SNOW
DAY!!! I had a few cancellations this morning and thought I would do a quick
recap of something cool we did last week.
I think I should note something that I am quite proud of and is a key
point carrying forward for this rant.
About 5 years ago I had a discectomy of my L2, L3, L4, L5 and S1. I pretty much had all my discs removed from
my lower back. The 5 or 6 years leading
up to surgery I lived in severe pain. I
got out of bed every morning looking like a bear humping a football and couldn’t
straighten up until I had a hot shower.
I tried every treatment under the sun, but I think the nature of my work,
past sporting endeavors and my size played a role in a difficult recovery. I was also a stubborn idiot which didn’t help.
There is nothing more demoralizing than
being strong as hell and not being able to move. As a coach, I had always
relied on demonstrating movements but when getting out of bed is difficult,
teaching an Olympic lift or squatting pattern is out of the question. But something great ended up happening amidst
the pain and misery (outside of my clients I became a negative prick and was
not the person I was before this happened or the person I am now). I learned how to coach. When you take away a powerful tool in your
toolbox you are forced to use other tools to get the job done. I learned to break down and correct movements
in a way I would have never even considered before. I don’t wish injury upon any of my fellow
coaches, but I hope you get where I am coming from when it comes to coaching
technique. All of this leads up to this
little diddy…..
Last week I did a technical session
on what I deem one of the most important movements for athletic
performance. Over the years I have seen
therapists have some of their athletes demonstrate specific movement patterns
for their sport or lifting techniques such as: squatting, deadlifting or Olympic
lifting technique to see if their bodies are moving correctly and if they may
be ready to return to loading and or sport.
I never really thought of this until recently, but how much does your
therapist know about these specific movements? I am not knocking therapists; I
am asking a question that needs asking (to be fair, I am doubtful of many
coaches that are teaching these movements as well). I am not implying that a therapist needs to
know these movements as in depth as the strength and conditioning coaches that
they will be working with to help get these athletes back to play, but surely
some base level of knowledge is useful right?
So I
invited our therapy staff, all of our trainers and strength coaches and a few
of our elite athletes that train with us here to do a practical session on the
pocket or quick hang clean. The intent
was to have everyone have a basic understanding as to the why, when, and how we
would use this movement in our programming and which athletes may qualify for
the movement. I invited a few of our
athletes because I see benefit in them understanding the movement on a more
intimate level and to educate them as if they were learning to be a coach. On a side note, I demonstrated more hang
cleans in this session then I have in the last ten years and my back feels
amazing!
WHY:
·
To learn how to create tension in your body
prior to executing a violent movement
·
To teach a violent and synergistic movement that
combines a rapid acceleration with a rapid deceleration
·
To teach the importance of understanding how
important change of elevation is in sport (specifically multi-directional) and
how to manipulate it based off of load
·
To create a connection between the earth and
your hips/torso
·
Because 90% of athletes cannot do traditional
Olympic lifts correctly due to past injuries, mobility or technical issues or
time constraints. Keep in mind, in the
private industry many of our athletes are forced to work on their own and we
have to triage movements for safety reasons. Many coaches are sold on forcing
the movement from the floor and following the traditional styles of Olympic
lifting. My argument is this; we are
building better athletes not better weight lifters and until your athletes
qualify to do such a movement get bent
·
To both reinforce the hip hinge pattern and to
disguise repetition of said pattern
·
To teach athletes to be explosive with a
load. Traditionally Olympic lifts are
thought to be used only for power.
Obviously power is an important attribute for all athletes, but I
mention this last because if you don’t understand all of the above points I wouldn’t
worry about the power benefits just yet
WHEN:
·
When the athlete can show they can create and
hold tension in their spine. As a simple guideline, if the athlete cannot competently
execute a Romanian deadlift for the start phase, a simple jump for the drive
phase or a front squat for the catch phase you need to back your programming up
a bit. Having said this, there are
always exceptions to the rule but I think this is a pretty sound guideline
·
When the athlete is free of injuries and has
qualified to do the movement based off the therapists recommendations and you
are comfortable with them progressing the movement.
·
I use this movement year round and add or take
away from it dependent on my goals for the athletes
·
If there was a movement that was so beneficial
that it was worth risking injury or poor motor patterning, I have a feeling we
all would be doing it
HOW:
·
If you are learning how to lift via the internet
we have problems
·
I am not against talking technique in blog
posts, you tube etc. But there is way too much to cover in a short period of
time. If it is your goal to be a
therapist or you are a therapist it will probably help you have a clearer
picture of what we are trying to achieve as strength coaches. If you are a
coach on the other hand, we are in trouble if this is your main source of
information
·
I am close to 15 years in my career and I still
learn something every day and there is just too much info
I would like to wrap up by
clearing something that pisses me off about the industry. There seems to be this movement from ex or
current athletes turned coach (specifically power lifters, Olympic lifters and
guys that don’t look like they ever played a sport in their lives) how getting
stronger is the only answer to performance and if I wrote this ten years ago I
would have said the same. But as someone
that was an athlete in 3 different contact sports I can tell you this needs to
be taken with a grain of salt. There are
a lot of factors in contact sports and if you are programming these movements
and ignoring the loads put on your athletes bodies outside the weight room you
should be slapped. I also need to be clear;
I load the shit out of my athletes as should you but only after careful
scrutiny of the given situation.
The fact is simple, if you watch an elite power or Olympic lifter
train leading up to heavy loads their form is usually flawless. And as loads increase technique
decreases. The same can be said for any
sport and just substitute load with fatigue. I get that, but what we can’t lose
sight of is the fact that no Olympic lifter or power lifter in the history of
the world (this is an assumption actually) has ever been blindsided while under
extreme load by another athlete in the snow or rain. Their ultimate goal has no variability in it.
There is no contact, extreme cold or heat it is just linear in fashion. And do not get me wrong, I am a huge fan of
both sports (I was devastated when Powerlifting USA stopped production!), but
they are their own sports. We should use
and modify their lifts according to the population we are working with. Draw from them, use their knowledge as the
strongest and most powerful people in the world but only use what is applicable
to your athletes!
As always, please feel free to email me with your questions
or complaints.
Yours in Strength,
Joe McCullum
“Pain is not my
enemy, it is my call to greatness” -Henry Rollins
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