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Reflections from a Gymnastics assistant coaching course
1st June 2023
A guest post from Kath Maguire. Kath is the parent of one of our club’s gymnasts. She asked about doing some volunteering a couple of months ago and whether there was a course she could do. Here are her reflections from the day. “I’ve been thinking about volunteering for a while now but as it’s […]
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Olympic Weight lifting Tips

Learning from a WeightLifter

Coomonwealth medallist Neil Taylor gives some tips on hot coach the Olympic lifts. Neil has recently been appointed as Performance Manager for South Wales with Welsh Weightlifting. I know Neil from our days working together at the RFU. Here are his tips.

I have been performing the Olympic lifts since the age of 11. My coach at the time kept it simple, didn’t over complicate the movement and allowed for errors early on. Here are some of my Olympic Weightlifting tips.

With his expertise he helped me lift MY way and not the way the books said. 30 years down the line I have watched those lifts turn into a menu of biomechanical myths and mind numbing terminology.

KEEP IT SIMPLE.

power snatchIn my opinion it is always easier to teach the Power Snatch first, the pulling phase is the same as the Power Clean and the lift a little less problematic. (Becky Brown in pic).

  • Demonstrate the lift without a verbal description then ask athlete to perform the lift and observe their interpretation of that lift, they may be near perfect, they may be not, treat each one on how THEY lift
  • At the start position instruct your athlete to push the chest out and through whilst pulling the bar off the floor this will encourage correct lifting posture with the back being slightly in extension
  • Depending on your athletes’ training age you may wish to break the lift down into stages.  Start with the first pull by deadlifting the bar to the waist position and returning it back to the floor, encourage the athlete to push their chest through to retain good posture.
Olympic weightlifting tips

Clean Pull

Repeat this until your comfortable with what you see, be patient

  • Once confident with the first pull,  move to the high pull.  It is important at this point for your athlete to work on pushing the hips forward and extend up on to the toes. (James Marshall in pic).

One coaching tip you may wish to use here is to pull the bar up to chest height rubbing finely against the navel area, this will encourage the athlete to keep the bar close to their body

  • Move on to the full lift when you feel the athlete has mastered the above and never be afraid to revisit the basics.
  • A great tool to use is the video camera but be aware of gaining consent from the parents or guardians of your athletes should they be under 18 years old
  • Compliment the athlete on their good lifting points as it is important to finish lifting on a feel good note, people deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong.

Try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom.

Neil Taylor: Commonwealth games medallist. RFU Weightlifting Coach.

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Comments

  1. […] emphasises that flexibility and strength need to be developed together. In order to be able to do Olympic Style weightlifting you need to be flexible in the thoracic spine, hips, shoulders and […]

  2. […] development needs to do more than just say “communication” and move onto more Olympic lift variations. We need to practice, observe and hone our technical communication skills continuously. Critical […]

  3. […] levels are improved in the gym by the use of the major multi joint lifts used in Powerlifting and Olympic Weightlifting as well as other more rugby specific rotational and “Strongman” type […]

  4. […] Read tips on Olympic Lifting from expert weightlifting coach Neil Taylor  […]

  5. […] conjunction with this, the main bulk of research into the DC theory seems to advocate Olympic lifting, a highly specific and technical exercise, as the main component to enhance sporting […]

  6. […] the past couple of sessions I have helped James out with, we have been doing some Olympic lifts. I have not done these types of exercises before so my knowledge and confidence in this area […]

  7. […] a little history. Back in the 1950s in the USA strength sports such as Olympic lifting, powerlifting and especially bodybuilding were in their infancy. There were two major companies […]

  8. Great share! Can’t wait to read more from you.

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