Why Every High School Athlete Should Learn to Olympic Lift
Most athletes don’t know how to Olympic lift or even know what it is. This is understandable but a shame. The main reason athletes are unfamiliar is because Olympic lifting is a sport in itself. Like all sports, there’s a significant learning curve to mastery. A volleyball coach coaches volleyball, not Olympic lifting. Even if they have personal experience, it is likely not enough to properly coach athletes to develop proficiency in an activity as complex as Olympic lifting.
However, Olympic lifting is one of those sports that make you better at all other sports. Part of the reason why soccer is so popular at the youth levels is the athletic development it can create. Soccer develops footwork, speed, and agility. Almost every sport holds great value in footwork, speed, and agility. I often tell my baseball athletes not to play baseball in the winter. Want to get better at baseball? Go learn soccer.
Learning the craft of another sport can significantly benefit an athlete in ways that playing only one sport cannot. Learning new movement patterns and developing strength in those patterns creates a stronger, more powerful, and more injury-resilient athlete in most cases. Urban Meyer says he won’t even recruit a player if he only plays football. Most Hall of Fame athletes played multiple sports at the high school level. Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, Lebron James, Michael Phelps, and many other all-time greats played multiple sports in high school.
Power Production
Learning the Olympic lifts will give the athlete the benefits of being a multisport athlete. The main benefit of Olympic lifting is that it translates so well to other sports. And this is for one reason: POWER. Nothing increases power greater than Olympic lifting.
Power is defined as the amount of work in a given period of time. It isn’t a measure of strength. It is a measure of how quickly you can move a weight, whether it be a barbell or your own bodyweight. The vertical jump is a power exercise, as are the Olympic lifts.
Here’s a brief and broad explanation of what the Olympic lifts are.
Now, I’m not expecting athletes to be able to perform a multi-hundred-pound snatch overhead. In fact, I don’t believe athletes should snatch heavy at all unless Olympic lifting is your sport. It’s too dangerous and takes a high level of coaching and athleticism. But should athletes learn to develop the mobility and stability to snatch a very lightweight overhead? Definitely!
The main lift athletes should focus on is the clean. Depending on your sport and goals, all athletes should develop competency in some form of the hang or power clean. This develops incredible strength and power through the ankles, knees, and hips, which can convert to power to the rest of the upper body. Developing power from the legs will undoubtedly improve performance in any sport. You will jump higher, run faster, throw harder, punch harder, swim faster, and be able to accelerate, decelerate, and change directions faster. There isn’t a sport that doesn’t value those skills. Here’s how to power clean.
What if You Don’t Have Access to Proper Equipment?
Most American high schools have football, baseball, softball, basketball, track and field, soccer, cross country, volleyball, and other sports. All these athletes would greatly benefit from Olympic lifting. But you can’t get all these athletes in the weight room every week. Some coaches don’t even believe in weightlifting at all. That’s a shame, but a different topic for another time.
Fortunately, you don’t need the entire weight room to Olympic lift. The first step to learning is without weights. Simply using a wooden dowel or Pvc pipe is all that is necessary to learn the intricacies of the movement. From there, you can borrow a few dumbbells from the weight room and snatch or clean outside. This can let two teams train while one has the whole weight room. Here are great examples of snatching and cleaning with just dumbbells.
Many athletes and coaches can get intimidated when thinking about Olympic lifting. But Olympic lifting isn’t all about lifting a heavy barbell overhead. It can be as simple as the dumbbell cleans you just saw in the video. Remember, power development is about the amount of force produced over a period of time. It isn’t about how much weight you can lift. It’s about how quickly you can move a weight, including your own body. For Olympic lifting specifically, power is best developed using 60-80% of your 1RM. However, power can be progressively developed using any weight, as long as you can move it as fast as possible. Learning the Olympic lifts is a highly efficient way of developing the skill of power development.
An additional added benefit is that Olympic lifting is proven to increase bone density. This usually isn’t a top priority for athletes, but stronger, denser bones reduce the risk of fractures. Stress fractures and large bone breaks are all too common in athletics. Olympic lifting can reduce fracture rates, especially stress fracture rates, with proper programming.
Learning with progressively heavier weights is best, but you can get away with just one dumbbell when in a pinch. There are lots of great resources out there regarding the Olympic lifts. If you are serious about your or your athletes’ athletic development, I’d highly encourage you to develop proficiency in the Olympic lifts. It develops skill, strength, and power and reduces the likelihood of injury when performed correctly.
