I just obtained a copy of Wrestling Physical Conditioning Encyclopedia by John Jesse. Paddy Mortimer was gracious enough to send it to me in exchange for an East German book that I have that is out is out of print. This book is awesome, full of great practical information. You are probably asking who is John Jesse? John Jesse was an expert on strength training, injury prevention and rehabilitation from Southern California. He went to USC, where he was a contemporary of Peyton Jordan. I think that he worked with Gene Logan of Logan and McKinney Serape Effect fame. I was first exposed to his ideas in an article my high school football coach gave me an article he wrote in 1964. Over the next sixteen years I read everything he wrote that I could get my hands on. Sometime in the late 1970’s, the exact year escapes me, we shared the podium at The Runners World Sponsored National Running Week Symposium. We spoke on Strength Training for Runners. What an honor to share the podium with him. He passed away sometime in the 1980’s and frankly I lost track of his work until the late 90’s when I was going through my library and some files and found a gold mine of his material. I did not realize how much of an influence his ideas had on me. He was preaching tri-plane work in the late 1940’s. Big emphasis on rotary work, a surprise to the gurus of today who think invented rotary work. His training made extensive use of dumbbells, swing bells and body weight movements in addition to traditional lifting movements. If you can obtain any of his books they are well worth reading. His ideas are very contemporary; he was a man ahead of his time. The older I get and the more I coach the more I realize that we are all traveling paths blazed by pioneers like John Jesse. It is almost trite to say that we stand on the shoulders of giants. His work was more the norm rather than the exception in his day. Sound methodology based on good pedagogy grounded in science. We need more John Jesse’s today.
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