Spreading Weightlifting Like a Bad Case of Chlamydia in a Frat House

[NorwichGrad]

I'm excited to finally put a small team of competitive newbie weightlifters. So far I have 3 lifters who plan to enter their first meet in the near future. (It will be the third meet for me.)

I plan to continue to participate and compete in the sport, but I also want to document the progress of my athletes. I do not plan to write down the detail of each session, i.e. reps x sets x weight and exercise.. But I plan to briefly discuss why we are doing what we are doing.. And of course, I will also share some training vids.

I have worked with great coaches in the past. I currently have a great e-coach. And as long as I'm in the sport, I plan to keep learning from others far smarter and more experienced than me, because my goal is to help spread weightlifting like a bad case of chlamydia in a frat house.

[NorwichGrad]

Athlete: Krista
Age: 28
Athletic Background: Used to be a competitive figure athlete.
Years Weightlifting: 8 months


Did some practice runs with Krista the other morning. I’m not gonna see her until next weekend at the meet..

I had her LITERALLY stare at the clock for a minute and convinced her that one minute is a verrrrry long time so as not to panic at the meet.

Then we went over what to expect. I also emphasized NOT to dump the bar until given the command ‘DOWN!’

She is very excited, as am I..

[yaaar]

This should be awesome, I'm in.

[mirroroferised]

I'm in as well. Always really like your posts around here and I'm sure I can learn a ton in this journal and follow what sounds a very cool journey you're about to start.

[NorwichGrad]

This should be awesome, I'm in.

I'm in as well. Always really like your posts around here and I'm sure I can learn a ton in this journal and follow what sounds a very cool journey you're about to start.

Thanks, fellas!


-------------------

"Meet people where they are, but help them to become the best they can be."

Athlete: Buddy
Age: 15
Athletic Background: Football and Thrower
Years Weightlifting: 6 months


This morning for the first time, Buddy earned the right to do full snatch after months of power snatching.. He is very strong and big, and did not have the flexibility and the mobility in the beginning of his journey. He primarily did power cleans and jerks, and power snatches, back squat and front squats. He learned full cleans sooner than full snatch. He had trouble doing overhead squats, so we had to work on that to ensure proper snatching.

He also set an ugly ass 62-kg power snatch PR..

He has a 30-inch vertical jump. Pretty impressive for a guy his size.. I hope that being a weightlifter will further improve his VJ..

He plans to enter his first WL meet in March 2015. This is what we are training for. (He couldn't make this month's meet due to school and other sports.)

[fittofattofit]

This will be great to follow Joel. Buddy looks like a very big lad .. I would have loved to have had someone knowledgable training me in oly lifting at 15

[doughnutgut]

Wow. Buddy is going to fly along. No doubt about that.

Strong young lad already. Serious jumping skillz as well.

And

[Plateauplower]

Very cool, looking forward to learning something about Oly lifting. It is has always kind of interested me, but never really been around it. Agree both look like they will do well, Buddy looks like a hoss for 15.

[NorwichGrad]

Thank you mates (Andrew and Leigh) and bro (Plateau)..

Buddy was already strong as an ox when he came to me.. Because of his brute strength, I had to teach him to unlearn the 'just muscle this $hit up' mentality.. He used his arms and upper body strength to hoist the weights up in the beginning of his journey.. I had to constantly remind him to "RELAX YOUR ARMS and USE YOUR HIPS and LEGS." He has come a long way for sure..

[NorwichGrad]

"Fulfill your potential and some may abuse you, but don't fulfill your potential & you abuse yourself."

Meet the other two lifters on the team:

Athlete: Fred
Age: 63
Athletic Background: Competitive gymnast and gymnastics coach when he was younger. Currently yoga and pilates instructor
Years Weightlifting: 6 months. He surprised me 2 months ago when he told me he wanted to enter his first WL meet.. Crazy ol' man.. haha..


Athlete: Alec
Age: 35
Athletic Background: Triathlon / CrossFit
Years Weightlifting: On and Off for 2 years.. He was competing in triathlon and crossfit games, so he could not really commit to weightlifting. He is very fit for sure. But because he is an endurance athlete and competes in triathlon, it is very challenging for him to spend time to increase his strength for WL.. But as long as he is happy, it's all good.


Bonus footage. Fred doing some gymnastics stuff.

