The O-lifts are efficient in their capacity to work many muscles, recruit many MU’s, develop coordination, power, etc. They are not, as you know, effecient in their trainability with regards to (as you note) teaching a 100 athletes…Remember, Charlie’s MU recruitment chart places sprints, throws, and jumps just as high as the O-Lifts. Consequently, considering we are developing football players and not sprinters, I am certain that the absence of O-lifts in the training is the wiser option. -The Thinker
I will not respond to the statement that olympic lifts should not be used in team settings as I am not in a situation that a 100 athletes at once is coming my way so I will comment on that later. What I will share is that Charlie’s MU chart places throws before the clean and jerk and after the sprinting and this is not an indicator of anything superior. Is an 8k medball really going to be the same demand on the body as a power clean? While you can express power in many means you are not going to build it the same way. When I see freaks jumping 42 inches while adding slabs of muscle to their backs from tossing some nemo balls I will jump on the band wagon faster than running on grass. Sufficient loads are required to create power, and just because one get’s every muscle contracting while tap dancing doesn’t mean you are building power through activities that use a high percentage of motor units. Without getting into high threshold motor units and firing patterns let’s get to the core of the debate. All methods done right can work, but the real question is what is the highest rate of success with less options? When the Thinker shared how he can teach an athlete to jump in 30-60 seconds let’s see how they bound for 20m, speed hop for 10 meters, and hurdle hop (jumps) over 8 x 36 inch hurdles, the required intensity to transfer on youtube with athletes above 235 pounds. What are the fascial adaptations to the quads over the patella and motor pattern differences with jump squats with heavy vests versus the olympic lifts? If you are in a weight room teaching squats are you watching the medball throws done outside? Are you using 30m fly work for lineman to get equal wattage in the hips?
The thinker does address some good points and the ability to get the squat up is a likely path to increasing power long term. Still, if we took all the greatest powerlifters will they test as well as the olympic lifters who do both structural and more flat lifts paired with ballistic activities of the olympic lifts in the same weight class?
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