Archive for 'Olympic Lifting'
Tuesday WOD, September 13, 2011
Posted on 12. Sep, 2011 by Amie.
Skill:
Kicking into hand stand
WOD:
5 rounds for time of:
3 Power cleans (185 lb./125 lb.)
7 Burpee box jumps
200m Sprint
Rest 5 minutes, then complete max number of kettlebell swings (53 lb./35 lb.) in 2 minutes
Post WOD time and number of kettlebell swings to comments.
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What do you think about before you lift??
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Wednesday WOD, September 7, 2011
Posted on 06. Sep, 2011 by Amie.
Skill:
5 minutes of Double-unders
Strength:
50 Pull-ups goal is to go unbroken, post number of breaks
WOD:
“Karen”
150 Wallballs for time
Compare to April 12, 2010. Post time to comments.
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Justine is in the running to carry the Olympic Torch in London in 2012! She needs our help to get selected so please vote for her here!!!
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Donovan Ford lifts for Team USA, and he cleaned 210kg (462 lbs.) on Saturday:
AH-MAZING. Watch the video again, and watch for a few things:
1. Check out his starting position, and watch his hips when he starts to move. His hips and back rise TOGETHER, which is so critical in Olympic lifting. Often we see lifters in CrossFit lift their hips first, causing their back to get parallel to the floor. Donovan keeps his chest up and back angle the same until he gets to the all important third pull, the FINISH!
2. Let’s talk about the finish….the average refrigerator weighs 400 pounds. Donovan moved 462 lbs., so he basically cleaned a refrigerator full of groceries. Think about that…the only way he can do that is if he generates momentum on the barbell by getting a good finish. Watch his shoulders – see the shrug? At that point, he moves his body DOWN AND AROUND the barbell. No arm bend there….You can’t clean a refrigerator full of groceries by pulling the bar up. You have to drive your body DOWN.
3. Check out his elbows – he moves them around the bar FAST, and once they are set, they only drive up. That’s hard to do, especially when you are at the bottom and coming up out of a heavy squat.
4. Lastly, watch his feet. He doesn’t jump high, he jumps hard and fast. Fast feet make all the difference in moving heavy weight.
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Thursday WOD, July 28, 2011
Posted on 27. Jul, 2011 by Amie.
Skill:
Second pull on the clean**
Strength:
Work to a heavy power clean
WOD:
50 reps of GI Jane burpee pull-up, advanced to 100
(One of my all-time favorite CrossFit videos – meet Greg Amundson, one of the original CF firebreathers)
Post power clean load and GI Jane time to comments.
**In Olympic lifting, you’ll hear the first, second and third pull…basically, it’s segmenting the path of the bar from the ground to your hips. The first pull happens from the ground to your mid-thigh; the second pull is where the bar goes from mid-thigh back into your hips; and the third pull, the all important “FINISH”, is where you shrug your shoulders, generate momentum on the barbell, and pull your body down and around the bar.
So, why’s the second pull so important? In both the clean and jerk and the snatch, the hardest part of the lift is getting the bar from your mid-thigh back to your hips/pockets, so that you can initiate a big “FINISH”, the “third pull”. You have to be patient, patient, patient, then all of a sudden, GO! The only problem is, if you hit the GO button too fast, bad things tend to happen, like colliding your face with the bar (trust me, it hurts).
Visualize this:
This is near the end of the second pull – Sage has moved the bar back into her pockets – she is staying patient (keeping her shoulders in front of the bar for as long as possible) and getting ready to move.
This is the down-and-up, the very first part of the Burgener Warm-up. Check out where the bar is – it’s about to go vertical. She didn’t jump the bar from her mid-thigh – she brought the bar back in to her hips, the very best position!
FINISH!
And, she pulls her body down and around the bar….
These pictures were taken with a high-speed camera…make no mistake about it, this movement happens FAST. Patience is the key: slow is smooth, smooth is fast.
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The CrossFit Games starts TOMORROW in California!!! CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE LIVE WEBCAST that will start TOMORROW morning!!
Chris Spealler (aka Speal) is one of the most elite CrossFitters and is one of the few athletes who consistently performs at an elite level. If someone asked me who the best CrossFitter is, Speal is who I think of first because he has that rare gift of being good GREAT at both metcons and Olympic lifting. He’s also an all-around good dude. Watch for him at the Games this weekend and see for yourself!
”Be patient. Your fitness level is something that is going to generally take a long time to get to where you think you want it. And when you are there, you will want it higher. Don’t define yourself by your numbers and your times. Define yourself by who you are and what you are about. CrossFit is something that you do, it is not who you are. That can help keep things in good perspective.”
–Chris Spealler
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Wednesday WOD, July 27, 2011
Posted on 26. Jul, 2011 by Amie.
