I don't know what to highlight about the below video: the fact that he is doing the lifts that I am sure make you a better athlete than any other lift (Squat, Snatch, and Clean&Jerk), or the fact that he is the Strongest American Teenager ever. I think I will go with the second, because anyone that has spent time with me in the weightroom knows how important I think the above mentioned lifts are to power/strength/speed athletes.
Imagine the hard work that this young man has put into this interest of his. I will not say that "anyone can do this", because that would be stupid; but there is no way he would have a 500+# clean&jerk (!!!) or a 440# snatch (!!!x10). The fact that he achieved these numbers means that he, most likely, had a good amount of coaching, but did a lot of work independently; ate a lot, but ate very well; did uncommon things, but did them uncommonly well; sacrificed "fun-time" for "work-time", but tell me he hasn't created his own fun in the process; and experienced a bunch of pain, but loved every minute of it. Never talked to the guy, but I bet he has bucket-loads of passion. Passion will take you a long way.
Remember the Nike commercial post from a couple of weeks ago? If so, great! If not, check in more often. Anyway, that commercial had the quote"Passion has a funny way of trumping logic." The logic before young Mr. Mendes was that the Americans could not have strong young weightlifters; the laughing stock of world Olympic Lifting--fodder of jokes for Germans, Chinese, and Bulgarians. This young man's passion has proven their "logic" wrong.
I hope, hope, hope you can draw a correlation from this young man's situation to that of your own. What do you think you have to do to reach levels that seem out of reach, but are humanly obtainable?
Nack
P.S., I might be coming off as somewhat of a music snob, but sorry again for the music in the video. I love cheesy 80s music, but come on! Here? Really?!?
