Chicago Illonois - Pan AM Championships, lifting test bed

Just came back form Chicago where the Pan American Championships were held. I have posted some pictures of the strong performances.

Upon being asked, "what was the best way to train for the snatch and clean and jerk", Norbert Schemansky -- one of the USA's best ever Olympic weightlifters (4 time Olympic medalist and Champion, trained at home) once answered, "snatch and clean and jerk". This was reiterated this weekend upon speaking with coaches around the America's.

For example, the latest research shoes that the repertoire of exercises can be narrowed, for advanced lifters, to mostly snatch, clean and jerk and squat. Percentages, vary through out the week from 70 to 90%.

Plyometrics methodologies have changed as well. The focus in plyometrics has shifted to mostly vertical jumps, and away from longer long jumps and box jumps. This mimics their pulling style, which has a straight-upward bar trajectory. Appreciation of the nuances is key, whereas in China we saw lifters having a slightly backward trajectory at the very top of the pull. Either way, when working technique, above all, it is most important to jump high with the bar than to go down under the bar into the bottom position.


Also of interest, the lifter's theoretical total is calculated as 72.6% of the lifter's back squat. Similarly, the lifter's theoretical snatch and clean and jerk are percentages of the backsquat. These ratios are used to diagnose need for technical changes versus leg strength. In other words, if you can back squat your total, then you probably are suffering from technical problems.

Finally, another small win for the women's movement: One of the USA's strongest weightlifting competitors in PAN-America, finally, entered a female lifter, for the first time ever in an International Weightlifting Federation sanctioned competition: