Olympic Lifting Made Easy

Like most strength and conditioning coaches, I use a variety of Olympic Lifts in my programs for athletes. The most popular Olympic Lift that is used in most school programs is the Power Clean or the Hang Clean. If you are not familiar, the Power Clean is performed with the weight starting on the floor and the Hang Clean is performed with the athlete holding the bar about knee height. I love Hang Cleans, but they are one of the most difficult lifts to teach. I usually use an 8 week progression before a high school athlete starts to Hang Clean in my program.

The Power Clean - often seen in football strength programs - is an even more complicated lift. In my opinion, its almost impossible for some athletes to get into the proper position to START a Power Clean, let alone perform the actual lift safely. The only time I have an athlete Power Clean is because I know they will have to perform the lift when they move on to play college sports. I know a number of high school kids each year experience L5 back fractures due to improper power clean technique.

The bottom line is if your athlete can't squat well, then they most definitely cannot perform a power clean. Most high school basketball players with very long femurs fit into this category. As a whole, it is difficult for any coach to teach and supervise any version of the Clean to a group of young athletes.

So here is my suggestion.....if you are not comfortable teaching the clean and your athletes just are not getting it right, then do not put them in your program. There are many alternatives to the Clean that are just as effective in developing power in athletes. So instead of spending hours and weeks trying to train an inexperienced lifter to be an Olympic Lifter, try this lift in the video below. The DB Snatch is by far my favorite Olympic style lift and most kids can learn it in 5 minutes. It's also a great lift for adults to do!