Home Posts tagged "Clean and Jerk Technique"

How to Determine If An Athlete Should Olympic Lift

Today's guest post comes from Wil Fleming, who just released his excellent Certified Weightlifting Performance Coach course, which is currently being offered at an introductory for $100 off discount. 

Eight years ago, when I first opened my business, if you had asked me "Which athletes should Olympic lift?", I would have answered:

“Anyone with a pulse.”

While my vigor and passion for the Olympic lifts as a training tool have only grown, my group of athletes that immediately begin weightlifting movements has grown smaller. I still believe that most athletes can benefit greatly from the Olympic lifts, and have seen it happen hundred and hundreds of times, but I have developed a system and an eye for who should be weightlifting.

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Below are the four considerations that I go through with my athletes to determine who is ready to do the Olympic weightlifting movements.

1. Assess

The first and simplest step in determining if an athlete should Olympic lift is to assess their movement ability prior to starting. As any competent trainer/coach knows that assessment prior to training is important no matter the goal.

There are plenty of different tools for assessment based on your background, and needs as a coach. Similarly, with athletes looking to Olympic lift, I want to see a variety of screens passed before I say “let’s go do some cleans.”

We have several screens or assessment tests that we use to determine if an athlete can A) Olympic lift B) do it well.

The one that coaches are most familiar with would be the FMS active straight leg raise test. This is a gross simplification of the test and the desired outcome, but the athlete starts in supine and lifts one leg as high as they can go. We want to see a score of 2 or 3, in FMS terms, to green light the athlete for hinging into hang Olympic weightlifting movements.

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So why exactly are we concerned about the FMS score for an ASLR?

First off, hinging is a vital component to an athlete’s ability to perform an Olympic lift or any derivative. In setting up on the back, the athlete has nearly all variables taken out of the hip flexion, or hip hinge equation. This position is the simplest form of hip flexion we can achieve and if an athlete is unable to score a 2 or 3, it would be pretty poor judgment to believe that they can get in a good hinging position while loaded with a barbell and additional weight. Could I absolutely get them in a good position with lots of coaching? Probably, but I would not risk the potential for compensatory patterns popping up.

No, 2 or 3? It’s cool. We can develop better hip flexion through a variety of correctives and get the athlete Olympic lifting if they have numbers 2-4 down.

2. Pre-Requisites

Going into high school, you weren’t thrust right into calculus or rocket science class (is that a class?). No, instead you got your basics in multiplication and algebra, or chemistry and physics.

Similarly, weightlifting movements are pretty advanced to perform. Now, I’m not going to compare them to calculus or rocket science, but there’s more going on than in the dumbbell curl.

Pre-requisites, at the very least, allow you to speak the same language. When coaching the Olympic lifts, it is extremely helpful to be able to refer to other movements to which the athlete is somewhat familiar. “Jump,” “squat,” and “hinge” all work a lot better when the athlete knows to what you are referring.

In this case, we need some pre-requisites to Olympic lifting. Fortunately, they aren’t as difficult as chemistry was.

First is the ability to squat. I’m not referring to a particular amount of weight, but just the capacity to do a pretty good looking squat and maintain balance across the foot for the entire movement. Ideally, we have exposed them to a front squat of some sort. This is going to allow the athlete to receive the barbell in the clean or snatch.

I teach all my athletes the hang power clean first. While I am not looking for an athlete to squat all the way under to receive it, I do want to see them understand how to retreat the hips when accepting load.

Next up is hinging. The athlete should be able to do a good looking RDL with a kettlebell or barbell. I want to see an athlete understand balance (again), unlocked knees, and hips going backwards. If we don’t prepare an athlete with the ability to hinge, we end up with athletes that clean by jumping a foot forward. Set them up for success by teaching the hinge first.

Lastly, we need some knowledge of plyometrics. The athlete should be able to jump and land. We are primarily concerned with jumping from a hip width stance (the same one we use for pulling in the clean or snatch) and landing in a shoulder width stance (the same one we want when receiving the bar).

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If all three of these things are knocked out, then an athlete is ready to learn the Olympic lifts.

3. Athlete Needs

In its most basic sense, we look at the energy system demands and strength/power demands of the sport in which the athlete is competing. From that information, we must determine whether the athlete would benefit from adding Olympic lifts to that equation.

