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The Struggle of Weight vs. Technique
Olympic lifting at times may not always be an easy task to learn or teach. It takes a strength coach with a great deal of patience. They must have patience not only with the struggles and disappointments of the athletes but also the patience to not give in to the demands of coaches. Often coaches will insist that nothing is accomplished unless a great deal of weight is being used. It takes a tremendous amount of patience on behalf of the strength coach not to push an athlete too fast. If they cannot master one phase of the lift, they should not be progressed on to the next phase of the lift or else the errors seen in the earlier phase will only be enhanced in the later phases.
It’s important to remind athletes that when doing a clean from the floor, that if they feel that they are not in the right position as the bar is coming up the leg, not to finish the lift but instead drop the weight, start over and execute the lift correctly. If they are out of position in the early stages of the lift their body will have to compensate and then redirect its angles and forces to a mechanically disadvantaged position which will likely cause the lift to be done poorly, without sound technique, and thus lead to an increased chance of injury.
If an athlete cannot pull the bar from the floor in the correct position, how can they be expected to execute the remainder of the lift with perfect form? As the lift progresses upward it becomes much more technical and dynamic, thus requiring the athlete to have an even stronger base of technique training. Too often coaches become impatient with a particular phase of the lift and progress an athlete onto another phase without mastering the previous stage. Often this is done to ensure that an athlete is at a stage of their training that was predetermined at the onset of training. The only problem with this is that it does not take into account that individual athlete’s learning curve and ability to perform the lift. This only further complicates the mechanics of the lift and leads to greater frustration of the athlete and the coach.
It is also imperative that the strength coach is not too eager to progress an athlete onto heavier loads when they are not capable of doing the lift under loads of much lower intensities. Teaching and coaching proper mechanics of a lift while an athlete is subjected to heavy loads does not lead to success. The athlete will not be able to feel their body shift into different phase of the lift. Nor will they be able to recruit the proper muscle sequencing and firing of the body at various phases of the lift. Instead they will become concerned about the load on the bar and having to move it by any means necessary to get the weight up. This completely negates the purpose of having athletes perform Olympic lifts.
By progressing athletes too fast through phases of the lift or bumping their weights before they are ready to handle the load, the coach and athlete will be forced to constantly work on technique. Fundamental laws of strength and conditioning tell you that technique work is done with light loads and low stress on the athlete. Technique should be reinforced during heavier loads, not taught. Athletes who have been rushed into full Olympic lifts prior to mastering partial and full pulls with lighter loads often take years to learn how to execute the lift correctly. Those that had the lift broken down into progressive movements, constant reinforcement, and patience with weight loads, often enjoy success much earlier. There will be much less stress for both the coach and the athlete. The athlete will see much better progress in all lifts within the weight room and their sport. They will also have much more confidence in themselves and their abilities to train with weights. This will lead too much greater levels of enjoyment and enthusiasm in weight training. It will also help instill confidence in the coaching abilities of their strength coach.
If athletes are allowed the time to learn and perfect the phases of the lift and then are given the time to put it together they will see success much sooner in their training. The effort expended on the lift will be much less and they will actually learn to activate the hips to their full potential; versus an athlete who is forced to go heavy too soon in their training and does not learn to use their hips. Instead they end up compensating by pulling with their back and using too much of their upper body to pull the weight.
When teaching an athlete how to perform an Olympic lift, they should not be expected to master it the first time they walk in the weight room. Nor should they be expected to be hitting it hard three weeks from now. Each athlete will progress as individuals but should have a very strong base of technique under them in six to eight weeks. This time frame is very realistic provided they are progressed properly through each phase of the lift. It is then after this time that they can begin to start to stress the load on the bar.
An athlete who can perform a lift soundly with 60kg will derive more benefit from that lift than an athlete who performs that same lift with substandard form with 100kg. The reason is that the athlete who has performed the lift flawlessly will have the activation potential and timing down to be able to perform the lift perfectly. The more perfect the technique the less effort and energy expended. The less energy expended the greater the potential for that athlete to then be able to go up in weight. If an athlete is performing the lift with poor technique then they are expending a great deal of effort to move the weight up and are not getting the potential activation in their hips that they should be. They will instead be trying to muscle the weight up and this tightness in the body will only cause further inhibition that can only lead to poorer performance and risk of injury. It will also diminish the transfer of gains made in the weight room to those applicable in their sport.
Kevin Ebel, M.Ed., CSCS
NTS-AD located in Stevens Point and Plover, Wisconsin.
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