Olympic Weightlifting: A Complete Guide for Athletes & Coaches

The greater the athlete’s understanding of the guiding principles of the movement’s technique, the better a framework he or she will have within which to make sense of what he or she feels.

It’s the experience of the life and the culture that matters, not the competitive results. There are too many subtleties and intangibles that can only be learned through this experience that build the foundation for the understanding and communication required of a successful coach.

Described in the simplest possible terms, all three lifts employ the generation of force against the ground to first elevate and accelerate the barbell upward, then use force against the inertia of the elevated barbell to accelerate the athlete downward and into position to receive the bar.

These learning drills should be performed in sets of 3-5 repetitions. Even while the weight is very light, or essentially non-existent, more than five consecutive repetitions will usually result in a degradation of accuracy.

During the first and second pulls, the lifter must maintain contact with the platform until maximal productive body extension is achieved in order to impart maximal acceleration to the barbell;

it’s helpful conceptually to consider knee extension (or leg drive against the floor) to be responsible primarily for elevation of the barbell, and hip extension to be responsible for the speed of the barbell.

effort should be made continually to establish and improve the kind of rapport necessary to support the athlete’s technical progress.

Technique is the medium through which strength is expressed—the lifts are limited, then, by the weakest part of the equation.

Learning movement patterns is ultimately and unavoidably a matter of quality repetition, feedback, and effort.