With day 2 complete at the Youth/Junior Developmental camp we saw some really interesting changes from yesterday. Below you can see the two workouts they completed today and 3 quick observations from the day.
Workouts:
Observations:
1. Work Ethic vs Discipline. My coach, Ursula Papandrea, along with Colin Burns and Cortney Batchelor had a good lunchtime discussion between the difference in Work Ethic and Discipline. Colin spoke to the kids at the camp on this difference. What we established was simple. Work Ethic can be displayed by how hard one works and the effort they put forth. Discipline can be displayed by controlled behavior that completes a task at hand as stated. Both are great tools to the sport of weightlifting when they are used together. However, as I mentioned yesterday, it is easy to have a work ethic and push the weights and the reps in the sport of weightlifting, especially when you are young. However, the true mark of a champion is the type of athlete who can put forth 100% effort (work ethic) in the exact work written and designed by their coach and nothing more (discipline). Many of the camp athletes are full of work ethic, but as Colin told them today, it must be combined with a type of discipline that comes with trusting your coach.
2. You can't replace speed in the jerk. We did a lot of jerk work today. What I noticed was those who are extremely good at the jerk are those who are extremely fast. The speed with which some of these athletes move their feet and their hands is mind-blowing. I didn't see every athlete jerk today but the ones that were really really good moved with incredible speed. This isn't a new concept really. You have to move the most amount of weight the shortest distance. Speed is the only way that can happen. The lifters today who will put whatever they clean over their head had this part figured out. You can hear the feet hit the platform with extreme force at the same time that their elbows lock out and their shoulders tighten up. If there's one thing coaches you focus on outside of the technical pieces of the jerk, speed is it.
3. Strengthen your back! Some of these kids can front squat an amazing amount of weight. I saw two 20 year old front squat 200kg like it was nothing. There's a certain amount of glory and fame that comes with a big squat. People like to watch athletes move heavy weight. There's no such glory or instafame in 3-Stop pulls or heavy snatch pulls. Yet, for many of these athletes, it is their greatest weakness. My favorite moment of the day was watching some incredibly strong athletes doing 3-stop snatch pull and fold like play-doh under the weight. At 100% these athletes could not maintain a rigid, strong back. Either their thoracic spine caved causing their chest to drop and shoulders to slump OR their lower lumbar buckled and took any power and speed away from their legs. A rigid, stable back is critical to this sport. Just training the squats at the neglect of heavy pulls from different positions with different tempos will create a disparity that WILL hold them back. (This is true of my own lifting) Obviously a flat strong back is necessary but without a focus and a tenacity in pulling work that strength will never come.
More to come…