[NorwichGrad]

"People will never follow someone they do not trust. Never sacrifice your character to impress others."


Last session after team training.

Athlete: Emily (brunette)
Age: 17
Athletic Background: Softball and Basketball (Already got full scholarship offer to play softball in a Division I College)
Years Weightlifting: 4 Years (She is my first female lifter to do bodyweight clean.)

Athlete: Nicole (blonde)
Age: 15
Athletic Background: Competitive swimming (ranks # 2 in the region) and track (just for the fun of it)
Years Weightlifting: 6 months


Both girls are in-season athletes .. So we have been doing lots of conditioning work to help with work capacity. Olympic lift complexes are a great way to not only address technical issues. Doing WL complexes will also increase one's heart rate if the goal is conditioning.. Here they are doing Power clean+jerk (Nicole is a power jerker) + Back Squat + Push Press from the Rear. Couple of reps are enough to illicit a high THR.



And oh, this garbage you hear about "sports specific training" is PURE GARBAGE. Athletes still need skill coaches to teach them to be good at their specific sport. There is no way a strength and conditioning (S&C) coach can duplicate the function of a skill coach (unless the sport is a strength sport like PL, WL or strongman).. But, skill sets being equal, a stronger athlete will ALWAYS, ALWAYS beat a weaker athlete.. This is why strength is king..

[mirroroferised]

Fred does not look 63 Wow!!!


There's a skill involved in this style of lifting that has always impressed me. I've tried oly style lifting before with just an empty bar and it was always very, very ugly. All the respect in the world to them, that is hard to do.

[Korr]

Gratz, on WL team. I would love to have a private gym where I can coach and help guide people.

[NorwichGrad]

Fred does not look 63 Wow!!!

There's a skill involved in this style of lifting that has always impressed me. I've tried oly style lifting before with just an empty bar and it was always very, very ugly. All the respect in the world to them, that is hard to do.

Funny you mention his age.. During training, Alec and I were also complimenting Fred that he does not look 63 at all.. I think boosted his self-esteem a bit (he is very shy in real life) so he started doing flips as you saw in the vid.. haha..

Tommy Kono once said that “weightlifting is 50% mental, 30% technique, and 20% power.” It’s very true.. We let our heads get in the way. We are our own worst nightmare.

Gratz, on WL team. I would love to have a private gym where I can coach and help guide people.

Thanks, Korr.. My goal is to have a big enough team so that I could convince the gym owner to invest in some jerk boxes.. We have just about everything except for the jerk boxes. I feel fortunate because the owner is very supportive.. Even if his gym is not a true, dedicated WL gym, he lets people dump weights..

[NorwichGrad]

”What we have and what we receive are not as important as what we contribute and leave behind.”

Just wanted to share my latest blogpost.

“The Making of a Division I Athlete”

http://c4fizeek.com/2014/09/08/the-m...ion-i-athlete/

Started to taper off this AM.. Did C&J up to 105-kilos.. Missing jerks, though.. Not really worried about that..

[Marius_Ursus]

”What we have and what we receive are not as important as what we contribute and leave behind.”

Just wanted to share my latest blogpost.

“The Making of a Division I Athlete”

http://c4fizeek.com/2014/09/08/the-m...ion-i-athlete/

Started to taper off this AM.. Did C&J up to 105-kilos.. Missing jerks, though.. Not really worried about that..

This is an awesome thread/journal. I'm loving what you're doing with these athletes.

I think I must not speak good English, though, primo. The first couple of cleans in your video looked like snatches.

Nice work, even missing the jerks. Your front squat is ridiculous. (in a good way)

That's just creepy as hell. LOL

[NorwichGrad]

This is an awesome thread/journal. I'm loving what you're doing with these athletes.

I think I must not speak good English, though, primo. The first couple of cleans in your video looked like snatches.

Nice work, even missing the jerks. Your front squat is ridiculous. (in a good way)



That's just creepy as hell. LOL

LOL.. Yeah, I forgot to mention I also did some snatches this AM..

Leigh is a weirdo.. I don't know where he gets his avis..

[NorwichGrad]

”Wisdom is the correct application of knowledge.”

Did a brief tutorial on how to snatch. Sometimes less is more.. Pages upon pages have been written to explain how to snatch. Part of my profession as an engineer is to ALWAYS look for ways to cut cost by eliminating wastes.

