Defining Strength

Strong words. Powerful meaning. Universal theme.

 

It’s Bayu Purnomo’s mantra, his song, his calling, his story.

 

Struggles? We all have struggles. Purnomo, Collegiate’s assistant sports performance coach, has had his share. More than his share, actually. Each time, though, he’s forged forward, sometimes a teetering step at a time. Each time, he’s “found a way.”

 

Purnomo arrived at Collegiate just over two years ago following a circuitous journey that began in his hometown of Salem, Massachusetts, where he was a talented multi-sport athlete and well respected, team-first guy. His background in basketball, baseball, soccer and football taught him toughness, perseverance and resilience, attributes that would serve him well when life strewed unexpected obstacles in his path.

 

After graduation from Salem High, he enrolled in Colby-Sawyer College in New Hampshire as an athletic training major. His interest evolved into strength and conditioning, and after two years, he transferred to Lynchburg College, earned a B.S. in exercise physiology and began his job search in a very tight market.

 

After sending out résumés in Central Virginia and the Boston area, Purnomo landed at Gold’s Gym in Richmond where he remained for a year and a half before the Washington Nationals hired him in 2008 as an intern with their Group A affiliate (the Potomac Nationals) in Woodbridge, Virginia.

 

“I was lucky enough to go along for the ride with the Nationals’ first championship at any level,” he said. “A couple of guys I interacted with, Ross Detwiler and Craig Stammen, went on to the ‘Bigs’ and became regulars coming out of the bullpen. Got to work with Big Leaguers like Jordan Zimmerman who came through on rehab stints. He was one of those athletes who did what he needed to do. I mainly observed him work.”

 

Purnomo observes well. In fact, the power of observation is one of his fortes. Then as now, he studies athletes’ work habits, perceives their mindsets, reads their body language and files away each bit of information for future reference.

 

“Yes,” he said, “but (in 2008) not necessarily mindfully. Once you get through the experience and look back, you realize there was a lesson here, a lesson there. You don’t necessarily see it in the moment.”

 

Though fulfilling, the Nationals’ gig was far from easy. The hours were long and the bus trips exhausting. The shortest stint of games spanned 24 consecutive days, the longest 34.

 

“It’s like (the movie) Groundhog Day where the guy lives the same day over and over,” Purnomo said. “Get up. Meet guys at the weight room. Grab lunch. Go to the diamond until 10 or 11, even 12 depending on what time the game ends. Next day, do it all over again. That’s baseball.”

 

When his season-long internship ended, Purnomo returned to Richmond and worked at Athletes Complete Training Source (ACTS) in Midlothian.

 

He started his own personal training company, Bima Fitness LLC.

 

“In Hindu mythology,” he explained, “Bima is basically the equivalent of Hercules: half-man, half-god. Strength is his superpower. Bima is the son of Bayu, so it was kind of like my creation.”

 

The story of Bima came from Purnomo’s father Djoko, a native of Indonesia who met Joan Spousta when he worked on a cruise ship. Within a year, they married and eventually settled in Salem. Before long, Djoko became involved coaching youth soccer, a sport he had played growing up. Now in his 60’s, he remains involved. A severe knee injury he sustained while trying to side-volley a ball with a goalkeeper several years ago has hardly slowed him.

 

In Purnomo’s younger days, he played for his father and later assisted him on the sideline.

 

“That’s maybe where I got the coaching bug,” he said. “I wasn’t super vocal but would observe things and point them out. I was developing my coaching eye.”

 

Paying the bills remained a struggle as Purnomo sought a permanent, full-time position. He coached girls’ soccer (varsity assistant, head JV) at Midlothian High School. He substitute taught in Chesterfield County. He worked as a sales and marketing rep for ReliaCare Home Medical, picked up landscaping jobs whenever he could and served as a volunteer assistant strength and conditioning coach for women’s soccer at the University of Richmond. Twice, his financial straits forced him to apply for unemployment assistance. In 2013, during a particular difficult stint, he wrote and published a book entitled Feed Your Soul, Starve Your Ego: Your Path to Greatness. The writing process provided much-needed therapy.

 

In the late fall of 2014, Collegiate announced a search for an assistant sports performance coach. Purnomo interviewed. He’s been here ever since.

 

“Bayu has been an asset in so many ways,” said Karen Doxey, Collegiate’s director of athletics. “He’s extremely passionate about his life’s work. He’s a life-long learner, a hard worker and someone who truly cares about our kids.”

 

Get to know Purnomo and you see an intelligent, thoughtful, knowledgeable practitioner of his craft who views “faster, higher, stronger” in a universal context.

 

“I define strength as the ability to withstand or overcome resistance,” he said. “That mindset transcends the weight room. It doesn’t just have to be about moving as much weight as possible. It can be about withstanding curve balls in life.”

 

Purnomo’s Embrace-the-Struggle mantra became the slogan of Bima Fitness. Members of a suicide-prevention group at Salem High adopted it as their motto. They even commissioned bracelets inscribed with the words. Purnomo wears one on his right wrist.

 

“I've come to see life as a series of struggles: obstacles and challenges between where we begin and where we will end up,” Purnomo said. “In every struggle there’s a lesson to be learned and strength to be gained. To embrace the struggle is to embrace life.”

                  -- Weldon Bradshaw