Do Coaches Use Exercise Progression?

To all the aspiring olympic weightlifters in here who are being coached, do your coaches use some sort of a “progressive teaching” thingy where they’d have you start doing something simple, and then progressively make things complicated? As in:

Power cleans
Power cleans to front squat
Full cleans

(in that order)

…Or do they just jump from teaching you how to do the classical lifts in your first session?

Thank you!

Reverse Chain teaching method:

4 key positions using Clean and Snatch grip widths

Bar at chest,
Bar by waist with bent arms,
Bar hanging where it goes when you have straight arms,

Those 3 positions are you:
Upright,
big chest,
head upright and looking forwards,
your on your tip toes

DROP UNDER THE bar in to the Clean/ Snatch receive positions. The aim is to not ‘pull the bar up’ and then go down. But the aim is to DROP UNDER THE BAR with the bar staying roughly in the same position. Pull on the bar a bit but it’s a SEAMLESS movement and there is NO NOTICEABLE pull and then a SLIGHT pause before you squat down. This is the single biggest difference between a beginner, intermediate and advance lifter to an Elite lifter.

Do 3reps x 3sets from each position

Bent over Hang position
Same as above but your not on your tip toes because your in the bent over hang position. Do the same but you get to work your 2nd pull now. Again aim for FULLY EXTEND read stand stall, head up high, on tip toes = thats your FULL EXTENSION POSITION and then pull under the bar as soon as you have finished the 2nd pull. It’s a FINE BALANCE between getting full extension to be able to get under the bar and getting under the bar.

Again 3 reps x 3sets

Now to work your first pull

Pulls to mid thigh
Get in to a DeadLift position BUT with your shoulders over the bar, squeeze everything tight, YOUR BACK TIGHT AND STRAIGHT, big chest, now squeeze the bar off the floor and use your lats to bring the bar to your mid thigh (the start of the 2nd pull position), DO THIS MOVEMENT SLOWLY to build technique and familarlity with it. It is NOT EASY if your not use to doing it. If your shoulders are behind you WILL NOT BE ABLE TO DO A 2ND PULL PROPERLY, your shoulders need to be over the bar and you need to be upright,

YOUR LEGS ARE BENT when you finish the pull to mid thigh.

ARMS STAY STRAIGHT

4reps x 5sets. This is for TECHNIQUE and not STRENGTH so don’t use too much weight. Once you can do this properly then you will ditch this exercise and do pulls properly

I did this for months and months and months along with bent over rows to build a strong back for the 2nd pull.

I still do each position but for only one set after my dynamic warm ups to warm me up for the lifts.

My coach doesn’t teach you to power clean as typically people that power clean struggle to convert to a full clean properly. They aren’t use to pulling under the bar fast and receiving the when it’s low in a deep front squat. Sure some guys can but the majority can not break the mental issue of pulling high and not pulling under the bar.

If leaning to PC and then converting works for you, great! Just that I haven’t seen many people do it properly. You can tell as they pull it to nipple hight and can’t full clean it as they are pulling with their arms as it’s a heavy weight = you can’t full clean it if your arms are pulling bent on the bar, You can’t get underneath the bar like that to rack it!

Koing

[quote]TYPE2B wrote:
To all the aspiring olympic weightlifters in here who are being coached, do your coaches use some sort of a “progressive teaching” thingy where they’d have you start doing something simple, and then progressively make things complicated? As in:

Power cleans
Power cleans to front squat
Full cleans

(in that order)

…Or do they just jump from teaching you how to do the classical lifts in your first session?

Thank you![/quote]

Depends.

-chris

Sounds like someone is trying to self-coach.

So

Many

Threads.

No, the best way to learn the lifts is to do the full lifts. The beginner will go through roughly three phases of training before going into a competition cycle.

Phase 1. Learning the movement patterns, technique is stressed here, No weight is used on any movements except squats. In addition to the Classical lifts, ancillary movments are used to get the body moving in the right manner. Reps are usually high (5reps) to teach the body how to move.

Test max after phase

Phase 2. Learning the movement patterns with weight. Technique is still stressed. 100% is never broken on the full lifts. Emphasis is on learning to mimic the movement patterns for all weights. Ancillary movements are decreased from phase 1. Reps are moderate (3reps at sub 90) to teach the body how to move with weight and allowing for recovery

Test max after phase

Phase 3. Learning to progress the weight with movement patterns. Progression is taught at this point. Max percentage is 105%. Technique is still stressed but strength is the greater emphasis here. Reps are low (1 to 2 at 90+).

Test max after phase

Then depending on your weaknesses, strengths, competition dates, you start a training cycle.

Another thing is that all the variations of a lift such as:

pow clean
hang clean
squat clean
high clean/trap clean
clean high pull

are used in conjunction with each other based on a lifters strengths and weaknesses and bar pattern.

One example would be a lifter that is bucking and/or “sexing” the bar away from them with too much “latino” in the hips, as they say, benefits greatly from sets/combos like:

Snatch high pull x2, full snatch
or
hang Sn high pull, power Sn, full Sn

and so on depending on the lifter.

In other news: You’re pushing out these threads like bad romance novels. If onyl i were ghey and thought dimas was hot.

-chris

Yes they do. Now get a coach and he’ll teach you the rest.