Olympic lifts fall on a particular portion of the force velocity curve that mean they maximize power output. Generally this number is around 60-80% of max force, exactly where heavy Olympic lifts tend to rest. In other words, getting an athlete proficient in the Olympic lifts will help the athlete develop a much higher power output, resulting in improved testing measures (vertical jump, broad jump, 10 yd sprint time), and improved on court/field performance.

If the athlete competes in a sport that values those attributes – which is effectively almost every sport – then you have passed the next step to determine whether an athlete should Olympic lift.

4. Sport Demands

Determining the demands of the sport will be the final hurdle. Specifically, what are common movements in the sport, and would using the Olympic lifts unnecessarily add to the trauma that the sport causes?

Being that you are on Eric Cressey’s website I can imagine it would be heresy to say that baseball players SHOULD snatch, and don’t worry: I’m not going to. If that’s where your brain took you, then we are on the same page.

We look at two things when it comes to sport demands. The first is the actual sport, and then we look at the athlete’s level/training age.

To take the baseball player for example, the snatch will typically be eliminated. This is not because of inherent danger, but rather that some of the more extreme ranges of motion in the snatch may create issues in a population with a combination of structural changes and accumulated fatigue that could lead to problems. Similarly, for our population of swimmers we don’t snatch due to the accumulated fatigue most swimming strokes cause.

That said, the clean doesn’t have the same level of incidence of shoulder issues that the snatch does (see this study), so in the eyes of many, the criteria for baseball or swimming would be passed.

Our next set of questions arises when we look at the age or experience level of the athlete. When we have had pro baseball players in the gym, and particularly under a limited time frame, we often choose to not use the clean in their training. Many times these athletes have no experience with the clean, but have trained for a number of years; at this point we are introducing a completely new skill to an already highly skilled athlete.

Will there be power production improvements? Most likely.

Will that mean they are better professional baseball players? Probably not.

The case of the high school baseball player is much different. I likely have a lot more time (years, potentially) with them. Their training age is fairly young, they’re often multi-sport athletes, and the benefits of increased power production are incredible.

Conclusion

Once these four hurdles are cleared, an athlete is likely ready and able to Olympic lift. That doesn’t mean you are ready to start them on that path. You have to have a repeatable and simple method for teaching the lifts to your athletes, and you have to have a method for identifying and correcting mistakes early and often. If you don’t,then I would highly suggest you don’t worry about teaching the lifts; it’s probably not worth it for your or your athletes’ time.

If you do or don’t, but want to learn my system for teaching thousands of athletes how to use weightlifting movements to become better athletes, please consider checking out my new resource, the Certified Weightlifting Performance Coach course.

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Note from EC: I’ve gone through Wil’s course myself; it’s very thorough and a continuing education option I’d highly recommend, especially with it being on sale through October 7. You can learn more HERE.

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Quick and Easy Ways to Feel and Move Better: Installment 29

CP Coach Greg Robins and I just pulled together the following tips to improve your nutrition and strength and conditioning programs. Enjoy!

1. Improve the learning curve on core stability exercises with this tip:

2. Improve your grip with some easy changes.

Grip strength is an important quality to train in your program. It is beneficial if you plan on moving some heavy loads, or excelling at sports that rely heavily on the lower arm. I am by no means an expert in advanced grip work; however, I can offer some quick ways to start including it in your strength training program by making a few easy changes.

a. Start using a double overhand grip as long as possible with your deadlift technique. Too often, I see people instantly utilize a mixed grip when pulling. Even some more advanced lifters I have trained with do not try to improve their double overhand grip. Generally, they just have a number in mind where they switch from overhand to mixed, and it’s been the same even as their lift has improved hundreds of pounds over the past few years.

b. Make at least 1/3 of the exercise variations that rely heavily on elbow flexion (i.e. curls, rows, chin-ups) more grip intensive. Do so by using towels around the handle or something like Fat Gripz. Additionally, use different implements - such as softball grip and ropes - for rows and chin-ups.

c. Lastly, pick up a new “grip specific” exercise to work on, and change it every four weeks. These can include, grip crushers, plate pinches. Guys like John Brookfield and Jedd Johnson put out tons of innovative exercises to make your handshake something people fear.

