Courtesy Photo | Sgt. Quentin Quinn-Tanner, an early warning system operator with 69th Air Defense...... read more read more
FORT HOOD, Texas – Even though powerlifting is a three event sport that includes squatting, bench-pressing and deadlifting, it requires discipline and attention to detail, much like training in the military.
It is no surprise that Soldiers of 69th Air Defense Artillery Brigade joined the Fort Hood powerlifting team and excelled in their own right.
First Lt. Jeffrey Thompson, a battalion tactical director with 1st Battalion, 44th ADA Regiment and a native of St. Petersburg, Florida, has been on the team on and off since 2007.
While in Kuwait with 1st Bn., 44th ADA Regt. last year, he worked out in the same area as Sgt. Quentin Quinn-Tanner, an early warning system operator from San Diego, California, who got interested in the sport by watching Thompson and joined the powerlifting team last November.
Capt. Ann Hershey, a logistics officer from Akron, Ohio, and Spc. Dante Dickson, an automated logistics specialist from Paterson, New Jersey, both with 1st Bn., 62nd ADA Regt., joined the team in September 2014.
All the Soldiers have different ranks, different military occupational specialties and are different people, but powerlifting brought them together and taught them more than just how to get a good work out, though it did that too.
“There is something satisfying about powerlifting,” Hershey explained. “You just feel so accomplished when you lift something that heavy.”
With perfectly polished nails and a petite, feminine physique, Hershey is not what a stereotypical powerlifter is thought to look like.
She said it is a common misconception that women who powerlift are huge.
“You don’t have to be huge … to be good at powerlifting,” said Hershey.
According to Dickson, it is not all about winning in powerlifting.
“As long as you improve, you’re still winning,” he explained.
Quinn-Tanner shares a similar view as Dickson.
“It’s less of competing with other people and more of competing with myself now trying to see what limits I can take myself to,” he said.
While the Soldiers from 69th ADA Bde. said learning and growing is a way of winning, they still win competitions, showing that their hard work pays off.
Thompson has been named the U.S.A. Powerlifting (USAPL) Military National Championship’s “Most Outstanding Lifter” twice, has held state records in powerlifting and placed 6th in the National Championship, he said.
For his personal record, he said he recently deadlifted 700 pounds, benched 500 pounds and is close to squatting 700 pounds.
Hershey has taken second and third place in her weight class, she said.
At his first competition, Quinn-Tanner earned a first place medal in his weight class.
Dickson has placed second in his weight class and set a state record for Texas in the deadlift event at the 2014 USAPL Longhorn Open in Austin, Texas.
He was the last lifter in his weight class and said he thought to himself that he could not miss the lift as the last person because everyone was watching him.
“If I get it off the ground, I can get it up,” he recalled. “I’d rather pass out than miss that lift.”
Dickson deadlifted 677.75 pounds.
“It felt pretty good,” he said. “It was a big rush of excitement because it was a personal best on that lift, it was a state record, and it was my first meet, so I felt really accomplished.”
“An adrenaline rush” is how all of the 69th ADA Bde. powerlifters described the feeling of lifting.
“Going in a meet, going up to the squat rack … your heart’s racing and you’re just so amped up because there’s so much adrenaline until you get into the lifts,” Hershey explained.
Thompson said some powerlifters are very calm and some are very aggressive before a competition, but he considers himself a happy medium.
A powerlifter’s attitude before lifting depends on his or her mindset, he said.
“When you have that confidence, you get that excitement,” he said.
For Thompson, he said he chalks his hands and prepares himself by listening to songs through his headphones before he steps onto the platform where his lifts are judged by three referees. The referees can either give a white light, indicating it was a good lift, or a red light, meaning the lift did not meet the standard. As long as a powerlifter gets two white lights, he or she successfully completed that lift.
“As soon as they say ‘bar is ready,’ that’s when you’re allowed onto the platform,” Thompson explained. “I throw my heads phones, take a deep breath, grab the bar, and once I get up under the weight, I just take a deep breath, tighten everything in my body and just go.”
The team members credit a lot of their success to their coach and the training they conduct.
“To be able to beat your own records lets you know that you’re training right and doing the right things in order to accomplish those goals,” Quinn-Tanner said.
The group focuses on every aspect of lifting and never skimp on even the smallest things.
“When we train, we do everything the way it’s supposed to be in competition,” said Dickson. “Same as the military. You train as you fight.”
A powerlifter has to be disciplined to be safe, according to Thompson.
“It’s a lot of small technical aspects of it that might seem simple to grasp, but a lot of people don’t understand,” he explained. “If you don’t listen to the coaches and don’t have discipline, you can get hurt.”
In addition to discipline, there is also a lot of work “behind the scenes” that helps powerlifters improve.
“You don’t just train on those three lifts,” said Hershey, adding that there are other lifts that powerlifters do to improve technique and overall strength.
The team trains together four to five times a week in the back corner of Burba Gym, here.
Through training and competitions, the entire team has gotten very close.
Thompson described the team as an extended family, which is a sentiment shared by the other powerlifters in the brigade.
When Hershey was promoted to captain last year, the coach of the powerlifting team promoted her and Thompson read her the Oath of Office. Meanwhile, many of the Soldiers on the team attended.
"It’s nice to have the team environment, but also the experience,” Hershey said. “Our coach has been powerlifting for over 40 years; you’re not going to get experience like that anywhere else around here.”
The individuals on the team all serve a purpose, said Quinn-Tanner.
“It doesn’t matter where you come from, it’s what you bring to the team,” Quinn-Tanner said. “Everybody has something unique that they bring and we try to incorporate that into making the whole team better.”
The team will continue to train together and prepare for its next competition.
Members of the team are slated to attend Raw Nationals in Pennsylvania in October and the majority of the team will compete in the Longhorn Open in Austin, Texas, in November.
| Date Taken: | 08.03.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 08.18.2015 17:13 |
| Story ID: | 173527 |
| Location: | FORT HOOD, TEXAS, US |
| Hometown: | AKRON, OHIO, US |
| Hometown: | PATERSON, NEW JERSEY, US |
| Hometown: | SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Hometown: | ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA, US |
| Web Views: | 182 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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