Skill:
L-sit holds
WOD:
“JT”
21-15-9 reps of:
Handstand push-ups
Ring dips
Push-ups
In honor of Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Jeff Taylor, 30, of Little Creek, VA who was killed in Afghanistan in 2006. “JT” is the first HERO WOD CrossFit did, first posted July 5, 2006. Read through some of those initial comments, and you’ll see comments from men who served with JT.
“My husband was a warrior and a man who believed his purpose in life was to defend the freedoms that each of us enjoy today.” Erin Taylor
Post time to comments.
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The CrossFit Games start Friday in California! If you haven’t ever watched a CrossFit competition live, this is THE EVENT. There is a LIVE WEBCAST that will start on Friday morning…be sure to tune in! You will be inspired and awed by the intensity, speed and skill of the athletes at the very top level. No athlete has ever repeated as a Games champion….watch to see if this year is the first!
If you miss any of the action, there will be archived footage to watch later.
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I came across a link last week, Jon Boy’s Top 5 Olympic Lifting Videos, and it intrigued me. I watch ALOT of Olympic Lifting videos (I know, a real shocker)….sometimes, I’m searching for just the right video to post for you guys, for Coach B or for my CrossFit friends around the US, and more often than not, I get sidetracked watching a zillion videos, learning different techniques and coaching tips. I’m always amazed to watch athletes move more weight overhead with lightening speed, than I can barely, if even, deadlift off the ground.
It’s hard to narrow down my top five favorite videos, but Jon Boy’s Top 5 inspired me to find my favorites….I narrowed it down to six 
:
My friend Tracy Fober made this video – it’s really cool to watch two lifters hit the same positions simultaneously.
Matthias Steiner from the 2008 Olympics – this lift was a PR lift for him, 5 kg more than he’s ever lifted. His wife died in a car accident right before the start of the Olympics, and when it counted, Steiner made the best lift of his life.
An eight year old who clean and jerks 165 lbs….
Pyrros Dimas because he’s just awesome…..
Another Dimas C&J – watch how long he keeps his shoulders in front of the bar, then gets a big FINISH and moves his body down and around the bar:
Lastly, because I want to lift like a girl ….
Do you have a favorite video? Post a link to comments!
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Thursday WOD, June 30, 2011
Posted on 29. Jun, 2011 by Amie.
Skill:
Overhead Squat Footwork (see note below)
Strength:
Snatch Balance, work to heavy single
WC:
Four rounds for time of:
15 Burpees
20 Box jumps
25 Double unders
200m Run
MWOD:
Post snatch balance and WC time to comments.
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10 signs that you need to take a rest day, Runners World
Heat advisory, Runners World
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Let’s talk footwork!
90% of all missed lifts are attributed to footwork. Land too wide, you get unstable and lose the weight. Land too close, and there isn’t a platform to support the weight. You can land too far forward or too far back….watch any lift of an athlete missing a weight, and chances are, their feet didn’t hit the right spot.
Can you train your feet to go to the same spot for most every lift? ABSOLUTELY.
In all lifting, there are only two places to put your feet – the jumping position and the landing position.
The jumping position is where your feet naturally go to when you jump, right under your hips. (In the chalk picture above, it’s also called the “pulling” position, but for simplicity, we are going to call it “jump”). When you start a clean, deadlift, thruster, or press, your feet are going to be in this position, right under your hips. For deadlift, thrusters and presses, your feet stay here and do NOT move –you drive the weight down through your heels. However, in Olympic lifting (cleans and snatches), your feet are going to move from jumping to landing –more on that in a second. Let’s talk landing first…
In the landing position, your feet are approximately shoulder width apart, toes are turned out slightly with knees slightly bent, and your knees are tracking out over your toes. Think of the landing position as the position of your feet when you squat: air squats, front squats, back squats, and overhead squats, and they do NOT move. You drive the weight through your heels, keeping your chest up with a good tall posture and tight back, and you should be able to squat deep in that landing position.
How do you know if you’ve hit the right landing position? If you are in the right spot, you can squat without having to adjust your feet. If you make adjustments, look where you adjusted your feet too – that’s your landing position!
Ok, so two positions, jump and land. The good news is, if you can jump, you can land, which means you can also clean and jerk and snatch!
The only time your feet move in lifting is while doing a clean and jerk or a snatch. Your feet move from jumping to landing, and remember, THE GROUND IS A WEIGHTLIFTER’S FRIEND! When you “jump”, it’s not a vertical jump like in basketball; rather, you are shifting your feet from the jumping position to the landing position as quickly as possible. You must learn to be consistent with getting your feet where they need to be.
How do you drill footwork? Jump your feet from the jumping to the landing position doing squats at 2″ depth, then 4″ depth, then 6″ depth. Chalk your feet and see if you hit the same place each time. If not, make your adjustments and learn to feel where your jumping and landing positions are. Lastly, be consistent: use the same jump/start position for cleans, deadlifts, presses, and thrusters, and the same landing position for all of your squats. If you teach your feet there are only two places they can go to, pretty soon, you’ll hit those same two places over and over without ever thinking about it.
Jumping position
Landing position
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