Post by Simon Callander on Jul 21, 2013 7:53:15 GMT
The following article appeared in the July 18, 2013 issue of our newsletter, Shut Up and Lift)
We want to address a question that keeps coming up in our classes and seminars:
Q: Are there times when it's acceptable to perform the Olympic lifts without strict, traditional weightlifting technique?
We've heard this question regularly over the past few years and our take on it has evolved somewhat. For most people, the answer will depend on your purpose and the trade-offs you are willing to accept. While some circumstances may warrant use of non-traditional techniques, sloppy technique is never acceptable.
What's Your Purpose?
Traditionally, the Olympic lifts have been used to test and increase the amount of weight you can lift in a single snatch or clean & jerk. Training for this goal also maximizes your strength, power, rate of force development, coordination, and ability to absorb an opposing force (we refer to these as the "traditional benefits" of the Olympic lifts). . Worldwide scientific consensus and decades of global competition confirm that traditional technique is the most effective known method to achieve these traditional goals and benefits from weightlifting. As such, we recommend you use traditional technique when training or competing for this purpose.
Recently, however, a new purpose for the lifts has emerged accompanied by new, non-traditional technique. This new purpose uses the snatch and clean & jerk as tools for training and testing work capacity. It often involves sub-maximal weights and high-volume repetitions in a race against the clock. In this new context, there may be advantages to using non-traditional technique.
Some examples of differences in traditional vs. non-traditional technique include:
Purpose
Training or testing for max or near-max lifts/Targeting traditional benefits of Olympic lifts
Using submaximal weights and high volume repetitions in race against the clock
Starting hip position
Low
High
Primary muscles to increase bar height
Legs
Back, hips, arms
Feet movement
Move outward to receive bar, reposition inward at start of each new rep
Do not move
(Note: Dave Castro from CrossFit Inc discusses these and other variations in the Snatch in a longer paper on a similar topic that can be found here.)
Benefits and Trade-offs
Following are some benefits and tradeoffs resulting from the technique differences in the table above.
With traditional technique, your hips should start as close to the bar as feasible. This helps your torso remain vertical and maximizes use of your legs to raise the height of the bar. While advantageous for traditional weightlifting goals, this approach may be sub-optimal for maximizing high-volume, high-repetition speed.
With non-traditional technique, your hips might start much higher. This reduces use of your legs, may keep them fresher for other work, and relies on your hips, back, and arms to raise the height of the bar. While potentially faster under high-volume, high-rep conditions, this approach may be sub-optimal when the weight starts to feel heavy (since the legs are the body's most powerful generators of vertical propulsion).
Similarly, with traditional technique, outward movement of your feet when receiving the bar improves the speed of your change of direction and your receiving position. This is especially useful for heavy lifts. But repeated movement of your feet may also slow your ability to quickly string repetitions together (since you must shuffle your feet back in place before the start of each new rep). You might choose non-moving feet to enable greater high-volume and high-rep speed, but this will cause problems for your change of direction and receiving position when the bar gets heavier.
For those who practice and test the Olympic lifts with alternating goals (sometimes to improve traditional benefits and one-rep maxes, sometimes to move sub-maximal weights quickly at higher volume, sometimes both), the choice of technique may be a true dilemma. Reliance on just one technique in training and competition may be ideal for one purpose but sub-optimal for others. Meanwhile, regularly switching among techniques may be sub-optimal for every purpose.
Since our gym specializes in teaching how to snatch and clean & jerk the greatest amount of weight possible, and since our athletes primarily seek the traditional benefits of the Olympic lifts (strength, power, coordination, rate of force development, ability to absorb opposing force, etc), we exclusively teach and coach technique that is best suited to this purpose: traditional weightlifting technique. If your purpose during training or competition is different than ours, you may find it useful to consider a different technique.
Now, having said all that, some qualification is warranted.
Techniques Vary, Movement Quality Should Not
Up until now, we've been discussing style of technique (traditional vs. non-traditional). We also think it's important to discuss quality of movement. No matter what technique or style you use, we think it's always important to practice and compete using high-quality (i.e. strict) movements. We think of strict movements as intentional, controlled, and efficient. To us, the opposite of high-quality, strict movement is low-quality, sloppy movement. We think of sloppy movement as unintentional, uncontrolled, and inefficient. Sloppy movement may derive from mental or physical fatigue, but it's also regularly caused by lack of knowledge, awareness, or care (coaches and athletes alike can be guilty of these).
Since repetition makes movement patterns permanent, consistent training with strict movement is the most effective way to pattern your technique of choice. Even in competition, you should prefer strict movement to sloppy movement (based on presumed efficiency of the former). Whenever sloppy movement threatens to rear its head in your performance, we think it's important to fight against it.