I think the same principles I have learned working with production coworkers can be applied to coaching as far as continuously improving efficiency in teaching someone how to do the classic lifts.

Hopefully somebody will find this helpful. If not, no problem. Because at least I learned to use a new software and gained some useful skills in the process.. lol..

[Marius_Ursus]

Wow, that was cool!

[GnomusMaximus]

Subbed! I'm trying for the 50-59yo Pan Am total in 18 months (either 94 or 85kg class)...I will watch this like a hawk.

[fittofattofit]

I'm really enjoying this thread (I've always enjoyed your logs and posts though ). Fred does not look 63 and it gives me hope that I can still be lifting and trying new things in 10 years time. Alec looks like a typical cross fit athlete and it looks like he's got that clean squat down pat from his crossift work. Both guys look pretty big .. what sort of weight are they?
It's great to see Nicole and and Emily doing the strength training to assist them with their sports
Great work yourself on the C&J .. 105 looked great and you had more, and really good snatch tutorial ... I'd love to try to work at the oly lifts but unfortunately the limited ROM of my shoulders makes it a no go

[NorwichGrad]

Wow, that was cool!

I know you do some WL lifts. Sometimes you have a tendency to shoot your hips forward as a result of ingrained KB swings movements.. Just remember to pop hips upward and you’ll be just fine, primo..

Subbed! I'm trying for the 50-59yo Pan Am total in 18 months (either 94 or 85kg class)...I will watch this like a hawk.

SWEET!! My first e-coach, James ‘Madaozeki’ Mesbur competed at the Pan Am masters in Canada this year.. That is a great goal! Maybe someday I would love to reach that level..

At your height, I believe you would be best as a 85-kilo lifter.. The tallest 85 lifters are usually no more than 5’8”. So at 5’7” I think you will look great!

I'm really enjoying this thread (I've always enjoyed your logs and posts though ). Fred does not look 63 and it gives me hope that I can still be lifting and trying new things in 10 years time. Alec looks like a typical cross fit athlete and it looks like he's got that clean squat down pat from his crossift work. Both guys look pretty big .. what sort of weight are they?

It's great to see Nicole and and Emily doing the strength training to assist them with their sports

Great work yourself on the C&J .. 105 looked great and you had more, and really good snatch tutorial ... I'd love to try to work at the oly lifts but unfortunately the limited ROM of my shoulders makes it a no go

Thanks, Andrew.. Both Fred and Alec will be competing in the 77-kilo class.

Athletes in all sports will usually benefit from doing the Olympic lifts.. The central nervous system can basically be placed into four types of buckets: concentric (like squat on the way up), eccentric (bench on the way down), explosive (second pull on the cleans), and isometric (holding the bar in the overhead position after the snatch).

Athletes also ‘move’ into these buckets: They accelerate (like a sprinter), decelerate (like a basketball player slowing down before shooting the ball), move laterally (just about any sport), jump / explode (like a volleyball player spiking) and stop (like a wide receiver catching the football at the end of the field).. Even water athletes do these movements.

So the classic lifts are an excellent way to stimulate these movements. I read somewhere that at least 70% of the world’s top-level athletes include the classic lifts in their training. Another great method to teach someone how to explode is Westside-type training.

If you cannot do anything overhead, you can still learn how to clean.. Cleans are not as tough on the shoulders as the snatch and jerk.

[fittofattofit]

Thanks, Andrew.. Both Fred and Alec will be competing in the 77-kilo class.

Athletes in all sports will usually benefit from doing the Olympic lifts.. The central nervous system can basically be placed into four types of buckets: concentric (like squat on the way up), eccentric (bench on the way down), explosive (second pull on the cleans), and isometric (holding the bar in the overhead position after the snatch).

Athletes also ‘move’ into these buckets: They accelerate (like a sprinter), decelerate (like a basketball player slowing down before shooting the ball), move laterally (just about any sport), jump / explode (like a volleyball player spiking) and stop (like a wide receiver catching the football at the end of the field).. Even water athletes do these movements.

So the classic lifts are an excellent way to stimulate these movements. I read somewhere that at least 70% of the world’s top-level athletes include the classic lifts in their training. Another great method to teach someone how to explode is Westside-type training.

