LOS ANGELES, March 23 (Xinhua) — The U.S. weightlifting men’s team will be represented by two athletes on the Olympic platform at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the U.S. Olympics Committee (USOC) said on Sunday.
Powered by consistent performances by all eight men competing for the U.S. at the 2008 Pan American Weightlifting Championships and final Olympic qualifier, this weekend in Callao, Peru, the U.S. men’s team secured two Olympic slots.
“I am extremely proud of our team,” said Dennis Snethen, Interim Executive Director for USA Weightlifting.
“We accomplished our goal for this competition which was to secure the two available Olympic slots. All of our guys contributed to this success with consistent lifts in a high pressure meet. Now we move on to the Olympic Trials in Atlanta, Georgia in May where these teammates will now compete to see who the two Olympians will be.”
Canada also secured two Olympic slots and Brazil, Ecuador and Argentina each earned one Olympic slot a piece through their team’s performances at this important event.
The top eight U.S. men represented the USA at this critical event. The event was full of pressure for these eight individuals as U.S. representation on the men’s 2008 Olympic platform was dependent upon their combined performances.
Following the conclusion of the 2007 World Weightlifting Championships in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in September, the U.S. men thought they had done enough to secure three Olympic slots as they sat in a 27th place combined finish from the results of the 2006 and 2007 World Championships.
This would have made the U.S. the final country to qualify slots for the Olympic Games. Christmas of 2007 was not kind to the USA men as the grinch (in the form of the International Weightlifting Federation website) visited, taking away the three Olympic slots that the team had thought they had secured.
The International Weightlifting Federation re-calculated the team standings following doping positives by athletes from other teams and, despite the fact that no one on the U.S. team tested positive, the U.S. men dropped one position in the overall team rankings, thus losing the three Olympic slots they thought they had earned.
The shift in order, due to doping positives in teams that finished above Team USA, caused a re-shuffling of points and the final mathematical breakdown moved Chinese Taipei above the United States leaving the U.S. men’s team as the first team not qualified for the Olympic Games.
The eight men that secured 2008 Olympic participation for the USA will move onto the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Weightlifting, May 16-17 in Atlanta, Georgia, where they will be vying with 22 other men for two positions and a chance to perform on the Olympic platform in Beijing.
For the eight men that represented the United States at the 2008 Pan American Weightlifting Championships, this event will count as their National Championships in regards to ranking going into the Olympic Trials and will be their secondary Olympic qualifying event.
In part one of this article I will discuss the progression I use to teach the Olympic Lifts from the hang position.
In order to perform both Olympic Lifts correctly and efficiently, you must be able to perform six exercises with proper technique. These exercises are the foundation to learning the snatch and clean:
1. Standing Press ending with straight arms (front and back)
2. Good Morning (bending at least 45 degrees at the hip with a slight arch in the back and a slight bend at the knees)
3. Front Squat (hands on the bar)
4. Overhead Squat (at least to parallel)
5. RDL
6. Push Press
Performing these exercises correctly will ensure that your body is ready to handle the stress that the Olympic Lifts put on your body. These preparatory exercises are accomplishing three things:
1. Development of the range of motion you will need in order to prevent injury
2. Proper strength and stability development of the torso and posterior chain
3. Becoming familiar with the positions you will need to get in during the execution of the Olympic lifts
These exercises must be performed correctly in order to go on to the Olympic lifts. Think of the old sayings, “You have to learn to walk before you can run” or “A house is only as strong as its foundation”. I’m sure these sayings were phrased by an old Weightlifting coach.
I have coached hundreds of athletes and I have never come across one who couldn’t eventually perform the lifts with acceptable technique. I have seen athletes get it in a week while others take months. However, they all started with these six basic exercises. Once the six exercises were mastered, it took just a few more meetings to teach them the snatch and clean.
In this progression, one exercise is done at a time, until the skill is acquired, then you move on to the next one. Each exercise builds on the previous one.
The Starting position: (use the RDL as a reference) 1. Place your hands on the bar using your overhead squat grip.
