It was a great service today for a great man. I estimate that there were over 300 people crammed into the church - standing room only - on a beautiful sunny day. The tributes were inspiring, encouraging and heartfelt. Ange’s eulogy was strong, passionate, loving and honest. She was great.
It was an exceptional event to be part of. I am just glad I had a chance to spend time with Charlie’s friends and family on this special day. And, I feel fortunate to have spent many hours, days and weeks working with Charlie over the past eight years as he worked tirelessly to share his knowledge with anyone who would listen. I will miss him.
I had wanted to fly to Toronto, gave it serious consideration, costing the idea. But I had my own family issues back home. As it turned out, last Saturday my dad (now in a nursing home) welcomed my appearance in his room as a long-lost Army buddy from 1938. If it wasn’t so serious it would have been pretty funny. He ended up being admitted to acute geriatric care in a general hospital where the tests found nothing untoward. I had decided not to make the trip to attend Charlie’s farewell. I wish I could have, but I might have had to turn straight around and return home before the service given my dad’s condition.
It’s great that so many attended the service, that Charlie’s athletes honoured his time with us. My heart goes out to them and especially Ange and young James. I’m still devastated at Charlie’s loss. It really does feel like something has torn a great rip into the fabric of my life, so I can’t even imagine how difficult it must be to have lost a husband and father for Ange and James respectively. Bless you both.
I saw a picture of James yesterday. I can’t get over how much he looks like Charlie. If there had been a picture of 5 kids, one could certainly pick out Charlie’s (and Ange’s !) kid.
I just stumbled upon Speed Trap about 2 months ago. Shortly after, found these forums. Such a short time but I already think the world of this guy. The wealth of knowledge he has left behind will continue to inspire athletes like myself for decades to come, I am sure… R.I.P. Charlie
I well remember reading that review. It was interesting that it was published by a magazine which around that time Charlie himself was providing articles for.
I can recall seeing Charlie in NYC in late Nov./early Dec. of 2001. It goes without saying that the information/knowledge conveyed was beyond impressive. To be sure, Charlie’s presentation was not a fancy, glossy production. It was mostly a hand written presentation done on an easel pad and pencil. Incidentally, I too, recall seeing the review of the SWIS conference.
Fast forward almost exactly one year later and after I initially called Charlie having met him the previous year, Brad D. put on the seminar with Charlie (with Derek also flown in to assist with the power point) down here to NC for a seminar. Myself and one of my former high school athletes picked up Charlie and Derek at the Greenville/Spartanburg, SC airport.
I have to believe that both Ange’s and Derek’s input now resulted in Charlie’s presenting of his seminar in a much more visually appealing manner.
Now in my mind, only someone who only responds primarily to an elaborate packaging and superficiality could not find a lot of extremely valuable in the first presentation.
Still, to reach many, if the entire presentation is very polished, the opportunity to reach more people will be much improved. I can recall Charlie asking me what I thought about the differences between the two talks. I told him I thought it was like a night and day transformation and it was. Now Charlie’s work was presented in a way that everyone present could likely get a better grasp for then when his concepts were hand written and the ordering was a bit more scattered/random. He also provided handouts which were a nice addition.
Now, due to the assistance of others who provided support along the way (Ange of course, Derek, Mike H. etc. I’m sure there are others-thanks to you all for supporting CF and his concepts-we all benefitted from this) his works will be even more long lasting and clearer to those who want to learn from the best.
I first became aware of Charlie’s approach from an article in the June 1990 issue of Iron Man Magazine written by Joseph Horrigan. Charlie has a framed copy of the article over his computer that Joe sent him (at least he did when I was there).
If anyone is interested, you can buy a copy of that issue from Home Gym Warehouse, which is Iron Man’s publishing/merchandising division:
If you’ve read Charlie’s other books or followed the forum for any time you won’t really learn anything new from the article, but if you’re a Charlie buff, it’s a great piece of historical memorabilia.
I watched the SWIS presentation after being familiar with Charlie’s work. But still the first thing that came to my mind was “such simple graphs, yet so much knowledge”. I wasn’t aware of this review until now. I am sure though it amazes all regular members here how some chose to focus on the cover…
That’s correct. Just click the link I posted and you’ll see. My copy is buried somewhere and I’ve been having trouble locating it, so I just ordered a new one.
There’s also a great article in there about Joe Horrigan’s soft tissue method, which is essentially ART before his former partner Mike Leahy trademarked the name. This is about 7 years before Kim Goss’s article in MM2K put ART on the industry map.
Ben was not a great technician when it came to cleans but according to Charlie it did not matter. He did them anyway and was strong at no matter what he did.
Merlene Ottey for example apparently did very little lifting at all at least to his knowledge.