That's a very interesting way of putting it Joel!

If you cannot do anything overhead, you can still learn how to clean.. Cleans are not as tough on the shoulders as the snatch and jerk.

I played with cleans a month ago and it didn't go too well .. I have no external rotation at either shoulder so that my hands end up in a 'hammer' grip position as I bring my elbows up to the clean position. The most natural and comfortable position for me OH is the snatch position ... I did OH squats today with just the bar and that was OK .. but if I lost stability at the top I'd have trouble correcting it so I'm not game to try

[NorwichGrad]

That's a very interesting way of putting it Joel!


I played with cleans a month ago and it didn't go too well .. I have no external rotation at either shoulder so that my hands end up in a 'hammer' grip position as I bring my elbows up to the clean position. The most natural and comfortable position for me OH is the snatch position ... I did OH squats today with just the bar and that was OK .. but if I lost stability at the top I'd have trouble correcting it so I'm not game to try

Oh, I see.. If you can do OH squats in decent form you should be able to snatch in decent form as well.

You mention ‘instability.’ I have this gut-feeling that it’s just a matter of adjusting your mental cues..

When beginner lifters learn to snatch, they have a tendency to merely ‘catch’ the bar overhead. Basically, they let the bar just ‘land’ in the overhead position. It’s normal to feel unstable in the beginning.

It’s important to keep in mind that the lifter must control the bar and not the other way around.. This ‘catching’ cue is sometimes a detriment because they end up receiving the bar ‘soft.’

A simple (but effective) cue I use, whether doing OH squats or the third pull in the snatch is to simply ‘BEND THE BAR.’ Now, obviously, you will not literally bend the bar.. Cuz if you did you are a badass and belong in a circus, as a strength freak, making the big bucks.

But what ‘bending the bar’ in the overhead position does is that it also engages the lats to provide additional support. This will also force your elbows to LOCK HARD.

The other cue is ‘REACH’. You want to actively engage the bar, so by reaching you will also use your shoulders to support the bar.

And finally, ‘STICK HEAD THRU LIKE A CAMEL IN HEAT.’ I don’t use this cue on my younger athletes because I don’t want to offend the parents.. But sticking your head thru will engage your rhomboids, also adding to overhead stability..

So next time you do OH squats,

- BEND THE BAR
- REACH (as in reach for the ceiling)
- STICK HEAD THRU

Hope this helps.

[fittofattofit]

Thanks Joel .. I'll play with these cues and see how I go. The worry I have is that if I let the bar get forward I seem to lose control .. half the RC on each side is gone. Lats, delts and pecs are intact though so it may well be a confidence issue as much as a strength one

[NorwichGrad]

Thanks Joel .. I'll play with these cues and see how I go. The worry I have is that if I let the bar get forward I seem to lose control .. half the RC on each side is gone. Lats, delts and pecs are intact though so it may well be a confidence issue as much as a strength one

No sweat, Andrew..

Play around with the positions while you are standing up.. Once you feel comfortable in the overhead position while standing up, this is a big step..

The next step, clearly, is the movement itself. The challenge will be to maintain posture while going down and up..

Lifters move forward when they allow the weight to shift onto the balls of their feet. When you experiment next time, focus on the overhead cues suggested, but also STAY AT MIDFOOT the entire movement.. If you feel you are shifting onto the balls of feet, might be tight hips. Stretch out the hips and calves, and you are good to go..

Train the movement first, mate.. Once you can move correctly, then you can add the weight.

[jjeane]

Do I like the title??? Hell yes!!
YAY! Good to see you back and spreading the Oly love Joel! I am so excited for you guys this weekend! Sending love to my first Oly coach and his peeps for an excellent meet!

[NorwichGrad]

Do I like the title??? Hell yes!!
YAY! Good to see you back and spreading the Oly love Joel! I am so excited for you guys this weekend! Sending love to my first Oly coach and his peeps for an excellent meet!

Thanks, JJ!!

---------------------------------




”What is the opposite of success?
Answer: Quitting.
Failure is necessary for success.”

Last training before meet.

[jjeane]

Looking totally ready Joel! Go get em!



Awaiting meet news!!

[NorwichGrad]

Looking totally ready Joel! Go get em!



Awaiting meet news!!

Thanks, JJ! VERRRRY THOOOOON!