OLYMPIC LIFTING PROBLEMS

I learned about Olmpic style weightlifting while training at the Holy Saviour Club in lovely Norristown, Pa. I say lovely jokingly because Norristown was bars, unions, and a fair share of people who were lucky to graduate high school. It was nevertheless a blue collar town of hard working people. I saw a lot of the bad things during the 1970's when the U.S. was a little crazy.
The Holy Saviour Club was a mixture of Olympic weightlifter's, Powerlifters, and a couple of bodybuilders. The Olympic weightlifters were great teachers because they were strict on technique. "You will never be able to lift your maximum weight because you will get hurt before you get there" I was told. That has always stood out in my mind. I remember when Dominic, one of the better lifters told me that the lift, when done properly goes beepada bopada boop. I still use that very scientific term today. Dominic was a massage therapist that worked on Mario Lanza, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and many other entertainers. He knew what he was talking about. He could also Clean And Jerk around 270 weighing 165 in his early 50's. I look back on that today and go wow. He was one of a couple of excellent lifters. Another lifter Victor and his brother Greg were my friends and training partners. Vic missed a 570 bench while weighing 235 in 1978. The bench he was using tilted backwards because of the tremendous leg drive he had. The world record at the time was 573. Another wow. It was a good place to lift and I learned a lot about Powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting.
My years of experience has taught me what to look for when examining the many technique problems that athletes have when performing the Olympic lifts. Here is a list of the more common ones I've seen:
1) The start with poor posture- A flat back or "Superman back" is what I look for. Many kids have poor posture and their shoulders are forward with a rounded back. This is no good. Stick your chest out and have your shoulders back. If you want to simultaneously stick your belly button out a little bit, that would be O.K. also. I usually teach from the hang first. Eventually you have to pull off the floor. The same analysis applies there also "flat back!".
2) Feet same width as your hips- When learning the "Olys", you want the feet to be the same width as your hips. Kids want them constantly to be to wide. It drives me crazy. How high can you jump when your feet are that wide? If you are 6'3" and 260, that is different. You need to widen out to some extent, but not excessively.
3) The knees should be over the toes- I see the knees way to in front of the toes to many times. If the lifter is doing their lift from the hang, then the first movement is backwards and then forwards. That makes no sense, if you want to generate force forward why do want to go backwards first. It is like a "false step" in a sprint. Why do you want to step backwards first when you are running forwards. Keep the knees over the ankles and the butt tucked backwards, with the legs slightly bent as if you are loading up a big push forward. You will generate more force that way.
4) Keep the shoulders in front of the bar- If you follow number three you will want to follow number four. If the shoulders are behind the bar, the knees will be to far forward. You will also have to much weight on the back third of your foot instead of the front half of your foot. When the shoulders are behind the bar you will also loose out on a lot of your lower back strength. The analogy I use is if a fish wire was attached to the front of your shoulder, and a lure was attached at the end of the fish wire, the lure should be dangling in front of the bar. If the lure, or the metallic/plastic device that attracts the fish (for you non-fishers) is behind the bar you will lose a lot of that force. You need an experience coach to teach you all this. You can't eyeball all this by yourself. After about three years you may be able to feel it.
5) The pull below the knees- This an area that can be a huge problem for newcomers to the lift. They usually pull the weight way to fast off the floor. Their hips come up way to fast, or the bar is to far away from the body, or many other things. This is a loaded question within itself. Newcomers need to learn to keep the bar kissing the shins at the start. They need to pull the weight in a controlled fashion, not necessarily slow, off the floor. When they get to a point at the knee or they are confident that they will clear the knee (without clicking/hitting it), then they can start the second pull at maximum overdrive (Great AC/DC reference). This is the second most common problem. An advanced version of this is the dive pull, but I've only seen one kid do it naturally. This will not be discussed here.
6) The bar has to graze the thighs- This is the number one problem. If the bar does not slightly touch or graze the upper thigh then the bar is to far away from the body. I always tell kids "how much time does a base runner spend at second base when he is running from first to third?" Not much. That is how fast it should be. To many kids try to slightly pause at this spot because they become to mechanical. Filming them would be very helpful at this point.
7) A reverse curl clean- This is probably the third most common problem. It is like they have a piece of metal running through their body, and the arm from the shoulder to the elbow, can't move. The elbow have to go slightly outward. I like to tell them to pretend that the part of the bar that is between their hands is a rubberband. They are trying to pull apart the rubberband. This cause their arms to go outward and they get a higher pull. Some coaches like to see their athletes cup the bar at the beginning. The athletes will have a slightly bent wrist, and not have the wrist bent backwards. There is some program in the human brain that tells us to reverse curl when are wrists are bent backwards. Some kids understand this concept better if you teach them an upright row. Overall, if the wrist is to far in front of the body, it is no good. You also want to rotate your elbows outward. This is similiar to doing an upright row. The bar trajectory will be closer to the body, and the elbows will rotate outward, instead of being glued to an area immediately below the armpits.
8) Jumping backwards just before catching the weight- The optimal position for catching the weight is having the hips under the bar. If you jump backwards, the hips will be behind the bar. If you attempt to catch a heavy weight, you will lose it forward. Occasionally you will see kids pull the weight to far backwards, but this is far less common.
9) Bent arms at the beginning- As soon as your arms are bent, then you lose a lot of strength. Have you ever seen any of the World Strongest Man Contest? If you were pulling a train that weighed whatever pounds, would you want the rope that is attached to the train to have slack or no slack? I want no slack. Bent arms equals slack. If your arms are bent you are using your upper body, and you are just straightening out your arms initially and not pulling any weight. That seems like a waste to me? How about you?
This is a very long subject, where a good coach is needed. I've seen some ugly pulls in my day. More on this next Monday! Questions can be answered at acudave@yahoo.com