Post by wez on Dec 13, 2006 12:56:27 GMT 1
For those of you regularly training with olympic lifting but have not perfected your technique or who are thinking about it or just beginning to learn, let me give you a few pointers.
We do the olympic lifts, particularly power Snatch and power Clean because they are a great way to increase core strength and give us more basic power to aid us with the other important aspects of training and ulitmatley to throw the javelin further. The javelin however is a light implement and does not require an enormous ammount of strength to throw. Infact for young athletes and intermediate throwers, it is likely that working on these lifts will be of no real benefit given that your actual throwing technique is where the biggest gains can be made. Indeed even after your throwing technique has improved, increasing your basic speed and ability to harness the power you already have by plyometric and medicine ball training will also have a bigger impact on your javelin throwing distance.
There will come a point however where you have an efficient javelin technique and are making the most of the power you have, this will come at different stages for each individual and depends greatly on your ability to learn and the level of training you do. At this point it is time to start increasing your core strength levels, and the most effective way is by olympic lifting, in particular Power Snatch and Power Clean.
Small increases in maximum lifts eg 5-10kg can translate to extra meters with the javelin, however it must be noted before continuing that these gains are next to useless if they are not accompanied by the right support training eg plyometrics and medball. More specifically if for example you increase your power clean by 10kg, you must be able to translate that more directly into throwing power by learning to apply that new strength into for example an overhead shot throw. If you cannot throw the shot further after this strength gain then it is unlikely that you will in turn be able to throw the javelin further. This means it is important to always balance and support your training- if pure strength gains were enough alone then we might expect olympic weight lifters to be able to throw the javelin huge distances. This is not the case!!!!
Health and Safety
young athletes should not start weight lifting until they have reached a sufficent stage of physical development, eg when they are no longer growing any taller as the bones are still soft at the ends and are vunerable to damage from the extra stress. In addition it must be noted that anyone new to olympic lifting should be working with high repetitions of 8-12 and a low weight until the technique is reliable efficient and safe- this will commonly take months not weeks!!!
Benefits
The Snatch and Clean are compound movements, eg a series of movements coordinated together which must be performed with good timing and speed, much like the javelin throw itself. It is because of this requirment for speed and coordination that they confer specific benefit to the thrower, much more than for example a deadlift or bench press which is a static and slow movement.
Both snatch and clean require the athlete to generate power from the ground and accerlerate transfering it up the body and into the arms through a fast and powerful hip movement (sound similar to anything?)
You may be learning or have been doing it for a while but have plateaued and are no longer improving- so take a look at these links and make sure you do it right.
Clean
www.eng.auburn.edu/users/simonton/wl/cj.html
this example is the full version, with a dip to the floor- the power clean only requires a small dip in order to catch the weight- also the jerk is included here but is not essential as a jerk from behind the head is of more benefit to javelin throwers
Snatch
www.eng.auburn.edu/users/simonton/wl/snatch.html
this example is a full olympic lift, a power snatch would end with only a small dip in order to catch the weight.
please notice how in both cases the lifter starts from a deep squat position with a very straight back (no hunching forwards at any point) and the bar brushes the shins as it comes up and travels very close to the body at all times- infact in the clean it must make a quick contact with the thighs and with the hips during snatch. Notice also that the athlete keeps his chest extended with shoulders pointing up not ahead or backwards, the whole lift is performed upwards in line with the chest, if not the athlete will lose balance and lift poorly.
This is the critical point of the lift and must be powerful, fast and well timed or the athelte will never be able to make siginficant gains.
How to do it
coachesinfo.com/category/strength_and_conditioning/366/
checkout fig4 in this link it really highlights where the specific power in generated, a similar figure could be drawn from a javelin throw delivery.
If you learn all of these things and can do it 10 times out of 10 then you are ready to drop the number of reps and start increasing the weight
one last note- there is also a technique to putting the bar down and should be a basic reverse of the lifting technique. Poor set down also leads to injury- right slinger!!!!!
