sport training – Tony Gentilcore

Why College Athletes Should Not Include Olympic Lifting In Their Programs

It’s not lost on me that the title of this particular blog post may ruffle a few feathers out there. There are many coaches and facilities in the world who implement the OLY lifts with their athletes and find great success with this approach.

Conversely, there are also many coaches and facilities in the world who d0 not use the OLY lifts¹ and ~~as a result have been blacklisted from S&C Twitter~~ get resounding results as well.

What follows is one coach’s (Syracuse, NY based strength & conditioning coach Ricky Kompf) opinion with a solid rationale for why he falls into the latter category above.

I hope you give it a read.

Why College Athletes Shouldn’t Use Olympic Lifts

First off I want to start this article off by saying Olympic lifts can be a great way to develop power.

(step away from the pitchforks, please)

This is in no way shape or form is a diatribe trying to bash Olympic lifts as a group of exercises. They are a tool and just like any tool in the weight room, they have their time and place.

And that time and place should not be in the college weight room as a main means of training power in their respective sport.

via GIPHY

I see it every year, athletes who we have been working with for years in high school finally gain some respectable competency in the weight-room and reach the point where they can play their sport at the next level.

Their collegiate strength coach sends them their summer training program and there it is:

Hang cleans
Snatches
Power cleans
6 AM lifts

A little piece of me dies inside and I have to fight the urge not to go how and yell at my cats.

How can you except an athlete who you have never trained with or seen workout in person to execute the Olympic lifts correctly and effectively without your watchful eye? It then becomes our job to teach these lifts to the athletes which I’m happy to do, but it undoubtably takes away from the training due to the time and energy restraints it puts on our training.

To make things worse, when these athlete head off to college, train with these exercises as their key performance indicators and main source of power training, 9 times out of 10 they come back to our gym the next year weaker and many times slower.

I cannot fully contribute these exercises to the outcome, this is simply an observation I’ve noticed for years.

Here’s why I believe these lifts should not be apart of a college athlete’s training program and are actually causing a decrease in performance.

1. Competing Demands

The Olympic lifts are highly technical.

College athletes are arguably at the peak for their sport’s performance (or at least very close to it). That means the demand of skill in their sport takes up a large portion of their training…

…and rightfully so.

They are trying to reach mastery in their craft.

They are not Olympic weight lifters. They are team sport athletes and should be treated as such.

Learning and training with the Olympic lifts takes a high level of skill, skill that is learned through years and years of training and working at it. By spending the time required to be proficient at these exercises you will be taking away from the motor learning time and energy that could be used in their sport.

You can only master so much at one time from a motor learning perspective and choosing a highly technical form of exercise during collegiate years will only take away from this mastery.

2. They Won’t Be Good Enough For It To Be Effective

The Olympic lifts do a great job of enhancing powerful triple extension, but you don’t reach peak power until you reach about 80% of you max in an Olympic lift.

For the bulk of collegiate aged athletes who have little experience training with the OLY lifts, they likely won’t truly reach this level for a number of years because of how long it takes to master the skill.

(ideally, one would have started at the age of twelve with a PVC stick and ample time…not at 18 with USC at home next week).

I’d rather utilize an exercise like the Trap Bar Jump, which has a much lower learning curve yet yields comparable peak power production in a matter of minutes (not years).

This way I can develop strength, power and speed with as little amount of time as possible. As a result, the athlete can spend more energy on their sport while still experiencing the benefits of a strength & conditioning program.

An argument can be made that you could, over the course of the four years, systematically teach a college athlete how to perfect the Olympic lifts in order to reap their benefit.

However, in my experience most (not all) collegiate strength coaches incorporate these lifts using max loads and testing them as a key performance indicator right away.

This is not ideal if you ask me.

Some strength coaches do a great job and implement the OLY lifts responsibly, but I’d still argue that teaching these lifts over the course of four years is a drain on athletes’ time, energy and resources.

I’d Recommend the Following Exercises Instead:

Trap Bar Jumps

Trap Bar High Pulls

Trap Bar Speed Pulls

Sumo Speed Pulls

Band Resisted Speed Pulls

Dynamic Effort Box Squats

3. Power Is Plane Specific

Team sport is rarely played in the same plane of motion as the Olympic lifts.

