We will teach you how to Olympic lift at the
Crossfit London i-Course
or,
If you cannot make these dates, we can teach you the lifts on a one to one basis at the Andaz Hotel, Liverpool Street, at £50 an hour, or in Andrews back yard in Stratford London E15. Email Andrew Stemler and fix up a time to train andrewstemler@aol.com)
OLYMPIC WEIGHTLIFTING MASTERCLASS
LEVEL 2
Get a place on the next Olympic weightlifting masterclass level 2, led By Commonwealth Gold medallist, and the Bethnal Green Weighlifting Club team coach, Giles Greenwood. Assisted by Andrew Stemler and Foz Rahman
Learn the elusive thigh brush and supercharge your training with the drills used by champions to produce world record lifts (snatch and clean-and-jerk)
This is not an absolute beginners course so ideally you will have attended an i-course,or have gone through a BWLA or UK strength and conditioning course. This is an ideal resource for those who want to improve their lifts but have no access to the few Olympic weightlifting clubs available.
New dates to be announced soon
Its important to remember that Olympic Style weight lifting is merely a component of Crossft, not a substitution.
However, it would not be incorrect to say that crossfit has made a substantial contribution to putting Olympic Weightlifting back on the fitness agenda. Below is a selection of materials that may help you with your olympic weightlifting journey.
Crossfit London Supports the Bethnal Green weightlifting club and runs this blog for them http://bgwlc.blogspot.com/
SHOES
If you are hunting for Olympic Weightlifting shoes, click on this box and visit Holdall. Cheapest I could find (and they will pay us a commission!)
AGE DIFERENCES.
Getting depressed that you cannot lift as much as young people? here are the qualifying totals for BWLA masters national competitions
| age |
35-39 |
44 |
49 |
54 | 59 | 64 | 69 | 74 |
79 | 80 |
| 56kg |
130 |
125 |
112 |
107 | 95 | 82 | 72 | 57 | 55 | 55 |
| 62kg |
142 |
137 |
125 |
120 | 105 | 90 | 80 | 62 | 55 | 55 |
| 69kg | 155 | 147 | 137 | 132 | 115 | 100 | 87 | 67 | 60 | 55 |
| 77kg | 170 | 162 | 147 | 142 | 122 | 107 | 95 | 72 | 65 | 60 |
| 85 | 180 | 170 | 157 | 150 | 130 | 115 | 102 | 77 | 70 | 65 |
| 94 | 190 | 180 | 165 | 157 | 137 | 120 | 107 | 180 | 72 | 67 |
| 105 | 197 | 187 | 172 | 165 | 142 | 125 | 110 | 85 | 77 |
70 |
| 105+ | 205 | 195 | 180 | 170 | 147 | 130 | 115 | 90 |
80 | 72 |
A super video clip by one of my Olympic weightlifting heroes Denise from Bethnal Green Weightlifting Club
Olympic Weightlifting
Arthur Drechsler, author of The Weightlifting Encyclopedia (the single most important book ever written on Olympic weightlifting), hit the nail on the head when he wrote of the unique value of the Olympic lifts for athletes. Drechsler listed eight benefits unavailable to those using machines (1):
1. Practicing the (Olympic) lifts [the snatch and the clean-and- jerk as well as related lifting techniques] teaches an athlete how to explode.
2. Practicing proper technique in the Olympic lifts teaches an athlete to apply force with his or her muscle groups in the proper sequences.
3. In mastering the Olympic lifts, the athlete learns how to accelerate objects under varying degrees of resistance.
4. The athlete learns to receive force from another moving body effectively, and becomes conditioned to accept such forces.
5. The athlete learns to move effectively from an eccentric to concentric muscle action.
6. The actual movements performed while executing the Olympic lifts are among the most common and fundamental in sports.
7. Practicing the Olympic lifts trains an athlete's explosive capabilities, and the lifts themselves measure the effectiveness of the athlete in generating explosive power to a greater degree than most other exercises they can practice.