Protecting against sloppy movement is simple: Don't tolerate it. We all know there are gyms out there you can walk into and perform a bunch of sloppy, garbage reps just for the sake of getting the daily work done. At our gym we have zero tolerance for this. If you train with us and your technique starts to deviate, we'll strive to address it in one of several ways. First, we'll ask to you correct the deviation (perhaps you lost your focus or awareness and we can cure it with a simple reminder). If you can't correct it, we'll ask you to either lower the weight, reduce the range of motion, or simply cut the exercise off for the day. We don't allow garbage reps and we don't believe you should either.
Exceptions
There are at least two circumstances when departure from strict technique is acceptable:
The first is competition. In the heat of the moment, when the stakes are high and the lift is difficult, making the lift may be your primary focus. While your chances of making the lift theoretically improve if you adhere to the strict technique you've practiced, we've all seen how unintended deviations arise when folks are pushing their absolute physical and mental limits. In a competition or other high-stakes setting, if such a deviation emerges but still allows you to make the lift, so be it. Deviations happen under these circumstances. Though they should be minimized, we don't consider deviations to be deal-breakers at the occasional fringe of high-level personal performance.
The second exception relates to the development of personal idiosyncrasies. These sometimes emerge without detriment in experienced lifters. Once you've advanced past the beginning stage of training, you may develop some personal idiosyncrasies with your chosen technique. These are often based on the unique attributes of your body (curiously, these may also be a reflection of your coach). Though you may not look exactly like the textbook or the world champion you watched on Youtube, idiosyncrasies that fall within acceptable ranges and do not hinder performance ought to be left alone.
A story I heard directly from Alex Krychev, former Bulgarian champion lifter and coach illustrates the points above:
Bulgarian coach Abadjiiev had just finished watching one of his lifters win the World Championship. The lifter had developed an idiosyncratic style that differed from textbook technique. As the lifter was walking off the platform and back into the warm-up room, Abadjiiev was approached by another coach. The coach congratulated Abadjiiev and asked him: "Do you think he would be able to lift more weight if his technique was better?" Abadjiiev responded, "His technique is fine. He just won the World Championship."
The bottom line for us: Technique matters. It matters which technique you choose and it matters that you perform that technique consistently with high quality movement. The choice of technique is something that should be left to you and your coach(es) in the context of your body and your purpose. But the strict use of high-quality movements rather than slop should be non-negotiable.
www.waxmansgym.com/index.php/blog/all-blog-articles/110-must-we-always-use-strict-traditional-technique
We want to address a question that keeps coming up in our classes and seminars:
Q: Are there times when it's acceptable to perform the Olympic lifts without strict, traditional weightlifting technique?
We've heard this question regularly over the past few years and our take on it has evolved somewhat. For most people, the answer will depend on your purpose and the trade-offs you are willing to accept. While some circumstances may warrant use of non-traditional techniques, sloppy technique is never acceptable.
What's Your Purpose?
Traditionally, the Olympic lifts have been used to test and increase the amount of weight you can lift in a single snatch or clean & jerk. Training for this goal also maximizes your strength, power, rate of force development, coordination, and ability to absorb an opposing force (we refer to these as the "traditional benefits" of the Olympic lifts). . Worldwide scientific consensus and decades of global competition confirm that traditional technique is the most effective known method to achieve these traditional goals and benefits from weightlifting. As such, we recommend you use traditional technique when training or competing for this purpose.
Recently, however, a new purpose for the lifts has emerged accompanied by new, non-traditional technique. This new purpose uses the snatch and clean & jerk as tools for training and testing work capacity. It often involves sub-maximal weights and high-volume repetitions in a race against the clock. In this new context, there may be advantages to using non-traditional technique.
Some examples of differences in traditional vs. non-traditional technique include:
Purpose
Training or testing for max or near-max lifts/Targeting traditional benefits of Olympic lifts
Using submaximal weights and high volume repetitions in race against the clock
Starting hip position
Low
High
Primary muscles to increase bar height
Legs
Back, hips, arms
Feet movement
Move outward to receive bar, reposition inward at start of each new rep
Do not move
(Note: Dave Castro from CrossFit Inc discusses these and other variations in the Snatch in a longer paper on a similar topic that can be found here.)
Benefits and Trade-offs
Following are some benefits and tradeoffs resulting from the technique differences in the table above.
With traditional technique, your hips should start as close to the bar as feasible. This helps your torso remain vertical and maximizes use of your legs to raise the height of the bar. While advantageous for traditional weightlifting goals, this approach may be sub-optimal for maximizing high-volume, high-repetition speed.
With non-traditional technique, your hips might start much higher. This reduces use of your legs, may keep them fresher for other work, and relies on your hips, back, and arms to raise the height of the bar. While potentially faster under high-volume, high-rep conditions, this approach may be sub-optimal when the weight starts to feel heavy (since the legs are the body's most powerful generators of vertical propulsion).
