[quote author="Nick Newman" date="1253233780"]
a) The most important part of the clean is the second pull
Depends on the lifter. For most athletes, Id say the most important thing is transitioning under the bar. There are many people who can rip a ton of weight off the floor, but cant drop under it. OLing is about catching weight, not pulling weight. Additionally, most people overpull on the concentric portion of the lift and waste too much time in the air, hence burning the available time to catch a weight.
If the argument is just about power production and load, then most track athletes would be better off ditching the power clean and hitting the full version of the lifts. Somehow, thats getting skipped and the profs are going straight to clean pulls.
b) Heaviest loads can be achieved through just a clean pull
No, the heaviest load can be achieved through the clean deadlift. In order for the clean pull to have any bearing on power production (on non-elite lifters), it needs to be 100-120% of your best clean. Clean pulls arent meant to be super heavy because it slows you down otherwise.
c) Loads can be moved fastest through just a clean pull
Is this opinion or are there facts to back this up? Regardless, the fastest portion of the lift is transitioning to catch. For a successful lift, you have to stand up and have it at a height where you can drop under. Again, most athletes and lifters over pull.
d) Becuase of points a and b greater stimuli is achieved through just a clean pull as well
This has already been addressed.
e) The eccentric component of the clean can be better achieved through different exercises
This is opinion. There are many ways to build up a certain quality, but that by itself is insufficient to claim superiority of one method over another. The Russians, Chinese, Bulgarians, etc. all train very differently, but all have gold medalists in OL. When you have top athletes, it doesnt matter much how you train them.[/quote]
Shoot sorry, forgot about this thread…
I was comparing a clean to a clean pull. So obviously a clean deadlift could have higher loads, a partial clean deadlift could have even higher loads…
Loads are moved faster through a clean pull rather than a clean. This is from my opinion but also backed up through un-published data i conducted using several higher level sprinters/jumpers…
As far as eccentric loading. Since I wrote that I have changed my thoughts really. It is an a great way of developing eccentric strength for sure. Other methods are useful also but probably not as transferable because the speed and load at which the eccentric is stressed to much lower overall.