Intro - Workin back into cleans

[BigUnit78]

Hey first I just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Pat Im 17, 6"3 278 currently a junior in highschool. My main sport is football, which I will be playing in college and I also throw to help out a good friend who is a pretty nasty thrower and needs a partner for dual meets.


My Question is I am really interested in getting into olympic lifting, mainly cleans/jerks because I have no one to teach me proper snatch form and really dont feel I need to take a risk til I find a experienced lifter that can help me out. Current workouts are Mon - Sqauts, Zerchers, Step ups, back, bi. Wed - Bench, shoulders, tri. Fri - Deadlifts, back bi. Mon- Bench, shoulders, tri. Etc I was wondering since I have not done any olympic lifting since before football started during the summer how I could work myself back into it and a routine I may be able to add into my workouts to get back into cleans and jerks.

Thanks a lot, sorry about the lengthy post.

[BigUnit78]

Ha any help would be great thanks

[madaozeki]

Ha any help would be great thanks

Where do you live? You can look for a local club coach here:
http://www.msbn.tv/usavision/displayPage.aspx?id=730

What's your experience with cleans and jerks? Do you have any video? What are your specific questions? You can check out my YouTube videos for form pointers if you like:

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=madaozeki

[raffiki]

You can do them before any of the workouts.

[BigUnit78]

I live in central Jersey.. I would say during the summer was the only time I had really trained cleans up to this point. During the summer for football we did cleans and jerks, best was 195x5. sorry about no stats

Bench - 295
Squat - 330x5
Deads - 405x5

Questions
- A clean program I can add into current program.. more of a few lifts I could add into each workout.
-Any drills I can practice to work on form or just reps? As from what I have read form is everything when it comes to olympic lifting
- Any stretching that needs to be done thats crucial to working on form

[madaozeki]

You don't need a "clean program". Just do what Raffiki suggested and do them before your other lifting, for say 5 sets of 2 with your top weight. That'll be plenty of work and will get you nice and warm for the rest of your lifting. You can do that 2-3 times per week.

Form plus strength are what make a good lifter. With your strength levels (assuming deep squats), you should be aiming to be using about 250 or so for doubles. To get to that level you'll need to post videos so we can see where your strengths/weaknesses lie.

For the time being, the weight is not important. Just drop down to 135 or 155 and drill form. Never do sets of 5 - Olympic lifts aren't designed for high rep sets, especially if you're fairly new to them. Stick to doubles and MAYBE triples.

Check out Raffiki's thread which has been stickied at the top of this forum, about learning the Olympic lifts on your own. Plenty of useful drills there:
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=4378183

I know coaches in South Jersey (Moorestown), North Jersey (Cliffside Park, Morristown, Madison), and I'm sure there would be some in Central Jersey, perhaps at Princeton?