Similarly, with traditional technique, outward movement of your feet when receiving the bar improves the speed of your change of direction and your receiving position. This is especially useful for heavy lifts. But repeated movement of your feet may also slow your ability to quickly string repetitions together (since you must shuffle your feet back in place before the start of each new rep). You might choose non-moving feet to enable greater high-volume and high-rep speed, but this will cause problems for your change of direction and receiving position when the bar gets heavier.
For those who practice and test the Olympic lifts with alternating goals (sometimes to improve traditional benefits and one-rep maxes, sometimes to move sub-maximal weights quickly at higher volume, sometimes both), the choice of technique may be a true dilemma. Reliance on just one technique in training and competition may be ideal for one purpose but sub-optimal for others. Meanwhile, regularly switching among techniques may be sub-optimal for every purpose.
Since our gym specializes in teaching how to snatch and clean & jerk the greatest amount of weight possible, and since our athletes primarily seek the traditional benefits of the Olympic lifts (strength, power, coordination, rate of force development, ability to absorb opposing force, etc), we exclusively teach and coach technique that is best suited to this purpose: traditional weightlifting technique. If your purpose during training or competition is different than ours, you may find it useful to consider a different technique.
Now, having said all that, some qualification is warranted.
Techniques Vary, Movement Quality Should Not
Up until now, we've been discussing style of technique (traditional vs. non-traditional). We also think it's important to discuss quality of movement. No matter what technique or style you use, we think it's always important to practice and compete using high-quality (i.e. strict) movements. We think of strict movements as intentional, controlled, and efficient. To us, the opposite of high-quality, strict movement is low-quality, sloppy movement. We think of sloppy movement as unintentional, uncontrolled, and inefficient. Sloppy movement may derive from mental or physical fatigue, but it's also regularly caused by lack of knowledge, awareness, or care (coaches and athletes alike can be guilty of these).
Since repetition makes movement patterns permanent, consistent training with strict movement is the most effective way to pattern your technique of choice. Even in competition, you should prefer strict movement to sloppy movement (based on presumed efficiency of the former). Whenever sloppy movement threatens to rear its head in your performance, we think it's important to fight against it.
Protecting against sloppy movement is simple: Don't tolerate it. We all know there are gyms out there you can walk into and perform a bunch of sloppy, garbage reps just for the sake of getting the daily work done. At our gym we have zero tolerance for this. If you train with us and your technique starts to deviate, we'll strive to address it in one of several ways. First, we'll ask to you correct the deviation (perhaps you lost your focus or awareness and we can cure it with a simple reminder). If you can't correct it, we'll ask you to either lower the weight, reduce the range of motion, or simply cut the exercise off for the day. We don't allow garbage reps and we don't believe you should either.
Exceptions
There are at least two circumstances when departure from strict technique is acceptable:
The first is competition. In the heat of the moment, when the stakes are high and the lift is difficult, making the lift may be your primary focus. While your chances of making the lift theoretically improve if you adhere to the strict technique you've practiced, we've all seen how unintended deviations arise when folks are pushing their absolute physical and mental limits. In a competition or other high-stakes setting, if such a deviation emerges but still allows you to make the lift, so be it. Deviations happen under these circumstances. Though they should be minimized, we don't consider deviations to be deal-breakers at the occasional fringe of high-level personal performance.
The second exception relates to the development of personal idiosyncrasies. These sometimes emerge without detriment in experienced lifters. Once you've advanced past the beginning stage of training, you may develop some personal idiosyncrasies with your chosen technique. These are often based on the unique attributes of your body (curiously, these may also be a reflection of your coach). Though you may not look exactly like the textbook or the world champion you watched on Youtube, idiosyncrasies that fall within acceptable ranges and do not hinder performance ought to be left alone.
A story I heard directly from Alex Krychev, former Bulgarian champion lifter and coach illustrates the points above:
Bulgarian coach Abadjiiev had just finished watching one of his lifters win the World Championship. The lifter had developed an idiosyncratic style that differed from textbook technique. As the lifter was walking off the platform and back into the warm-up room, Abadjiiev was approached by another coach. The coach congratulated Abadjiiev and asked him: "Do you think he would be able to lift more weight if his technique was better?" Abadjiiev responded, "His technique is fine. He just won the World Championship."
The bottom line for us: Technique matters. It matters which technique you choose and it matters that you perform that technique consistently with high quality movement. The choice of technique is something that should be left to you and your coach(es) in the context of your body and your purpose. But the strict use of high-quality movements rather than slop should be non-negotiable.
www.waxmansgym.com/index.php/blog/all-blog-articles/110-must-we-always-use-strict-traditional-technique