate owner Damien Hennigan) getting challenged by Richie after a couple of fails.
“Put a couple more kilo’s on the bar and I’ll give you a t-shirt” was the deal I believe. Damo’s previous 1RM was 120 kg’s but with Richies eyes on him and the collective might of AdventureFit behind him Damo was sure to make light work of that. As Damo addressed the bar it all went quiet, hushed in anticipation. Richie, the AdventureFitters and even Pip had come over to cheer him on. As the bar came up all the things Richie had been teaching us began to shine through. And Hank found himself standing up 126kgs. But it wasn’t over. He had to jerk it. One big breath in and BAMN! The weight was overhead. Then the crowd went wild.
Sad to leave such a great establishment like Functional Strength HQ. It’s a place we all felt at home at after 2 short days. Richie and Pip were awesome and the facility is first class. But as the saying goes, all good things must end. So we packed up shop and said our goodbyes and headed off to Waitomo and our beautiful accommodation down there.
As far as Richie Patteron and Functional Strength goes we couldn’t recommend it more highly.
Doc.
* This article was taken from AdventureFit Travel’s day 2 and 3 blog posts from their Nomadic New Zealand tour. For more information on these tours visit www.adventurefittravel.com.
