Wait, so those in the know (being… you? since many successful elite coaches disagree) say that those exercises transfer better over to starting and acceleration, yet there are a number who have said the Olympic lifts and OHB throws have been irreplaceable in teaching and improving these skills?
Weightlifts transfer only over to acceleration? Well, considering many use them in ways you seem to be unable to imagine, I’d have to disagree. Dan Pfaff and others use a variety protocols to use them to develop improved work capacity and alactic abilities, which is going to affect many things besides just acceleration.
And acceleration has the least amount of transfer? Well, last I recall, the elites are accelerating to 60m and sometimes beyond, so acceleration is making up most of the race. Not to mention, top speed and SE can only be developed upon acceleration. If you can’t accelerate well, you can’t maximize top speed and you can’t have the best possible SE. The gold and silver medalists went 3.78 and 3.77 to 30m respectively, so I think most of us have some work to do. Oh yeah, they do olympic lifts :).
You talk about people training as efficiently as possible–what is inefficient about using the Olympic lifts? Are the gains that one can make utilizing them outweight the supposed “inefficiencies” in training? Many seem to think so. I can name multiple dozens of coaches who have DEVELOPED numerous elites in sprinting and derivative events (hurdles, jumps, etc.) that utilize olympic lifts and find great value in them for most athletes. They find enough value to de-emphasize squats and other pulls. What does that tell you?
Again, if the transference is only to acceleration and only because of improved efficiency within movement, why isn’t there the same association with squatting? Oh yeah, the guys Dan Pfaff was talking about weren’t exactly known for fast 30s, but for their top speed, so I don’t think your argument really holds.