2. Place your feet SLIGHTLY closer than you would if you were performing an Olympic squat.
3. Rotate elbows to the side and slightly curl the wrist under.
4. Lower the bar to the middle of the thigh. This bar position will vary depending on the length of your arms and torso. You do not want to go below the knee.
5. Shift your weight to the middle of your foot as you would if you were performing a vertical jump. Make sure your feet are flat on the ground
6. Make sure your shoulders are in front of the bar.
Jump Pull (use push press as reference) 1. Once you are in the starting position, jump straight up. Initiate the jump with leg and hip extension.
2. Make sure your arms remain straight throughout the drill.
3. Keep the bar close to the body at all times.
4. Make sure your legs and hips are fully extended at the finish and allow your shoulders to shrug.
5. You should be in a straight line at the finish.
6. If done correctly, you should feel the energy of the bar travel up thru your arms.
Olympic Row 1. The purpose of this drill is to teach proper elbow movement and bar path.
2. Use an empty bar or stick.
3. Rotate elbows out, while keeping your chest up.
4. Raise your elbows up and to the side keeping your elbows higher than your wrists and the bar close to the body. It doesn’t matter how high the bar goes, this is not a traditional upright row.
(Please note that while performing the Olympic lifts, you are not pulling the bar up with your arms; you are pulling your body under the bar.)
High Pull
1. This is a combination of the Jump Pull and Upright Row.
2. I use this drill to get people accustomed to moving the bar vertically by using leg and hip extension (as in a push press).
3. After the powerful leg and hip extension, allow the bar to rise.
4. Use the arms to guide the bar up along your body. Do not initiate bar movement with arm pull.
5. Keep the bar along the line of the body (as you did with the Olympic Row).
6. The body should be in a straight line at the finish.
Foot Work/Receiving Drill
1. This teaches how to quickly change direction and how to lower the center of gravity efficiently.
2. This teaches proper foot and hip action and concentrates on getting hips down and back as quickly as possible.
3. Your feet should pop out SLIGHTLY.
4. Your feet should end up in the same position in which you front squat.
5. The hip action corresponds with the action of pulling yourself under the bar.
The Finish (Hang Power Snatch)
Once you have extended, you must now immediately reverse your direction by using the footwork drill. In order to keep the bar along the line of the body as the bar rises and you go under, you must rotate your elbows around the bar, not the bar around the body (as in a reverse curl). This is the reason a bar designed for weightlifting will rotate smoothly.
Receive the bar at arms length with your palms facing the ceiling. Do not press the bar upwards. Remember that you are pushing yourself under the bar.
Your shoulders, elbows, wrist, and ears should be in a line.
Think about stretching the bar like a piece of rubber tubing.
I teach the Hang Power Snatch first for three reasons:
1. It requires a fuller extension of the legs and hips.
2. It eliminates the tendency to arm pull.
3. Most people do not have problems with the finish position in the snatch.
There are seven laws for the snatch and clean. These must be obeyed at all times or you will be banished from the weightroom:
1. In your starting position, your shoulders must be ahead of the bar and the bar slightly ahead or even with the knees.
2. Start with only a slight bend in the knee. You should feel a little stretch at the hamstring.
3. The bar must remain along the line of the body. These are vertical movements. There is no swinging in Weightlifting.
4. The bar must move quickly. These are POWER exercises. If you cannot move the bar quickly then lower the weight.
5. When you catch the bar, your feet should be at squat width. Thats OLYMPIC squat not SUMO squat.
6. You must never receive the bar with your hips forward.
7. If you do the Olympic Lifts at a fitness gym, at least three people will ask you “what muscle does that work”. Tell them arms, maybe then more people would be interested in learning how to do them.
I hope that this article brings you a clearer understanding of how to perform the Olympic lifts from the hang. Additionally, you now understand the preparation needed in order to achieve maximal results. Bottom line, don’t just go to the gym and start throwing a bar around. Take the time to prepare your body and to pay attention to doing things correctly.
In the next article I will discuss the progression I use to teach the Jerk
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