3. Soup up your bench seat with just a few bands.

This is a nice little trick for those of you who might find the bench at your gym a little “slick.” My good friend and former CP intern Angel Jimenez, showed this to me originally. I believe the credit goes back to bench guru Dave Tate, though. While I can’t take the credit, I will share the info!

4. Pause more, lift more.

How often do you miss reps near the top? I am willing to bet that it’s not often. Furthermore, I bet 90% of the people reading this who say they do, really just have no pop out of the bottom of a lift and it catches up to them at lockout. You don’t need to work on strength at lockout as much as you do as strength at the bottom. That being said, when I look at most people’s strength training programs, the assistance work involves board presses, rack pulls, and high box squats. I was guilty of it too. The fact is, you like those variations because they are easier and allow you to lift more weight. The truth is you need to take the load down and start working the bottom portion of the range of motion more.

Enter the pause. Start working in paused squats in the hole, start pausing bench presses on the chest, and finally start making sure rep work on the deadlift is done to a complete stop (and, in my opinion, a complete reset, too).

5. Add some Olympic lifts to your training without missing out on your meat and potatoes.

The Olympic lifts can be a great addition to a comprehensive strength training program for those who can perform them safely.  However, it goes without saying that there can be a very steep learning curve for picking up the exercises.  For that very reason, earlier this week, I published a guest blog from Wil Fleming on clean and jerk technique fixes - a great compliment to his new DVD, Complete Olympic Lifting (on sale at a ridiculously low price until Friday at midnight, by the way).

One of the biggest concerns many folks have is that the learning curve will be so steep that they may miss out on a lot of actual training as they work their way through the fundamentals of Olympic lifting with light weights.  This is a very real concern, too, as even working at a lighter weight for a lot of practice reps can take a lot out of you.  In fact, I've had a lot of inquiries from folks who wanted to include Olympic lifting in Show and Go, but weren't sure how to do so.  My suggestions to them are very simple:

a. Pick one lift or the other (clean or snatch) to practice in each of your lower body sessions each week. If you want to work on jerks, you can plug it in at the start of an upper body day.

b. Do it at the start of your training session (right after your warm-up), and promise yourself that you won't go for more than thirty minutes.

c. Drop one set from each of the rest of the lower body exercises in the session to make up for the volume you've added.

You won't become wildly proficient in a matter of a few days with this approach, but slow and steady can win the race - even when it comes to lifts with high power output.  An hour of practice per week will effectively allow you to ride a few horses (learning while maintaining a training effect) with one saddle (your limited time, energy, and recovery capacity).

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Olympic Lifting: 6 Clean and Jerk Technique Fixes

Almost a year ago, Olympic lifting expert Wil Fleming wrote a guest blog, The 7 Most Common Power Clean Mistakes, here at EricCressey.com.  It was one of our most popular posts of the year - and several folks commented on how they'd love to see something along the same lines with respect to the clean and jerk.  Wil agreed to author up a sequel, and the timing is fitting, as he just released his brand new DVD, Complete Olympic Lifting.  I got an advanced copy of the DVD and it's outstanding - not to mention extremely affordable.

6 Clean and Jerk Technique Fixes
By: Wil Fleming

The power clean gets a lot of love. If you are like me, it was one of the “Big 3” you learned the first time you were in the weight room: squat, bench, and power clean. Of course, it was the “Big 6” if you included curls, preacher curls, and more bench.

The power clean’s older and cooler sister, the clean and jerk, doesn’t get as much love, but I am here to begin the love fest, by sharing with you six ways to improve your clean and jerk.

1. Use combos to learn the full movement.

When talking about the full clean and jerk, it is important to remember that we are talking about a movement in which athletes compete in the Olympic games. This is a movement that individuals spend years and years trying to perfect, yet we often prescribe it for use with athletes who have been training with us for months, or even weeks.

As coaches, we do not similarly prescribe that athletes do an Olympic style long jump, shot put throw, or hammer throw. Each of these movements are explosive and would certainly have benefits for improved performance (to some degree), but we are aware of the fact that the technical difficulty of these events would far outweigh the performance benefits.

