Philippe Geoffrion
Level 7 Valued Member
@John Grahill and @Pavel Macek You are correct. The Oldtime Strongmen referred to swinging a dumbell from the ground to overhead, with a locked out arm, the One Hand Swing, but Goerners record of 48 reps in succession with a 50kg dumbell stands.
It says in succession. Not sure if it is ballistic or from a dead stop:
"As to REPETITION one-arm snatches, Alexander Aberg, a Russian heavyweight wrestler and weightlifter who was a foster-brother of Lurich, snatched a barbell of 41 kg (90.38 lbs.) 53 times in succession and 49.5 kg. (109.12 lbs.) 30 times. For comparison with these lifts there is Hermann Goerner’s One Hand SWING of a dumbell weighing 50 kg. (110.23 lbs.), 48 times in succession. And the poundage possible in a Swing is slightly LESS than that in a Snatch."
"The greatest one-hand swing performer on record was, as was previously indicated, the German heavyweight, Hermann Goerner. While still an amateur lifter, Goerner, in 1920, at a bodyweight of 220 ½ pounds, swung a solid lead dumbbell equal in poundage to his own bodyweight (100 kilos). This, taking into account his weight/height (220.5 – 73.0, or 3.021) and the year (1920) he made his lift, gives him the exceedingly high rating of 87.9%. This lift of Goerner’s, incidentally, rests on the published statement of Tromp van Diggelen, as it is not listed in Edgar Mueller’s biography, “Goerner the Mighty”. The various other swing lifts by Goerner therein recounted, however, indicate conclusively that he was capable of a single dumbbell swing of a least 100 kilos, possibly more."
-David Willoughby-
I do not know if the dumbell was unevenly loaded, but I would assume so as was the style of the day, and allows for the most weight.
Is there a difference also in technique between the swing and snatch? As in the swing the dumbbell takes an arch like trajectory whereas the snatch is a more vertical path? If so, I think that makes the swing a bit more impressive. Lots of cool information here btw. I always love hearing about the old timers.