Podium SC Athlete Lindsay M - Regionals 2012
Olympic lifting is awesome – performed correctly it requires
an impressive combination of strength, power, flexibility, balance, and
speed. It is truly an athletic form of
lifting huge weights overhead and requires dedicated practice to get it right.
In CrossFit however, most are doing it wrong, VERY wrong. I can’t tell you how much it bugs me to see “another”
Crossfit video posted online with people lifting with terrible form... and
there are WAY too many of these already.
Two factors are at the heart of this issue - the low average
skill of Crossfit coaches in terms of effective teaching practices and the
relative ignorance of whoever is planning the wods. If that sounds harsh to you that’s fine, but
I’ve seen a LOT of coaching and a LOT of programming and these are the
conclusions I’ve come to. Your members
are paying you good money with the expectation of high level service, so it is
up to you to provide it and make sure they get their money’s worth.
The “typical” Crossfit coach is an interesting phenomenon in
the physical training world – a weekend, $1000, and you are set up to teach
others highly complex skills. You might
mention that there are a bunch of personal training courses that run similarly
but the reality is that those people are NOT turning around and teaching cleans
and snatches and doing 30 of each for time.
You also might mention that there are a bunch of specialized Crossfit
courses out there for lifting and gymnastics etc. I will respond that these are merely the
STARTING point of your skill development as a coach, and in no way truly
prepare you for actually coaching these lifts effectively.
In order to fully understand teaching the Olympic lifts, you
have to train them yourself and for a LONG time. You really will not know how to truly coach
these lifts until you have reached a reasonable level of proficiency (which in
my mind would be about a minimum of 50/70kg for women and 80/110kg for men). Bodyweight plays into this a bit but for
average sized individuals, if you are lifting those loads with good (FULL
snatch and FULL clean) form, you probably know a thing or two about what works
and what doesn’t.
Class structure, contrary to popular belief, is NOT a
restriction on effective teaching – you just need to know HOW to do it and how
to identify technique issues. Without
extending the length of this blog unnecessarily, this means a lot of skill
transfer exercises (NOT 5x3 snatch balance for max load) with a reasonable
progression and KNOWING what you are looking for so that you can cue
corrections.
You should probably also have a structure for your class in
terms of WHEN people lift so that you are watching 4 or 5 people at a time as
opposed to a whole class of 15+.
So, RULE #1 – if you are a coach, GET BETTER, a LOT BETTER
at the Olifts yourself through dedicated practice (and I mean a LOT of
practice), LEARN what works and what doesn’t through personal experience and
research, and develop a teaching progression that is sensible and with a long
term view.
Issue #2 is programming. I almost hate this word in the Crossfit world
since it is so abused. “Programming”
used to mean employing a systematic series of physical challenges that
progresses someone (or a group of people) towards an end goal. It requires forethought, an understanding of
the goal, proper progression, and reasonable knowledge of the energy systems
and muscular characteristics of the body.
What it has degenerated into in the Crossfit world is shotgunning wods
based on a “we did that yesterday so we’ll do this today” type approach. Believe it or not, when I first showed up at
the affiliate I used to co-own, the programming was done on a night-before
basis or even sometimes 15 minutes before class time! “Programming” has become synonymous with “making
up workouts” and it is not surprising to me at all that people are F’ing things
up badly as a result.
The Olympic lifts are one of the biggest victims of this
trend. Here’s the deal – the Olifts are
best performed and LEARNED from at least a “relatively” rested state with a
focus on accuracy and coordination. This
is the exact OPPOSITE of what happens in a wod.
Case in point – Isabel – 30 snatches for time. If someone is reasonably proficient, they
will get maybe up to 10 reps with pretty solid form and the remaining 20 reps
with successively worse and worse technique.
In that scenario, you have AT BEST 10 reps that are developing a “good”
motor program and 20 reps that are developing a POOR motor program... guess
what wins out?
An interesting insight into Isabel in particular comes from a
personal programming experience of mine.
I create a wod for my Affiliate called “Breaking up with Isabel” which
consists of 6 rounds of 5 snatches, each successive round starting on the minute. Interestingly enough, MANY people got a
BETTER Isabel time out of this workout than they did when they actually did the
full 30 snatches in a row... and guess what, their form was a WHOLE lot better.
Now I understand completely the need to test wods like
Isabel and Grace ON OCCASION, especially as athletes near competition time, but
these (and things like barbell complexes) should not form the majority of any
Crossfitter’s exposure to the Olifts.
Secondly, much too much time is spent on learning (and training)
the power variations of the lifts. The
power variations are technically simpler but can create serious flaws when it
comes to developing full clean and full snatch techninque... primarily, the
arms in the power variations are used excessively in pulling the bar UP whereas
one of their main functions in the full lift is to pull the body DOWN. Repetitive power snatches and power cleans
will interfere with the timing for full snatches and full cleans. I have met a LOT of people who can power
snatch and power clean who CAN’T do the full lifts... But I’ve yet to meet ANYONE
who can full clean and snatch who can’t do the power variations.
I’m wary of giving programmers too much info as the absolute
worst scenario is utilizing methods that you don’t fully understand, but this
is too big of an issue to let slide for much longer. So here are the NEW Crossfit rules for
programming the Olifts:
RULE #2 – If you want to do Olifts in metcons, make those
metcons interval-style with the Olift as the FIRST component. The rest period leading into the Olift will
preserve the “good” stuff better this way.
RULE #3 – Program both Snatch and Clean variations (i.e.
teaching and skill transfer exercises) at LEAST once per week... it is preferable
to have some sort of technique work (bar only in some cases) on an everyday
basis to ensure your members get good contact with these movements
RULE #4 – Spend MORE time at 75-85% loads and LESS time “going
for max”
RULE #5 – PLAN ahead with your progressions and work towards
an end goal 4-8 weeks down the road
RULE #6 – The vast majority of your programming of Olympic
lifts should be as a technique/strength portion prior to the WOD... I’m talking
80% or more of the reps should be under low fatigue conditions
RULE #7 – Program with the goal of the full lifts in mind as
opposed to the power variations
I could go on for a
while on these, but that is the starting point.
If you do the above, you will be ahead of most Crossfit coaches and Affiliates
in terms of sensible, safe, and progressive programming of the Olympic lifts.
Before I end this blog though, one more request – if you
have a wod video and the form is TERRIBLE, please please PLEASE do not post it
up online. We’ve got enough people
sniping at us already, let’s make things better as opposed to worse!
Cam