Technically challenging movements should be entirely removed from programming at this stage. The clean and jerk is definitely challenging, but one can argue that the performance benefits may outweigh the time spent teaching it. If they are to be prescribed, they must be done so with a specific task list to ensure proper completion. One foot must go before the other, as we walk our way to the movement we would like to see completed.

In the case of the clean and jerk there are individual tasks that need to be learned first: the hang clean, power jerk, power clean, and split jerk. Once these requisite skills are all done to a comfortable level of proficiency, we can begin to teach athletes to move towards the full competition-style clean and jerk.

To do this, my number one tool is the “combo,” a 1+1 lift to get athletes to move athletes to completion.

Start with a 1+1+1. I use a Power clean + front squat+ power jerk. In this movement, athletes will receive the bar in the high catch position (re-position the feet if necessary) and move into a front squat. They’ll finish the movement with a power jerk, as in the video below.

Next, we move onto a Power clean to front squat + split jerk. In this movement we eliminate the re-set of the feet, and receive the bar, pause in that position, and then move into a front squat for the rest of the way down. Finish this movement with a split jerk, or a power jerk if the athlete is not comfortable in the split.

Finally we can move onto a full clean and jerk. We will get into some tips on how to make this more than just a power clean to front squat later, but the basic premise is we must encourage athletes to get better at moving under the bar to make this a distinct movement. In the meantime, just eliminate the pause and immediately front squat the weight at the time of the catch.

Here’s the entire progression in one video:

Each of these “combos” falls into a distinct phase of training, likely spending 3-4 weeks in combo 1 and combo 2 before attempting to complete the full clean and jerk movement. I typically program the movements as 1+1+1 x2 x3-4, or 1 rep of each movement two times for 3-4 sets.

2. Jerk with either foot forward.

There are three primary ways that athletes can jerk the bar overhead: power jerk, split jerk, squat jerk. I like to think of them on a scale of simple to ridiculously complex, or if we are thinking in terms of things to which everyone can relate we can put them on my Vin Diesel scale of movies.

Simple= power jerk = Fast and Furious (all of them): it gets the job done, and is a classic in many people’s books.

Better= split jerk= XXX: vastly under appreciated, coming back for an encore, which is very good news, and a must-include in your training and DVD library.

Ridiculously complex= squat jerk= Chronicles of Riddick/Pitch Black: hard to get down with, and popular in China.

The split jerk is the most common technique used for a really simple reason: the primary issue that folks have to deal with in the jerk is forward and back (sagittal) stabilizing factors. In short the bar doesn’t want to stay above you and you have to have a really stable or really strong (although both are preferred) base of support to keep it there.

With the issue of stability at hand, it brings us to why it is so important to learn to jerk with either foot forward.

A quick disclaimer: if you are an Olympic lifter, get really good with one foot forward and quit reading this point right now. If you are an athlete, though, read on.

I am not going to tell you that jerking and putting one foot forward of the other does anything to create “single leg strength;” there is a slight difference in force production, but not enough to matter. What I am going to tell you is that changing positions rapidly is what makes it difficult on most athletes. Keep people static and they are as solid as their base of strength. Start switching stances, and positions rapidly, and you will see people separate. Switching stances in equal numbers will show you if you have any weak links in your chain.

There is a difference in the amount of force absorbed on the lead leg and the rear leg on the jerk, and this is an important point to consider. Deceleration rarely happens bilaterally and absorption is the name of the game.

As an athletic movement, the jerk needs to be done with either foot forward – not just the same one all the time.

3. Learn great overhead position.

The clean and jerk has become so simplified that at some point people started just calling it “ground to overhead,” as if there is no goal other than to get the bar over your head in any way possible. It’s the same as just calling The Godfather “just acting;” there is a little more to it.

This problem is likely magnified by taking a look at the elite lifters of the world, watch ten videos of ten different lifters and you will likely find yourself looking at ten different jerks. So if they all do it differently, is there any truly correct position overhead?

Yes, there is; you have to appreciate that taking a snippet of video from a near maximum attempt is a bad time to look at the technique of an individual lifter. It would be much more appropriate to watch them jerk from the blocks in training or at sub-maximal clean and jerk weights.

