Olympic Lifting - to lift or not to lift?

The Clean & Jerk and the Snatch…. The staple diet of any UKSCA qualified “strength and conditioning” coach, BUT are they the only way to get powerful?

I believe the Olympic lifts have gained popularity through supposed specificity for sports, i.e. how well the exercise can be carried over onto the field. However from where I’m sitting surely you will never/rarely recreate the biomechanical rate of force that occurs within the competitive environment.  In reality there is no exercise/lift that is 100% specific to the sport of your choice (unless your sport is weightlifting), however what can be specific is the way in which you train your athletes energy system. If your sport is aerobic…then cardiac intervals are for you….. if your sports is alactic…then 10/20m speed is the way forward (at a very basic level). Olympic lifts are general movement patterns that conditioners try to pass of as “specific”. Let’s get it straight…. exercises are specific to the exercise being trained.

Having spent the majority of my conditioning time dealing with elite rugby union or league players I base most of my opinions on how those athletes have reacted or adapted to the movements. With that in mind, the  point at which the most gains will be made is during the pre season phase. Players can handle a large amount of stress that is put on their CNS, whilst having an adequate time to recover. If you are having to try and teach two, technically very difficult, movements to players then the true benefits will not be seen for at least 2/3 weeks whilst they figure out the correct movement patterns. Now in my opinion, the amount of time it takes to teach and benefit from a coordinated and complex movement is sometimes not worth the return especially if the players are at the ages at which their hormones are raging and they would benefit a lot more from hypertrophy or strength phases, rather than focusing on mastering a technique in which the elite Olympic Lifters are still trying to master themselves.

Another reason for my own personal neglect of the Olympic lifts is that the force only moves in a vertical plane of motion! During a rugby union or league game there is rarely time in which the production of force is vertical rather than horizontal. If you, as a conditioner, are looking to provide specificity within the production of power, why develop a motion than is travelling in completely the wrong direction?

The last point that I will make about the Olympic lifts, is that they don’t address unilateral strength or have any rotational components. Both aspects are huge within the world of combat or collision sports.

I would imagine that many disagree with my opinions. It doesn’t bother me. In fact I would encourage it. Variety is the spice of life.

Until next time,

Stay Strong!

(A big citing goes to Buddy Morris for this post!)