By Tien-Shun Lee
Sitting in the basement of Lost Battalion Hall, weightlifting coach Artie Drechsler said he has always been intrigued by strength. One of his favorite comic book characters as a child was the Hulk, said the coach as he watched one of his trainees lift 220 pounds.
Now 52, Drechsler has dedicated his life to weight lifting. Currently he trains and coaches at Lost Battalion Hall, the Rego Park community center where four Olympic team weightlifters, several world champions, more than 20 national champions and more than 100 state and local champions have trained.
The center's weightlifting program was established in 1961 by weightlifter Morris Weissbrot, who coached several world champions, including Drechsler.
“I was always impressed that anyone can lift heavy weights if they train for it,” Drechsler said. “Everyone can win because it's a test of what you can do. It's that battle against yourself to improve that excites you because you see yourself improving.”
As a sophomore at Bayside High School, Drechsler lifted weights to train for football. His future was forever altered when he saw a flier for a weightlifting competition and remarked offhand that he thought he would be able to do OK in it.
A senior standing next to Drechsler did not believe that he could lift the amount he said he could, and he challenged him to prove it.
When the student saw that Drechsler was not lying, he was impressed and decided to take him down to Lost Battalion Hall at 93-29 Queens Blvd., where he introduced him to coach Weissbrot.
“It changed my life,” Drechsler said. “I quit football immediately and devoted my full effort to weightlifting. I just fell in love with it and that's been it.”
Drechsler held two junior world records for weightlifting when he was 19 for doing a “press” lift of 300 pounds and for lifting a series of three weights that totaled 990 pounds. At around the same time, he began volunteering as a coach for other weightlifters.
Like golf, weightlifting is a sport in which people become obsessed with perfecting their technique, Drechsler said. One of the greatest things about the sport is the moment of weightlessness before you catch a barbell after you have thrown it up, he said.
“When you do it just right, the bar pulls you up. You get the feeling that you've just done your best lift and it was easy,” he said.
The author of a comprehensive, 576-page book on weightlifting entitled “The Weightlifting Encyclopedia,” Drechsler is on the board of directors for USA Weightlifting, the organization that governs the rules of the sport, and has refereed regional, national and world weightlifting competitions as an International Category One referee.
In the 1970s, Drechsler was offered a job as a full-time weightlifting coach at Lost Battalion Hall, but he turned it down because he did not want to be disqualified for amateur competitions by becoming a weight training professional. To this day, he has never made a dime from coaching, but he continues to do it because he loves the sport, he said.
“People helped me when I was younger and did it for the love of the sport,” he said.
Parents like the sport of weightlifting not only because it helps build self-esteem when youngsters see themselves getting stronger and more fit, but also because there are stringent drug-testing rules for anyone who wants to compete in the sport, Drechsler said.
Drechsler coaches about 60 weightlifters at Lost Battalion Hall on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., and on Saturdays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The group's top lifter of the moment is Ed Herger, who placed third on May 18 in the national weightlifting championship competition in Chattanooga, Tenn.
If Herger makes the 2004 Olympic team, he will be the fifth Olympic weightlifter to emerge from Lost Battalion Hall, which is run by the city Department of Parks and Recreation.
Other Olympic weightlifters who trained at the center are Jerry Hannan and James Curry, who were on the 1980 team; Stan Valley, who was on the 1972 and 1976 teams; and Leston Sprauve, who was on the 1968 team.
“We have all different levels down here,” said Drechsler, after pointing out a relative beginner training for technique by lifting a stick. “The only thing I require to train with me is that they have to be serious and not miss a workout.”
Reach reporter Tien-Shun Lee by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com, or call 718-229-0300, ext. 155.
