One thing I am learning as I progress in the sport of weightlifting is that there is always something to learn from any coach of a style anywhere. During my time at MDUSA last weekend Rebecca Gerdon and Sean Rigsby introduced me to a different auxiliary movement for the snatch that I had not previously tried or thought about. Anyone who knows anything about my cleans or snatches know that because of the length of time in my pill off the floor that I often abandon the hamstrings and abandon my heels at the cost of rolling forward into my toes and losing power application Into the bar.
Rebecca and Sean showed me the snatch from an elevated platform with just my toes hanging off the front of the platform. I had previously never seen this movement nor attempted it. Yesterday I played around with it a little bit and found that it has some benefit in keeping me in my heels down and thus keeping me applying power to the bar. I was later informed that this type of snatching came from Don McCauley and to ensure that I was doing the movement properly I gave him a call. He explained the movement to me and while I’m not completely sold on its usefulness for my style of snatching I believe that it has some carryover. Specifically I believe that this type of movement may be hugely beneficial for pulls in both the snatch and the clean.
The reason I tell you all of this is to remind you that no matter how full of expertise you are in the lifts or how knowledgeable you are towards yours specific style of lifting, there is always more to learn. The Olympic lifting community in this country and in the world have a vast amount of knowledge that is relatively unshared amongst coaches. Each of us have specific exercises we resort to when trying to fix certain problems and often times these exercises are not shared amongst the community.
Jon North has a mantra that every coach should be constantly continuing their education and constantly attending seminars and certifications for all styles and all different coaches. I tend to agree with this idea. I learned a little something this past weekend in an environment that had I not been listening I would’ve missed completely. Thank you Rebecca and Sean for a little insight I hope that someday I can add something to your toolbelt as well.