Touch in action

Touch’s best lifts include, but are no where near limited to:

• Snatch – 387.5 lb (175.8 kg)

• Clean and press – 505.5 lb (229.3 kg)

• Clean and jerk – 505.5 lb (229.3 kg)

# Bench Press 560

# Squat 820

# Deadlift 785 for 2 reps

# Power Clean 501.5

# Front Squat 650

# Behind neck press 405 for 2 reps

# Incline press 485

He was the first American to clean and jerk 500+ lbs, in Detroit in 1967, and later became the first American to press this same weight. Touch’s training weights on assistance exercises were well beyond what practically anyone else in the US was doing at the time, including other talented SHW’s like Joe Dube (the last American to take a gold in weightlifting, which he did at the worlds in 1969). This allowed Touch to manhandle weights like no other, and was possibly the reason why he was frequently injured. However, this in no way takes away from his performance.

To get an idea of this man’s raw power, he was once doing shrugs with more than 700lbs on the bar, and on the third rep shrugged it so hard the bar bent enough that it was completely unusable. The bar is now located in the York Barbell Museum.

York Barbell Museum, York PA

Touch’s retirement from weightlifting was bittersweet, as he finally had the resources to compete against Redding and Alexeev, and was eagerly awaiting their meeting in Munich in 1972. Unfortunately, he bombed at that competion, and shortly thereafter, entered the world of Street Rock and Roll playing guitar in Head. This is, perhaps, a sad testimony to the lack of respect that many lifters get in comparison to other athletes here in the US.