Strength and Power Notes September 2008

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For daily insights into the world of weightlifting during the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.

Weightlifting at the Beijing Olympic Games took center stage last month. NBC Sports provided the coverage, which was spread throughout network, cable, and online coverage. Pete Pranica and two-time USA Olympian Shane Hamman handled the commentary.

For the first time, several sports (weightlifting included) were “called” live from NBC studios in New York City. There were a lot of reasons given, but the overall set-up seemed to work fairly well. We enjoyed working from the Saturday Night Live studio, 8-H.

I was honored to again serve as statistician, where I keep an eye on the competition and the strategies used by the various coaches in the battle for medals. This information is relayed to the commentators and the rest of the production crew.

As usual, it’s hard to satisfy hard core lifting fans with the limited coverage afforded our great sport. Some of that relates to the viewing public’s demands, some of it on what NBC thinks will be of interest.

Even Dave Barry knows:

Columnist Dave Barry noted in his blog (http://blogs.herald.com/dave_barrys_blog/) his complete agreement with the mention by Kyle Walker (http://tigerweekly.com/article/09-17-2008/9173) about nummies doing Curls in the squat or power rack. Kyle’s comments: Please stop curling in the squat rack. I know your “bros” at “bodybuilding.com” said this is OK and it’s the only way you can get that massive pump. They are wrong. The squat rack is for squats and other power movements only.

Someone else telling it like it is….. well done.

Doug Lane, director of the Cross Fit training center in Amelia Island, FL (check www.crossfitameliaisland.com) hosted a great 8-hour program on the Snatch and the Clean-and-Jerk on Saturday, September 13, 2008. We had 10 participants from North Florida and Georgia take part.

Coming Up!

• I’ll be at the 2008 USA Cycling Summit in Colorado Springs, October 14-19 and the 6th International Conference on Strength Training, October 28-November 2.


• Brian Walton will host the 2nd Annual Cadence Strength & Power Clinic for Cyclists and Triathletes at Cadence’s New York City and Philadelphia facilities. I'll be there November 14-16. Watch for details here and at www.cadencecycling.com.


• Rudy Nielsen is planning an explosive lifting workshop in Alexandria, VA on January 17-18. Check his site (www.crossfitalexandria.com) and here for further details as they become available. Also, check out Rudy's comments about his wife, Christy's, first Olympic-style weightlifting meet recently.


• Charlotte YMCA still looks good for some cycling conditioning programs, but no firm plans have been set.

This series of monthly installments looks at some highlights of current weightlifting technique instruction, especially as it relates to the pull motion in the Snatch and the Clean. Check for the entire series across several months’ newsletters.

In 2006 Ernie Rimer, an assistant strength and conditioning coach at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ (now the strength and conditioning coach for the USA Ski Team’s national women’s downhill team) contacted several prominent experts in the area of weightlifting technique. Ernie was collecting details from various weightlifting and S&C corners related to the so-called “second pull” exhibited in the Snatch and the Clean. The Internet always reflects a good deal of chatter about optimal weightlifting technique and Ernie took it upon himself to collect and disseminate germane technique details to his NAU coaching staff.

Here is my answer to Ernie’s fourth question:

4) Please give any other advice or input that you would like to donate.

No topic is specified, so I’ll spare you the effects of more ‘donated advice.’ I am not completely sure of the object of this exercise, but allow me to say that there are many possible implications for your questions and the resultant discussion.

If I can be of any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me. Meanwhile, I encourage lots of debate on the subject of effective weightlifting technique and encourage participants to fully absorb that which I tried to explain in Explosive Lifting for Sports. This is particularly true of the recent (NOTE: This was written in 2006) release of the ‘enhanced edition’ of the book, which includes a free Dartfish mediabook on lifting technique.

Thank you for this opportunity, my best wishes to you and your staff.