As a high school strength and conditioning coach, it's no secret that I believe in the utility of the Olympic lifts for the development of athleticism. There are a lot of reasons why this is true and I'm not going to bore you with the details of those reasons. The reality is that the best thing for high school and some college athletes is the development of their all-around athleticism. Skills like balance and speed and power, among many others, are paramount to setting athletes up for success down the road. In college, the continued development of these skills is what keeps them on the field and healthy.
Over the last 30 years or so, the Olympic lifts have begun to make their way into college strength and conditioning programs and inevitably into high school strength and conditioning programs. Again there are multiple reasons why this is true foremost among those reasons is the results. Strength coaches are beginning to see how effective the Olympic lifts are at producing and developing healthy athletes. Slowly but surely we are moving out of the Stone Age of Bigger Faster Stronger and into a more enlightened and effective era of strength and conditioning development. (That is not a crack on BFS nor is that to say that some of those principles were ineffective but it is to say there is a better way). I wanted to write this quick blog to remind coaches and athletes across the country that the Olympic lifts are worth learning, utilizing, and implementing.
Obviously there are varying degrees in which they Olympic lifts should be used. For instance, if I'm a in-season collegiate pitcher, the volume and intensity of overhead movements like the snatch and the jerk should be well-managed to coincide with the level of stress I'm already putting on my arm during games and practice. During the off-season for a collegiate pitcher, that volume and intensity will differ. What's more, because of the nature of different sports, a collegiate pitcher will always do different volume and intensity in the lifts than a high school girls soccer player. What you should hear from that truth though is that the lifts are critically important for all sports in all positions at all times, the variance comes in the degree to which we utilize them. Wise strength coaches will consider where the athlete is in their season, the amount of stress already put on the body by practicing their skill, and what specific skills athletes need developed for their position or their sport.
Bottom line: The Olympic lifts are being utilized in more and more programs across the country because they're effective. Coaches, believe in them. Trust them. They work. The best athletes in the world will at bare minimum have the ability to execute a technically precise snatch from the floor. This is because a technically precise snatch requires a high degree of athleticism. Implementing the Olympic lifts into your program is important for this exact reason. Believe in the lifts, their complexity is outweighed by their effectiveness.