I’m not a big forum guy because well we know what goes on there…moving on…I was emailed a thread that discussed how american weightlifting coaches are too focused on technique and not about strength. While I can only speak for myself, I can’t figure out how this all came about. So I decided to call a few guys that follow this forum and a few powerlifters to discuss their thoughts about US weightlifting coaches. While it was mixed reviews it did have the underlying tone that we don’t focus on strength…In my opinion this is a generalization and I assume it all began from the following:

Online Forums

As I talked to those that believe US weightlifting coaches “only focus on technique”, I found that most of the information was taken from internet forums, articles, and blog posts. While there’s great information on the internet, the problem is that it’s the internet, which means when XYZ coach (the original source) says something it can easily get watered down and misinterpreted (especially if it’s a translated text) and it keeps trickling down until what was misinterpreted is now suddenly the “truth”.

Generalization

While it’s easy to attempt to fit every coach into one mold, the truth is that there is no ONE American coaching system. This renders the statement, “all US coaches focus on technique” clearly false. While it’s a broad statement and shouldn’t be taken so literally, it irritates me when I hear statements like this. Each coach I’ve been around has a slightly different coaching style and focus. While I can’t speak for USA-Weightlifting or ALL US weightlifting coaches, in my experience most weightlifting coaches focus on the lifters subjective needs. I haven’t been around any qualified coach (sports performance or weightlifting coach) that doesn’t take into account the athletes individual needs and experience level.

New to Weightlifting

http://youtu.be/CFbnaq-VNMw

*People do some of the wildest things…

In my experience, most people are not very familiar with the classical lifts, know what Olympic weightlifting is, or understand the basic weightlifting terminology (power clean vs. squat clean, snatch pull vs. snatch high pull, etc…). Which usually means they do not have enough requisite reps to be efficient in the classical lifts (snatch, clean and jerk).

When weightlifting coaches deal with this type of population, what would you think they’d focus on to get the lifter ready to compete? I’d say positioning and exposure to the lifts. If you think about it, most people have squatted, pulled, and pressed throughout their fitness endeavors. The thing most people have not done is a squat clean, squat snatch, and jerk. While it very much resembles some of the strength lifts, it’s a much different movement and train of thought, especially when the lifter becomes efficient enough to lift appreciable weights.

Example: Compare a pitcher to a quarterback, they both throw a ball and it’ll have some overlap. But the intricacies to throw a curve ball is much different from looking off a linebacker and throwing a perfectly timed and angle, over the shoulder toss. They seem very similar but each demands a specific skill set to be developed.

Development

http://youtu.be/rt61NHhoefo

Everyone has pretty much played baseball in the US, there are systems within the US that develops young kids into high level players. Most start off at T-ball – slow pitch – coach pitch – machine pitch – little league – middle school – high school- travel – etc…I’d say that this is the typical development of an american baseball player from a very young age all the way through high-school.

Compare this to Olympic weightlifting, where most weightlifters get into the sport relatively older and have very minimal experience with the classical lifts. The weightlifting coach now has to take on the lofty task of developing the lifters positioning, timing, bar awareness, cue transfers, strength, and most likely mobility.

My Thoughts

While I’m relatively new to hearing about this debate, I would assume that when weightlifting coaches talk about technique, it gets misunderstood in the forum world to mean that we don’t care about strength. As stated above, initially most weightlifting coaches focus a good amount of time on technique and the classical lifts. The statement that US weightlifting coaches don’t care about strength couldn’t be further from the truth, at least in my opinion. Strength is very important to the sport of weightlifting, without strength what good is position? And vice versa- what good is strength without positioning- it’s like having a Ferrari but not knowing how to properly drive a stick.

When we talk about technique, most lifters start light to focus on position and not worry about the weight, then they move into medium weight with some more volume, but the next challenge is 90%+ in the lifts. This is where most weightlifters start to run in some trouble. Once the weight becomes heavier the timing will slightly change, the first pull isn’t going to move nearly as fast, the bar won’t move nearly as high, you’ll need to engage the bar a lot more aggressively, and really focus on the timing which will now be less forgiving.

There lies the problem, newbie lifter have to start thinking about when to push the shins back, when to fully extend, when to pull under etc… *It also takes some time to get to those appreciable weights*. As a coach I don’t want the weightlifter to think about positions, I need to this to be automatic. But without reps under their belt (exposure and technique) this will be an uphill climb. Therefore we need a LOT of quality reps (with the snatch, clean, and jerk) in their training.

Keep in mind, that while all these skill sets are being developed most weightlifting coaches are still focusing on strength in the auxiliary movements or weaving in strength blocks in the program. While there is a skill development process, as there is with any sport (base= t-ball, slow pitch, little league, etc…)- a qualified coach knows that if a weightlifter is cleaning 120k and front squats 125k, then there’s clearly a discrepancy and the lifter needs to go through a strong dedicated strength block. Vice versa, if the lifter is front squatting 200k but can’t consistently hit 120k then the weightlifter clearly needs to focus more on positioning.

Hopefully this gives others a bit more insight about the many aspects it takes to develop a weightlifter. I also need to clarify that these are all my opinions and no one else’s. The point of the post was to show the intricacies of developing a weightlifter and (IMO) most coaches philosophies of their development. It was also to create a friendly and open minded line of communication with all coaches, coaching philosophies, and sports.

Finally take a look at our young american weightlifters:

D’Angelo Osorio 160kg snatch (5kg under the American Record)

Ian Wilson 166kg “Unofficial Jr American Record)

Cortney Batchelor

Stay strong and Happy Holidays!
Team Fusion Weightlifting