This week Bill Stearns came in to teach us the snatch, one of the most complex Olympic lifts. It was very significant to hear Bill speak because he had previously interned at Northeastern. He was also fortunate enough to work under one of the biggest names in USA weightlifting, Ellen Robinson, who is an influence to me personally because of the strong female figure she has become in this field.
I would like to consider myself strongly familiar with the Olympic lifts, I have used them for about three years, yet it is always beneficial to hear different cues from other coaches. I have had an issue with increasing weight during the snatch movement and always attributed it to form. Bill came in that day and coached us through a new snatch progression to me and it tweaked my form to near perfection. In this past week, while coaching athletes through Olympic movements such as the snatch and clean, I have used the same progression and cues Bill used on us. This has given me much more confidence in my coaching and given the athletes some different cues to work with.
Bill also taught us some variations of the snatch to use with athletes who may not be able to throw a large amount of weight overhead. Breaking down the movement to just running the athlete through the pull and then moving them through shoulder stability (press variations to overhead squat) will give them more confidence and strength overhead. Bill also informed us that in the Strength and Conditioning field the Olympic lifts are used as “tools in a toolbox”. If you are coaching an Olympic athlete who has made it this far without using such technical lifts there is no reason to add them into a program. It is just a new skill they will need to focus time and energy on to learn and perfect.
I enjoyed Bill’s workshop immensely and look forward to him coming into the gym in the future and teaching new cues for some of the other Olympic lifts. I am hoping to learn much more.