The ideal position in the jerk should center the bar over your spine, and importantly keep the front shin vertical for the most stable position possible. It should truly be a 90/90 split squat position, only slightly extended.

The go-to move to practice this position is the split stance press + overhead split squat. Maintaining a neutral spine and pelvis will likely be the limiting factor for most individuals, but doing this drill in training is going to be the best way to learn and maintain great position overhead.

4. Pull your way under the bar.

Now it’s time for a total game changer. The clean is all about the pull UP right? Wrong, - at least if you are paying attention to the greatest athletes in the sport.

Let’s start with some concepts. There are really four variables that go into a clean and its success. The first two aren’t that variable – and we will get to the second two in a minute.

1) The height of the bar at the completion of the second pull. This is primarily a function of how tall an athlete is. So, if you are 6’4” you are likely going to pull it higher I am at 5’11”.

2) The height of the bar at the receiving position. This can definitely change based on bar speed, but we are talking about Olympic lifting, and deep squat catches, so in truth this height is only based on how tall an athlete is. I will likely catch lower than you if you are a towering giant.

3) The speed of the bar at the completion of the second pull. This seems like it is a variable, but in truth it is pretty consistent at differing heights. That is, if the bar gets to your chest then it was going speed X, and if it only gets to your waist height it was likely going speed Y – and that goes for almost everyone. We’re talking about the Olympic style clean, so this is actually almost a constant for most people.

4) The speed of the lifter as they move to receive the bar. Now here is the variable of all variables. Elite lifters know this, and if you watch enough video you will see it too; the ability to get under the bar quickly is the separation point between good, great, and elite.

Now you can’t change your height so those are out in terms of improving your lifts. You can certainly change your strength levels, allowing you to pull the bar faster, and I am a big advocate for making this happen, At some point, though, even as the total weight lifted moves up, it will only go so fast. So what you can change is your own speed to the bar.

To move faster to the bar I like to think of pulling myself under the bar, but not with the hands. I have to pull hard with my hips to get enough hip flexion to receive the bar low.

5. Elevate the start position.

I always say that the number 1 mistake I see for athletes in the Olympic lifts is starting from the ground when they have no ability to get in a good starting position.

Continuing to start from the floor position when you aren’t able to get there and maintain a neutral spine is the absolute definition of Olympic weightlifting insanity.

There is no machismo necessary in the Olympic lifts. Can we go ahead and get that out of the way? There is too much to be gained by doing them well, and too much to be lost by doing them poorly to have an ego.

Rather than trying to start every rep from the ground, feel free to elevate the start position. Try using a 3” block or even another bumper plate. This slight elevation will still force you to make a good first pull from the start, but will save your lower back until you gain enough hip mobility to do it right.

Here is a video from when I was dealing with some hip mobility issues that required me to lift from an elevated position. It got the job done, all the while I was improving hip mobility to spare my back.

6. Translate the torso from the ground to knees.

With the Olympic lifts, there are lots of variables that account for individual athletes’ differences in size, strength, and personal preferences, but there is one constant that is true among nearly all lifters:

From the point of lift off to the point where the bar passes the knees (the end of the first pull), the torso angle remains constant. There is no change from when the bar breaks the ground and when the bar passes the knees.

In fact, a 2012 study by Ikeda et al. compared female lifters in all classes at the 2008 Asian championships. This study was conducted on the snatch, but showed that torso angles above the horizontal were nearly constant for all athletes, at both the break point from the ground and when the bar passes the knees.

The joint angles themselves might not be exactly the same as the clean, but the mechanism for the first pull should be similar, and an active drive through the heels along with knee extension should drive the bar from the floor to knee level.

Changes in torso angle can lead to the bar being too far in front of the athlete and inefficiency in the second pull.

Want to see this in action? Take a look at the video below to see what I mean.

Conclusion

There are obviously a lot of pieces to work on if you want to be proficient on the clean and jerk. Just a month ago, I revamped what I was doing, and have seen big changes to my lifts in a very positive direction. The journey towards better movement is always continuing. These six strategies are a great start to getting you or your athletes to moving bigger weights more safely.

To learn more about Wil’s approach to teaching the Olympic lifts, check out his new DVD, Complete Olympic Lifting, which is on sale for 40% off this week only. 

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