Apologies to you all for the long delay on the post. There’s a lot going on for us here at Fusion and for our team. Coaching is my number one priority so unfortunately I have not been able to sit down and properly write down a post. However my goal is to hopefully write a post ever other week, in the mean time make sure to subscribe to our mailing to list and never miss a post.
Today we have a video critique on Dean Otsuka (62kg) who’s been dealing with some nagging shoulder issues. Below we’ll go over the main points but make sure to watch the video for specific details. In the critique, we’ll discuss some of the issues we see, how it’s contributing to his shoulder issue, and go over few movements that’ll help correct his positioning.
Positioning
We all know the important of positioning in the great sport of Olympic weightlifting. Sadly this seems to often be overlooked for the jerk.
The dip is like the first pull, if your dip is off, it will cause a domino effect- dip off= drive off= overhead position off. In this case the dip caused Dean to shift forward during the drive. This potentially could have been due to an anticipation of the drive phase, however as we went on with training we found it was due to the speed of the dip. Slowing down the descent to focus on a nice straight dip with the heels flat will more than likely place you in a much stronger and powerful position to drive up.
The rebuttal for many is that XYZ elite weightlifter does a fast dip so you should too. The thing is, these weightlifters nailed down the position (through years and years of training) and are probably far more athletic than you. Sorry to be blunt but these weightlifters are the elite of the elite= the very small percent of the population. Therefore if you’re shifting in your drive/dip phase then it maybe best to re-work your position. This more than likely means slowing down the mechanics to ensure you’re doing it properly. Once you’ve built better awareness and the position is engrained then by all means speed it up if you feel necessary.
My biggest advice I can give any athlete is to never think you’re above the basics. I believe this is one the biggest issues I see with people entering the sport of weightlifting. In my experience, the athletes that are willing to learn are the ones that go the furtherest regardless of sport. Weightlifters like Wil Torres (94k) from Colombia who came all the way from his home country to train with us, is the prime example of elite weightlifters that don’t let egos get in the way of their training.
It also has to be mentioned that people forget these elite weightlifters are usually hand picked for their specific sport, “survived” through the training process- meaning many are weeded out due to injury, lack of production, strength decline etc…, and train on a full time basis = thousands and thousands of reps…just to name a few differences.
Enough with the rant…let’s jump into exercise that will help with this issue 🙂
Fixes
To help with the dip, we’ve found a concentrated block where the weightlifter focuses on the dip with simple exercises such as the ones below to be helpful:
Jerk dips (Jerk Dip Squats)
How to:
This is where you’re in the rack position and just dip. Depending on the lifter we’ll have them do a tempo dip with a pause for reps or just a pause.
Programming:
We typically add this in after squats regardless if it’s front or back for about x3-6 sets of 3
+reps. The load should be gradual and can top out at 120% of your front squat. This really varies on the lifter, I would focus on position and control first. If the lifter is moving with too much ease then increase the weight or change the tempo, if the lifter is struggling to stay in position then drop it…simple 🙂
Split Jerk Pause in Dip
How to:
Pretty self explanatory, pause in the dip for a few second then drive and split 🙂 Just make sure that you PAUSE and hold, don’t do one of those 3 second counts that actually is 1 second.
Programming:
If the weightlifter is consistently hitting the dip correctly during a regular jerk, then we’ll more than likely do this every time they jerk. The weight is subjective to the lifter, just as we stated above, go based on how the weightlifter looks and then adjust accordingly. Remember to focus on a straight dip and drive, don’t mistake a successful lift with good position.
Head Through
I’m not a big fan of the “head through” cue. Obviously this will be dependent on each weightlifter but generally speaking I find that this cue is often over exaggerated by the weightlifter, potentially causing a torso lean.
The torso lean while seemingly harmless can lead to a shoulder issue over time. Think about it, if you’re training the jerk x4+ sessions a week this total accumulation of torque on the shoulder will eventually catch up. To add to this if you’re doing this in the jerk, it’s more than likely that you’re having the same issue with the snatch.
In place of the cue “head through”, we like to say “chin down” or “tuck in your chin”. We’ve found that this cue works a lot better for most weightlifters, allowing the lifter to focus on a straight torso in the catch while still having a solid overhead position.
Fix the Torso Forward
An exercise we really like to use is:
Split Jerk with Re-bend
The split jerk with a re-bend is a great exercise to force the weightlifter into a straight torso and remind them to keep a soft back knee.
How to:
Do the typical split but now pause and then re-bend the back knee. If the lifter has a torso lean or a straight back knee, they’ll have to reposition themselves and it’ll be a quick feedback for the new lifters that are without a weightlifting coach.
Programming:
This really varies from lifter to lifter, but I would suggest against the weightlifter to fully focus on this lift as their split jerk work. We generally program them for a concentrated block of around 30% of their jerk work during the week. The rationale is that the lifter has to go significantly lighter in this lift, so we don’t want to this take too much away from their strength in the overhead position. With that said, there will be special cases but because most of our weightlifters are only able to lift x3-5 a week, this limits our focus.
If you’re limited on training, you can spend a little more time during your warm up with this exercise. Ex: Bar 3×3, 40 2×2, 50 1×2, 60 1×2, 80 2×2, then do your work set. This way you can sneak in the lifts as you’re still able to get in your work sets in.
We also like to add in reps in the re-bend- meaning the lifter will do 2×3:3 = 2 SETS x 3 REP: 3 re-bends PER REP. In other words they’ll do the 1st rep 3 re-bends, 2nd rep 3 re-bends and so on.
That’s it for today, I hope the video critique and post has helped you all in some way. Make sure to sign up for our emailing list to never miss a post and special offers.
Train smart,