I am a track and football coach at a small high school. I was having a discussion with another one of the football coaches, and we came to a very strong difference of opinion regarding power cleans.
My fellow coach maintained that cleans offered no benefit to developing power and explosiveness for athletes. He maintained that pure powerlifting practices (squats, deadlifts) did more to develop explosiveness in developing athletes. He says that cleans don?t help kids become more explosive.
I have attempted to read extensively about both Olympic and power-lifting. I have only seen one article in which anybody attempted to scientifically prove that cleans did nothing to develop athletes, and I found it only moderately convincing.
All the anecdotal evidence I can find maintains that cleans help develop explosiveness. Athletes who do them swear by them. Track coaches, especially throwing coaches swear by them. Then, there is the study that found that Olympic lifters were more explosive (as measured by the 10-yard sprint) than most true sprinters. Also, the largest unified training program used by coaches who are developing young athletes for competition ? Bigger Faster Stronger ? swears by them.
In my own experience, the football players who could hit well (not just run into things) were good at power cleans. Is it logical then that by improving the clean, one can improve explosiveness? It is hard to argue with the results Husker Power has had with Nebraska football players, but those kids are already great athletes when they come to Lincoln.
I guess the real question is this: Is there real world evidence that cleans do or don?t help young athletes develop explosiveness?
I am looking for debate on the issue. I realize that this topic is likely to get a lot of people fired up, but lets keep this one civil, please.