Musings on Olympic Lifting

A well-executed snatch or clean and jerk is impressive. The work and discipline required to perform either at a high level is real. None of that makes them necessary.

Olympic lifts are sold on triple extension. But this pattern isn't exclusive to the Olys. It's trained with jump shrug, a broad jump, medicine ball throws, kettlebell swings, hang pulls, and a host of other lifts and exercises. All of them train the ankle, knee, and hip extension coaches keep insisting only the Olympic lifts can deliver. Maybe it's the catch that a coach is concerned with. That isn't exclusive to Olympic lifts either. And most of these alternative methods take a fraction of the teaching time.

That's the real cost. A competitive athlete has finite training resources. Spending six weeks teaching a clean to an athlete who struggles with the catch is six weeks of attention pulled from the sport. Some athletes pick up the lift quickly. Some don't. That's a coaching decision, not a programming default.

A Brief History

The story goes that cleans entered American strength programs because the USOC was tired of losing to the Soviets. The NSCA began promoting them as a way to develop weightlifters by proxy. If true, it didn't work. The Eastern Bloc dominated weightlifting because they trained weightlifters as weightlifters, not athletes as weightlifters. An obvious distinction, missed by a generation of coaches.

What Actually Belongs

Olympic lifts have a place. As a teaching tool for young athletes learning to produce force. As an occasional ingredient in a program that already has its house in order. Never as a sacred lift the program is built around and rarely with a deep catch — the marginal stimulus isn't worth the wrist, elbow, or shoulder cost.

The right exercise is the one that helps. The wrong one is the one a coach insists on because the manual says so. Throw a med ball. Jump. Sprint. Get strong with the basics. Train the movement, not the exercise.

-Schmidt