Have fun and be careful, and remember increasing power requires speed and strength and does not necessarily relate to big gains in muscle bulk.
We do the olympic lifts, particularly power Snatch and power Clean because they are a great way to increase core strength and give us more basic power to aid us with the other important aspects of training and ulitmatley to throw the javelin further. The javelin however is a light implement and does not require an enormous ammount of strength to throw. Infact for young athletes and intermediate throwers, it is likely that working on these lifts will be of no real benefit given that your actual throwing technique is where the biggest gains can be made. Indeed even after your throwing technique has improved, increasing your basic speed and ability to harness the power you already have by plyometric and medicine ball training will also have a bigger impact on your javelin throwing distance.
There will come a point however where you have an efficient javelin technique and are making the most of the power you have, this will come at different stages for each individual and depends greatly on your ability to learn and the level of training you do. At this point it is time to start increasing your core strength levels, and the most effective way is by olympic lifting, in particular Power Snatch and Power Clean.
Small increases in maximum lifts eg 5-10kg can translate to extra meters with the javelin, however it must be noted before continuing that these gains are next to useless if they are not accompanied by the right support training eg plyometrics and medball. More specifically if for example you increase your power clean by 10kg, you must be able to translate that more directly into throwing power by learning to apply that new strength into for example an overhead shot throw. If you cannot throw the shot further after this strength gain then it is unlikely that you will in turn be able to throw the javelin further. This means it is important to always balance and support your training- if pure strength gains were enough alone then we might expect olympic weight lifters to be able to throw the javelin huge distances. This is not the case!!!!
Health and Safety
young athletes should not start weight lifting until they have reached a sufficent stage of physical development, eg when they are no longer growing any taller as the bones are still soft at the ends and are vunerable to damage from the extra stress. In addition it must be noted that anyone new to olympic lifting should be working with high repetitions of 8-12 and a low weight until the technique is reliable efficient and safe- this will commonly take months not weeks!!!
Benefits
The Snatch and Clean are compound movements, eg a series of movements coordinated together which must be performed with good timing and speed, much like the javelin throw itself. It is because of this requirment for speed and coordination that they confer specific benefit to the thrower, much more than for example a deadlift or bench press which is a static and slow movement.
Both snatch and clean require the athlete to generate power from the ground and accerlerate transfering it up the body and into the arms through a fast and powerful hip movement (sound similar to anything?)
You may be learning or have been doing it for a while but have plateaued and are no longer improving- so take a look at these links and make sure you do it right.
Clean
www.eng.auburn.edu/users/simonton/wl/cj.html
this example is the full version, with a dip to the floor- the power clean only requires a small dip in order to catch the weight- also the jerk is included here but is not essential as a jerk from behind the head is of more benefit to javelin throwers
Snatch
www.eng.auburn.edu/users/simonton/wl/snatch.html
this example is a full olympic lift, a power snatch would end with only a small dip in order to catch the weight.
please notice how in both cases the lifter starts from a deep squat position with a very straight back (no hunching forwards at any point) and the bar brushes the shins as it comes up and travels very close to the body at all times- infact in the clean it must make a quick contact with the thighs and with the hips during snatch. Notice also that the athlete keeps his chest extended with shoulders pointing up not ahead or backwards, the whole lift is performed upwards in line with the chest, if not the athlete will lose balance and lift poorly.
This is the critical point of the lift and must be powerful, fast and well timed or the athelte will never be able to make siginficant gains.
How to do it
coachesinfo.com/category/strength_and_conditioning/366/
checkout fig4 in this link it really highlights where the specific power in generated, a similar figure could be drawn from a javelin throw delivery.
If you learn all of these things and can do it 10 times out of 10 then you are ready to drop the number of reps and start increasing the weight
one last note- there is also a technique to putting the bar down and should be a basic reverse of the lifting technique. Poor set down also leads to injury- right slinger!!!!!
Have fun and be careful, and remember increasing power requires speed and strength and does not necessarily relate to big gains in muscle bulk.
