Power Training: My First Mistake
I’ve got a secret to tell you. When I first started out as a young strength coach 15 years ago, I didn’t include the Olympic Lifts in my programs.
Blasphemy, I know. It wasn’t that I didn’t appreciate their ability to develop strength and power, it was just that it took so much time for the athletes to actually learn them that I thought I was wasting their time when there other things that we could be doing to develop their strength and power, TODAY!
Olympic Lifts: Not Just for the Olympics
Power Training: My Next Mistake
However, as I continued my progression as a coach, I realized that I might be short changing my athletes by not including them in their programs. Being the extremist I am, I began programming the Olympic lifts into the program of every athlete I worked with. The result of incorporating the Olympic Lifts with all the athletes I worked with were mixed. Some athletes took to them right away and had the techniques locked down within days. Others, never got the techniques down, and the many hours I spent with them led to frustration both from them and myself.
So here I am, a strength coach caught in Power Training Purgatory. When I didn’t program the Olympic Lifts, I was short changing the athletes, but when I included them, there was a portion of my athletes that were getting minimal results.
Power Training: Problem Solved
What I had to do to solve the problem was go back to my roots. There are 3 types of strength. Absolute, Repetitive, and Dynamic. I had Absolute strength covered. I had athletes lifting maximally and sub-maximally on the bench press, squat, dead lift and overhead press, and we were making great strength gains with those. I also had repetitive strength covered, as I was including accessory lifts in the 8-15 rep range and was seeing great gain in lean mass with the athletes I was working with. It was the dynamic strength, aka Power Training, that was tripping me up.
Nothing Like crushing the Olympic Lifts with your teammates around!
Dynamic Strength
So here’s what I did. I made a list of every single dynamic effort category I could think of. Then I placed them in a flow chart from easiest, least technical, to hardest, most technical. I started all the athletes I was working with Level 1 work. As they increased their mastery of the movements, I moved them onto the next level. If, at any level, the athlete’s techniques broke down or they showed any kind of difficulty performing the movements, then they remained at that level until mastery was achieved.
Power Training: The Progressions
Level 1- Body Weight Plyometrics- Focus on arm motion, take off position and landing mechanics
Exercise Examples
- Vertical Jumps
- Tuck Jumps
- Speed Skaters
- 180° Jumps
- 360º Jumps
- Split Jumps
If you think body weight plyos don’t make you explosive, just ask JJ Watt:
Level 2- Medicine Ball Throws- Focus on body position and throwing the ball as fast/ hard as possible, and follow through/ full extension of body on all throws
Exercise Examples:
- Side throw
- Overhead Throw
- Granny Toss
- Slams
- Twisting slams
- Ancient Log Toss
Ask Joe DeFranco’s NFL clients if throwing Med Balls makes them more explosive:
Level 3- Basic Olympic Lifts- All movements can be performed with Snatch or Clean Grip
- Hang Jump Shrug
- Jump Shrug
- Hang Pulls
- Pulls from floor
Level 4- Full Olympic Movements
- Hang Power Clean/ Snatch
- Hang Clean/ Snatch
- Power Clean/ Snatch
- Clean/ Snatch
These categories are not complete by any stretch of the imagination, but you can take the examples outlined above and manipulate them for yourself and your training systems. I write an online program called the Dynamic Athlete Program. And I am constantly asked by coaches what to do if they don’t feel comfortable with certain athletes performing the Olympic Lifts. I always point them to the system outlined above. I work with some coaches who strictly stick to the body weight plyos, freshman year, move onto the Med Ball throws sophomore year, the basic Olympic Lifts junior year and the full Olympic Lifts Senior year. The bottom line is to manipulate the systems and programs you give to your athletes for what is best for them and their development over time. If you have any questions, feel free to drop me an email over at TrainHeroic and I can help you to flesh out what would work best for you in your given situation.
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