Well – – you might not be ready to take on the Olympic weightlifting in Rio this summer – that would be a pretty quick progression I guess, but you can get some of the power that those guys and gals have by adding this EOTW to the power phase of your off-season hockey training program.
What Power Looks Like
Make sure when the Summer Games roll around this August that you make an effort to tune in and watch some of the Olympic weightlifting – it is amazing to see those athletes put over twice their bodyweight overhead from the floor. THAT is power.
You will not catch these guys doing sets of 10 or 15 cleans in their training. They aren’t going to waste these explosive lifts to build stamina, power and technique is their only goal.
The Advantage Of This Version
You might recall that we only do Cleans and Snatches from the hang position for our hockey training rather than from the floor.
The reason is simple. For starters, I can coach everyone into a good neutral back position from the hang – some of our athletes cannot get into a neutral back when lifting from the floor. Secondly, it is that power drive from the mid-range that I want to train.
When we do BB Snatches, some athletes do not have the shoulder or thoracic spine mobility to get the bar overhead safely. I am not trying to develop great Olympic lifters, just trying to train that explosive power element so our hockey players have lightning fast first step quickness. So although we still do some BB Snatch, we do a lot more with this single arm version…
If you cannot see the video above, just click this link
https://youtu.be/MiRaCvp6DMo
We still get the explosive power and the shoulder/core stability required to decelerate the weight and control it overhead. It is very simple to teach and it usually looks very good after just a few sessions of practice.
Give it a try – you will do 3 sets of 2-6 reps on each side. Focus on the technique first – keep the elbow high as you pull.
Cheers,
M
PS – and don’t forget to flex at your knees, hips and ankles to get under the weight when you are ‘catching’ it