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Why Every High School Athlete Should Learn to Olympic Lift
Most athletes don’t know how to Olympic lift or even know what it is. This is understandable but a shame. The main reason athletes are unfamiliar is because Olympic lifting is a sport in itself. Like all sports, there’s a significant learning curve to mastery. A volleyball coach coaches volleyball, not Olympic lifting. Even if they have personal experience, it is likely not enough to properly coach athletes to develop proficiency in an activity as complex as Olympic lifting.
However, Olympic lifting is one of those sports that make you better at all other sports. Part of the reason why soccer is so popular at the youth levels is the athletic development it can create. Soccer develops footwork, speed, and agility. Almost every sport holds great value in footwork, speed, and agility. I often tell my baseball athletes not to play baseball in the winter. Want to get better at baseball? Go learn soccer.
Learning the craft of another sport can significantly benefit an athlete in ways that playing only one sport cannot. Learning new movement patterns and developing strength in those patterns creates a stronger, more powerful, and more injury-resilient athlete in most cases. Urban Meyer says he won’t even recruit a player if he only plays football. Most Hall of Fame athletes played multiple sports at the high school level. Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, Lebron James, Michael Phelps, and many other all-time greats played multiple sports in high school.
Power Production
Learning the Olympic lifts will give the athlete the benefits of being a multisport athlete. The main benefit of Olympic lifting is that it translates so well to other sports. And this is for one reason: POWER. Nothing increases power greater than Olympic lifting.
Power is defined as the amount of work in a given period of time. It isn’t a measure of strength. It is a measure of how quickly you can move a weight, whether it be a barbell or your own bodyweight. The vertical jump is a power exercise, as are the Olympic lifts.
Here’s a brief and broad explanation of what the Olympic lifts are.
Now, I’m not expecting athletes to be able to perform a multi-hundred-pound snatch overhead. In fact, I don’t believe athletes should snatch heavy at all unless Olympic lifting is your sport. It’s too dangerous and takes a high level of coaching and athleticism. But should athletes learn to develop the mobility and stability to snatch a very lightweight overhead? Definitely!
The main lift athletes should focus on is the clean. Depending on your sport and goals, all athletes should develop competency in some form of the hang or power clean. This develops incredible strength and power through the ankles, knees, and hips, which can convert to power to the rest of the upper body. Developing power from the legs will undoubtedly improve performance in any sport. You will jump higher, run faster, throw harder, punch harder, swim faster, and be able to accelerate, decelerate, and change directions faster. There isn’t a sport that doesn’t value those skills. Here’s how to power clean.
What if You Don’t Have Access to Proper Equipment?
Most American high schools have football, baseball, softball, basketball, track and field, soccer, cross country, volleyball, and other sports. All these athletes would greatly benefit from Olympic lifting. But you can’t get all these athletes in the weight room every week. Some coaches don’t even believe in weightlifting at all. That’s a shame, but a different topic for another time.
Fortunately, you don’t need the entire weight room to Olympic lift. The first step to learning is without weights. Simply using a wooden dowel or Pvc pipe is all that is necessary to learn the intricacies of the movement. From there, you can borrow a few dumbbells from the weight room and snatch or clean outside. This can let two teams train while one has the whole weight room. Here are great examples of snatching and cleaning with just dumbbells.
Many athletes and coaches can get intimidated when thinking about Olympic lifting. But Olympic lifting isn’t all about lifting a heavy barbell overhead. It can be as simple as the dumbbell cleans you just saw in the video. Remember, power development is about the amount of force produced over a period of time. It isn’t about how much weight you can lift. It’s about how quickly you can move a weight, including your own body. For Olympic lifting specifically, power is best developed using 60-80% of your 1RM. However, power can be progressively developed using any weight, as long as you can move it as fast as possible. Learning the Olympic lifts is a highly efficient way of developing the skill of power development.
An additional added benefit is that Olympic lifting is proven to increase bone density. This usually isn’t a top priority for athletes, but stronger, denser bones reduce the risk of fractures. Stress fractures and large bone breaks are all too common in athletics. Olympic lifting can reduce fracture rates, especially stress fracture rates, with proper programming.
Learning with progressively heavier weights is best, but you can get away with just one dumbbell when in a pinch. There are lots of great resources out there regarding the Olympic lifts. If you are serious about your or your athletes’ athletic development, I’d highly encourage you to develop proficiency in the Olympic lifts. It develops skill, strength, and power and reduces the likelihood of injury when performed correctly.