When developing power that transfers over to your sport it’s better to do it in the same or similar planes of movement and joint angles that you’ll see in your sport to have the most transfer.

Using sprints, jumps and throws are great ways to bridge the gap and usually are better options than the Olympic lifts.

Here’s some exercises that can train speed and power with great transfer to sport:

10 Yard Sprints

Max Velocity Sprints

Partner Chase Drills

Rotational Med Ball Toss

Skater Variations

Broad Jump Variations

Overhead Med Ball Throws

Box Jumps

4. Other Variations & Methods

Other variations and methods that have a great effect on power training and can be taught quickly include the use of accommodating resistance with bands and chains as well as contrast training.

Accommodating resistance allows you to accelerate through a full range of motion because the resistance increases as you get into joint angles that can handle greater loads. This allows you to train power at all joint angles in a lift.

In addition to that the use of bands provides a unique training stimulus in which the eccentric portion of the lift is accelerated forcing a great amount deceleration training as well as a high-level reversal strength by using the stretch shortening cycle.

There’re a couple examples of this is the exercises listed above.

Contrast training is a method to peak speed and power production in which you use a heavy compound movement like a squat or deadlift and go right into an explosive expression of speed and power like a sprint, jump or throw.

Note from TG: I posted about contrast sets recently HERE.

The heavy lift provides an activation of higher threshold motor units that will transfer into a more explosive athletic movement.

Here’s some examples of contrast training.

Pre-Season Football Contrast Set

Back Squat —-> Box Jump

Banded Bulgarian Split Squat —-> Half Kneeling Sprint

About the Author

Ricky Kompf is the owner of Kompf Training Systems located in Syracuse New York. His facility provides semi-private training for predominantly high-school and college level athletes with individualized programming.

You can find Ricky on Instagram HERE.

October 19, 2022 Tony

Program Design sport training

Deceleration Training and Landing For the Everyday Athlete

You don’t have to be LeBron James or Megan Rapinoe in order to train more like an athlete. You just need to be realistic (and smart) about it.

What’s more, being athletic isn’t only about accelerating. You also have to be able to apply the brakes – quickly – too!

(and beat Rambo in arm wrestling match. it’s science)

Today my good friend and colleague, Matt Ibrahim, showcases some simple drills that emphasize the latter.

Deceleration Training & Landing For the Everyday Athlete

Everyone pays close attention to how powerful and explosive an athlete can be, and how quickly he or she can speed up and take off. However, everyone ignores the foundational components that precede acceleration and force production, which are deceleration and force absorption.

All athletes, regardless of sport or athletic endeavor, need to develop the skills necessary to slow down, absorb force, and land in an organized manner.

Decelerate & Land on Two Feet

Drop Squat to Stick:

Grabbing a rebound or spiking a volleyball comes easy to most since the task is clear: jump up into the air as high as possible and either gather the basketball or launch the volleyball. But, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone as concerned with their jump height as their jump landing.

Put the squat jumps on pause for a moment and dial in your technique here first.

This is a good place to start if you’re new to deceleration training and landing skills. Here’s a drill that requires much more focus than what you see in the video. The entire emphasis should be on creating as much speed as possible when dropping down to the floor.

Your goal is simple: slow down fast.

Yes, that’s correct. The same way that you’d want to speed up fast during acceleration, you’d also want to slow down fast during deceleration.

Coaching Keys:

Stand with both feet hip-width apart and your hands down by your pockets
Now, reach both hands up high toward the ceiling above you
Raise both heels off the floor, but keep the toes glued down for a moment
Quickly snap down as fast as humanly possible while allowing the toes to leave the floor ever so slightly
Finish in the bottom of a squat with your arms long and behind you

Learn How to Land in a Split Stance

Drop Reverse Lunge to Stick:

The same rules apply here as in the above exercise.

Don’t be fooled though; this variation is much more difficult.

Whether you’re doing split squats in the gym or sprinting in your sport, the split stance is a highly-coveted position to become strong and durable in. Quit doing split squats for one block of training and replace them with these for faster performance results.