8. The Olympic lifts are simply fun to do.
By the way, here are some rules
Here are a few skills you may want to play with while waiting to get on to to a
Crossfit London i-Course where we will teach you to Olympic Lift..
PRESSING SNATCH BALANCE: Start with the bar resting on your shoulder like a back squat with a snatch width grip on the bar and your feet are in the landing position. Slowly begin to push your body under the bar until you are in the bottom position of the overhead squat. Make sure your arms are locked out and your shoulders are shrugged. Stand up, then lower the bar to your shoulders and repeat. On this exercise the bar does not raise off of your shoulder the bar remains fixed at that height while you push your body under the bar.
SNATCH BALANCE Same set up as the pressing snatch balance only now take a quick dip and drive the bar up like a push press, then push your body down under the bar into the bottom position of an overhead squat. Stand up with the bar locked out overhead. Lower to the shoulder and repeat.
HEAVING SNATCH BALANCE Same set up as the pressing and heaving snatch balance except your feet are going to begin in the jumping position. Now take your quick dip & drive the bar up. While pushing yourself under the bar quickly move your feet from the jumping position out to the landing position. Your arms should lock out the same time as your feet contact the floor and you should be in the bottom position of the overhead squat. Stand up with the bar over your head. Lower the bar to your shoulders and repeat.
THE HOOK GRIP
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Once you have taped your thumbs, grab the bar with your thumb inside your fist (like a really bad fist). It will be uncomfortable at first, but gets easier. It's better than trying it without tape.
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We are delighted to announce our growing association with the
Bethnal Green Weightlifting club.
Check out how to join by visiting http://bgwlc.blogspot.com
Olympic Weightlifting Literature Review.
I want to try and consolidate all of the present research on the Olympic lifts, so as reports surface (or I find old ones) I'll put the title here along with a review of the conclusion.
The Snatch Technique of World Class Weightlifters at the 1985 World Championships. Baumann, Gross, Quade, Galbierz & Schwitz. International Journal of Sports Biomechanics 1988, 4, 68-89
This study used 3D film and measured ground reaction forces in the 1985 world championships in Sweden. The most interesting discovery was that knee joint movements are fairly small (1/3rd of the hip joint moments of force) and do not correlate well with the total load. Better lifts actively control their knee movements.
The report identifies the point at which the lifter drops under the bar to be the most important and technically most difficult . Its interesting to note that the trajectory of the bar comes in towards the lifter. Many coaches emphasize bringing the hips to the bar.
it was noted that the movement ends with a jump backwards under the barbell. ( this has been noted by Garhammer(1985) and Vorobyev(1978) who thought it a fault. It was also noted that the pull brought the bar to approx 60% of the lifters stature.
Garhammer John 1989 Weightlifting and Training(chapter 5) in Biomechanics of Sport ed Christopher L. Vaughan PHD CRC press Florida.
This is quite a comprehensive( review) chapter and identifies these characteristics in better lifters
1 ) faster movements
2) body extension during the pull
3) lower peak bar height relative to body size
Garhammer John & Takano Bob, Training for weightlifting (chapter
25) in Strength and Power in Sport 2nd edition edited by PV Komi 2002
vol3page 502-535.
Below is an extract from Tommy Konos book showing successful and unsuccesful pull heights and the trajectory of the bar during the snatch
Check out coaches info. This is a great site with some interesting analysis of the snatch and clean http://www.coachesinfo.com/
Garhammer John, ( accessed from the internet Dec 2008) .Barbell Trajectory, velocity and power changes and four world records
This study took place at the 1999 junior world weightlifting championships ( savannah, Georgia). The aim was to support the concept of using sub-maximal training lifts to increase power output. The paper concludes tht 75% -85% of 1 RM is best to produce maximal power output.
PROBABILITY, T VALUES and stuff.
Once you dip into the murkey world of Sport science, you eventually come across the dreaded t-test. Because of the programme SPSS, its mainly taught as monkey see monkey do ( well, most sport scientists are thick).
Here is the basis of the concept of t.
