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"Teaching The Olympic Lifts for Children"
Dr. Andrew Jenkins, Central Washington University,
Department of Health Human Performance & Recreation, Ellensburg,
WA,
Olympic lifts can be an essential program in physical
education and athletic programs as long as youngsters trained age
appropriate and modified equipment. This kind of developmentally
appropriate Olympic lift programs can lead to injury prevention
and safety for all youngsters in the gym. Therefore, the purpose
of this article is to provide information about how to teach the
Olympic lifts in a simple progression for physical education teachers
and coaches.
Basic Principles
- Begin each lifting lesson from the ground up. For example,
teach proper positioning beginning with the feet, legs, grip,
elbows, shoulders, and head.
- Begin with low-level skills and work up to high level skills.
- Always be prepared to use remedial work to bring a lifter back
up to high-level skill.
- Emphasize power, speed, and momentum not slow strength.
Perfect practice leads to perfect performance: Do not allow your
lifters to develop bad habits that need to be "un-learned" later
Lesson 1 Addressing the Bar
ü On
all beginning, remedial, and advanced lifts the bar is "addressed"
in the same manner:
ü Place
feet in the "jump" position. Jump position is established
by asking the lifter to close his eyes and perform a series of full
effort vertical leaps. Chalk the start position on the floor
that yields the strongest, highest leap.
ü bar
is over the balls of the feet
ü grip
is pronated and overhand or hook grip.. No "monkey"( thumbless)
grip!
ü hands
are snatch width (elbow width) or clean grip (shoulder width)
is also acceptable for Olympic lifters)
ü buttocks
are down, low back is "set position,"
ü elbows
are always fully extended and never bent
ü shoulders
are slightly ahead of the bar
ü head
is face-forward or slightly up.
Lesson 2 Establishing Grip width on the
Bar
Clean Grip: For clean and jerk related exercises,
the standard width is 'shoulder width." This is established
by having the lifter lean forward over the bar and allow her arms
to dangle loosely from the shoulders. Have the lifter grip
the bars directly where the hands hang. An inch or so in or
outward should establish the most comfortable and powerful width.
Snatch Width: For snatch related exercises
the wide snatch grip is used. Stand behind the lifter and
have him laterally raise is elbows until his upper arms form a straight
line and his forearms dangle vertically (resembling a scarecrow).
Mark his/her elbow positions on the bar. Have lifter turn
around and grasps the bar with his hands just outside of these marks.
Allow adjustments up to 2 inches wider grip for comfort and power.
Lesson 3 The Power Deadlift.
The lifter addresses the bar in the standard fashion. The
lifter uses the overhand or hook grip not the alternating grip used
in powerlifting. Note that there is to be no flexion in the elbows
(a common error) --the arms should remain perfectly straight.
Tell the lifter that her arms and hands are merely ropes attached
to the bar.
Lesson 4 The Power Shrug
The power shrug can be performed with either the clean or the
snatch width grips. The lifter addresses the bar in the standard
fashion. From a normal standing position, the bar is shrugged
forcefully until the shoulders are snugged up beside of the lifter's
neck and ears. Note that there is to be no flexion in the
elbows--the arms remain perfectly straight.
Lesson 5 The Power Pull
The lifter begins with a strong power shrug and then continues
the motion of the bar by flexing the elbows and power pulling the
bar to mid-chest level. Note that the athlete should employ
rapid extension of the hips, legs, and feet to add to the momentum
of the bar. The upper-most position should have the lifter
with his elbows high, bar in close to the chest, legs and ankles
extended. The lifter should lower the bar controlled and bring
it to rest on his thighs. Encourage rapid, explosive movement
and full body, leg, and ankle extension.
Lesson 6a Racking the Bar
The rack position is the finishing position of the clean.
Following the power pull phase of the clean, the lifter will dip
his knees and "scoop" up the bar during the millisecond of "hang
time" where the bar is neither traveling upward nor downward.
The bar should remain close to the lifter's chest as he dips and
scoops. From the side, the coach should see his elbows rotating
rapidly counterclockwise around the bar as a pendulum might swing
around an axis. The most common mistakes in racking the bar
are a) reverse curling the bar, b) hopping into a lateral "splits"
with the legs. Both of these errors are caused by a lack of
dipping speed and depth. The finishing position of a good
rack has the lifter holding the bar tightly to his collarbones and
resting on his frontal delts, elbows are out not down, wrists are
fully extended.
Lesson 6b Snatching Overhead
A the top of the second pull (called the “hit”) and high pull
phase the snatch lifter will drop rapidly into a squat and press
himself down away from the bar. The lifter should finish in
a half squat with his arms fully extended overhead in a wide snatch
grip.
The Jerk
The jerk lift is usually combined with the clean or power clean
but can be used by itself. The lift begins from the “rack"
position. The lifter bends his knees in a slight dip and then
accelerates the bar from his chest using combined leg, glute, and
shoulder force. As the bar passes the lifter's face, he begins
his split while pressing his body downward from the bar (as in the
snatch) until his arms are extended fully overhead.
Recovery is performed by taking one or two baby-steps back with
the lead leg until the lifter's feet are parallel.
Progression
Begin with the standard shoulder press. Add weight and tell
the lifter to now use his legs and "cheat" the weight up by accelerating
the bar first with the legs, then the arms. This is called
Push Press. When the push press is mastered, add in the split
or a two-legged dip and you have a jerk.
Teaching the split
The jerk split serves to lower the lifter under the bar rapidly.
Begin with the lifter's feet in the jump position. Have the
lifter place one foot directly in front of the other. Mark
the toes 1 1/2 feet from the starting line (that's the lifter's
foot not 12 inches!). This is the mark he should hit with
his lead leg during his split. Practice rapid splitting from
the jump to the split position while extending the arms rapidly
overhead.
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