On paper, the goal here is pretty simple: reach up and drop down fast into the reverse lunge position. However, performing this deceleration exercise is much harder than just that. The front leg will take most of the load while the back leg works in an assisting manner.

Think: jab that foot back and slightly lean your trunk forward. That’s the key to results here.

Coaching Keys:

Stand with your feet hip-width apart and your hands down by your sides
Reach your fingertips high and up toward the ceiling
Raise both heels up off the floor
Snap down quickly while simultaneously jabbing one foot back behind you
Make sure to finish in the bottom of a reverse lunge with your arms reaching back

Pump The Brakes & Land on One Foot

Drop Squat to 1-Leg Stick:

Watch an athlete in any sport perform a cutting action, a change of direction, or even turn the corner. It’s likely that you’ll see the athlete, at one point or another, land on one foot. Even when athletes land on both feet they tend to favor one side over the other. The point is that all athletes will find value in developing the skills in the weight room necessary to be strong and durable on one foot.

Deceleration training and landing is no different.

Single leg strength starts at the foot and lower leg.

Building legs and feet that are resilient to loading, whether from the speed emphasis in deceleration training or from the weight on the bar, is the pivotal first-step to longevity in the iron game. Drop quickly here and stick your landing on one foot.

You’ll be surprised at how many reps it takes until you get it right.

Coaching Keys:

Stand with both feet hip-width apart and both hands down by the pockets
Reach your hands up toward the ceiling
Raise both heels off the floor, but keep the toes glued down for a moment
Quickly snap down as fast as possible while allowing the toes to leave the floor slightly
Finish the landing on one foot with both arms behind you

Stick Your Landing Off An Elevated Surface

Depth Drop to Stick:

At some point, performing all of these drills from the floor will become too easy. This is why it’s important to provide some sort of overload stimulus to continue making progress in your deceleration training. Starting from an elevated surface from a box or a bench will do the trick.

The key here is to avoid jumping off the elevated surface, and instead, dropping down as fast as possible. This goes back to the whole notion of slowing down fast. The faster you come down off the box, the more challenging it will be to land in an organized manner. Step up to a box or bench height that will challenge you if your ultimate goal is to build quality deceleration and landing skills.

Coaching Keys:

Stand on a plyo box in the range of 12 to 24 inches
Lead one foot off the box out in front of you
Reach your fingertips up high above you
Drop down off the box and stick the landing on both feet with your arms behind you

Now, Do it On One Foot

Depth Drop to 1-Leg Stick:

Not much different here than the previous exercise aside from the fact that now you’ll be forced to land on one foot. There’s a reason this is the last stop on the train in this series of exercise progressions since it challenges you the most, both from a speed overload and stability standpoint.

The challenge here is to demonstrate body control during landing by sinking into your hips and letting your chest dip forward a bit. Again, your arms play a big role in this drill due to the amount of speed they can create based on how hard and fast you swing them down from the top position.

Ease into this one, but once you master it, let it rip.

Coaching Keys:

Stand on a 12 to 24-inch plyo box
Lead one foot off of the box out in front
Reach both hands up high toward the ceiling above you
Drop off the box and stick the landing on the lead feet with both arms long and by your pockets

Closing

Deceleration training and landing skills are where it all begins in plyometrics. It doesn’t matter if you’re a sport-based athlete or an iron athlete in the weight room, landing skills are important for everyone. Build the brakes before you slam down on the pedal.

About the Author

Matthew Ibrahim serves as Co-Owner, Director of Strength & Conditioning and Internship Coordinator at TD Athletes Edge in Boston, MA.

He is also an Adjunct Professor at Maryville University and Endicott College, in addition to being a Ph.D. student at Rocky Mountain University in the Human and Sport Performance program.

As a public speaker, he has provided presentations at Google Headquarters, Stanford University, and Equinox, in addition to speaking at several NSCA conferences and clinics.

As a writer, his articles have been featured in some of the world’s largest publications, such as Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Men’s Journal, and T-Nation.

Connect with him on Instagram – HERE.

September 1, 2020 Tony