It’s funny but I have become more convinced over time that strength out of the hole in a moderate stance squat where the lifter has to break parallel to IPF standards, and off the floor in a properly set up sumo pull (meddl provided a great example) has alot to do with quad/total leg strength.
Ultrawide squatting to parallel or slightly above, and a sumo pull where the hips come up and the floor is more or less broken with the lower back, (which in my opinioin is improperly executed) are obviously much different animals than what we are training for.
Bottom line, in a novice lifter, everything heeds to be strengthed and while posterior chain strength is very important, most novice to intermediate lifters are also lacking in total leg strength of which the quadriceps play a huge role.
Given the current borderline obsession with P-chain and “core” strength, this is often overlooked.
Additionally, in the case of the lifter I discussed above, I had the advantage of knowing which accesory lifts he was performing and what kind of weight he was handling in relation to his most recent meet performance.
I have had good success taking the approach described in my previous post to fixing this condition in up and coming lifters. Obviously, there are a lot of factors that can play into this, but assuming a reasonable emphasis is being placed on p-chain and core, hips and total leg strength become a pretty obvious culprit.
Bringing in his stance will arguably require more quad strength, but it will also require less hip strength and give his hips some time to come up to speed with what he is asking them to do through utilization of appropriate accesory work.
We are addressing his need for increased quad strength through the re-incorporation of fronts, which he basically dropped out of his training for a while. You would be surprised how quickly strength will come back up in a muscle group that has been neglected, once they are targeted again. He will probably be back to previous strength levels in 3-4 weeks.
Thanks for the question.