Converting to Weightlifting
In the US, weightlifting is rarely an individual’s first sport. While in other countries, national programs recruit and train suitable athletes from young ages specifically for careers as competitive weightlifters, American lifters overwhelmingly arrive in the sport at later ages following participation in other competitive or recreational sports, and without the long term and structured preparation seen in other countries’ weightlifters. Our strongest, fastest athletes are most commonly channeled into football, track & field, gymnastics and the like—sports that offer recognition, possible paying careers, and are far more accessible.
This being the case, American lifters and their coaches typically don’t have the luxury of extended developmental periods, and instead are working to convert existing athletic capacities and experience into applicable weightlifting ability. This can be a rough process in some cases, and it helps to have at least some guiding protocols to ensure successful transitions.
Assessment
Clearly the first step in a successful conversion is an assessment of the athlete in question and the consequent determination of his or her needs. This assessment doesn’t necessarily need to be completely formal, but it absolutely needs to occur in a fashion that provides the coach (or athlete if he or she is coaching him or herself) the requisite information to guide program design and day-to-day training decisions. Many experienced coaches will be able to perform such assessments casually through an initial period of basic training; however, most of these coaches will consciously or not be using these initial workouts as evaluations of the athlete’s physical abilities and deficits along with other more nebulous facets such as attitude and commitment.
In any case, it’s helpful to have at least a basic protocol to ensure a complete evaluation. It’s impossible to optimally design a training program without all the necessary information about what an athlete needs—the shotgun programming approach can work quite well with groups of athletes, but it will never be as effective as individualized assessment and programming.
Assessment should include the following:
Competition Lift Technical Proficiency: Considering the circumstances, we can safely assume that most athletes will not have well-developed snatch and clean & jerk technique, if they’re familiar with it at all. However, some athletes will have learned at least variations of the lifts in the process of training for their previous sports, and may have reasonable understandings of the principles of the lifts. What exactly the athlete knows and can do will determine how he or she is instructed, and on what technical practice is focused. For many, even with some experience, instruction from step one is the most effective route. These individuals often have bad habits that are easier to correct by rewriting the whole story rather than trying to line-edit as time goes on.
Strength: Strength is a quality very specific to given positions and movements; consequently, a genuine assessment will require consideration of a number of elements. For example, if we have an athlete transitioning from football, he may have a huge back squat as performed during his career. However, this back squat will more than likely have been a very posterior-chain-centric and limited depth movement, and as a result, it will not correlate well to the ability to stand up with a clean, or even to pull heavy snatches and cleans in the desired postures.
This being said, we can classify athletes loosely as strong or not. Even if not in possession of perfect specific strength, a generally strong athlete will be easier to convert than one who does not possess much strength in any regard. If I had to make a choice between an athlete who was able to deadlift 250kg with a posture resembling a question mark and an athlete who was able to clean deadlift no more than 90kg with perfect posture, I would choose the former in a heart beat. Strength is one of the toughest athletic qualities to develop, and genetic dispositions play a large role in the speed and ease of development as well as ultimate potential.
Flexibility: Flexibility is similar to strength in terms of specificity. One may be generally considered very flexible, yet be unable to achieve the necessary positions for weightlifting. As a perfect illustration, I have trained more than one long-time yoga practitioner who was unable to sit into a sound overhead squat.
Flexibility will need to be evaluated in terms of weightlifting-specific positions. This includes front, back and overhead squat bottom positions, clean and jerk rack positions, and snatch and jerk overhead positions. What will typically be seen in athletes possessed of great strength is limited wrist, shoulder and ankle mobility. In most cases, this will be correctable to a great degree.
Conditioning: In this case, the term conditioning does not refer to metabolic capacity, but to the training to which an athlete is presently accustomed in terms of nature and quantity. For example, a former wrestler will likely have a great capacity for volume, but will not have much conditioning for heavy lifting, particularly in frequent doses. A thrower will likely be better conditioned for heavy lifting, and probably with reasonable volume. However, neither of these athletes is conditioned for frequent near-maximal snatching and clean & jerking, although the thrower will adapt sooner to such training.
Mindset: Weightlifting demands a certain attitude very specific to the sport and not often shared by other athletes. This can largely be described as calm and disciplined in order to be violent and aggressive at select moments. Athletes tend to exist closer to one end of the spectrum or the other, and exhibiting both qualities can be difficult. This mindset and behavior can be learned to some degree, but an athlete will have to have at least some natural predisposition to be successful at a high level.
Programming
As alluded to previously, the initial training of converting athletes should generally be very basic and flexible. This will allow the period to serve as both a physical transition and a chance for the coach to evaluate the athlete, as well as provide time for technical instruction and practice.
Based on the athlete’s need, the coach can determine when and how to incorporate technical instruction and foundational strength work. For example, an athlete with a great strength base will require less initial strength work, leaving more time for competition lift training. An athlete without a solid strength base will need to focus on strength development at least as much as technical development initially.
Each coach will have his or her own preferred approach to technical instruction. Mine can be found in my book and elsewhere. How it is applied will vary among athletes, however. For example, with certain athletes, I may teach a lift completely in a single session; for others, that same instruction might be spread out over several sessions. It depends entirely on what I determine the athlete can absorb and apply effectively, and this is based more on intuition than pre-defined standards.
The basics will be the foundation of any new lifter’s training. Squatting, pulling/deadlifting, pressing/push pressing, back training and the like will account for the majority of prescribed work, except in rare cases in which an athlete happens to possess great strength and demonstrates an ability to apply it well to snatching and clean & jerking. Such an athlete’s training will far more quickly shift to a greater emphasis on the competition lifts and their variants.
For all athletes, a conservative start is advised. Often those of us who spend most of our days surrounded by experienced weightlifters forget how taxing the training can be neurologically, psychologically, and with regard to joints. As I recently heard Dan John say, level one coaching is the same as the Hippocratic oath: First do no harm. Not only does it discourage a new lifter to be completely brutalized right out of the gate and wind up in short order with a great deal of fatigue, soreness and joint pain, but it achieves nothing with respect to our intended goals.
Restorative protocols should be encouraged immediately to aid in a smooth transition. Modalities such as foam rolling and stretching, cold or contrast plunges, local cryotherapy for wrists, knees, elbows and shoulders, and massage will help athletes move through the initial conditioning phase will minimal discomfort.
Along these lines, it’s critical for the coach to establish open and accurate communication with new athletes. It should be made very clear that the coach expects and needs feedback from all of his or her lifters in order to program their training most effectively. Too often athletes are afraid to broach the topics of joint pain or fatigue, and this can result in loss of training time if not managed properly. There is a critical difference between communicating and whining; the former is necessary, and the latter is unacceptable.
Programming Ideas - A very simple template for converting athletes might look like the following:
Monday
Back Squat
Clean Deadlift
Press
Wednesday
Snatch
Clean & Jerk
Thursday
Front Squat
Snatch Deadlift
Push Press
Saturday
Snatch
Clean & Jerk
Overhead Squat
This template can be modified in numerous ways to suit each athlete, and technical instruction and practice can obviously be included on any of the days. Likewise, an addition day or two can be added if appropriate.
With a basic approach like this, I would normally start with very conservative weights and volume—something like 70-75% for 5x5 in the squats and presses, for example, and possibly even in the deadlifts. While it’s unusual for me to program reps that high, most athletes will be more accustomed to volume than intensity, and it will serve as a good starting point from which intensity can be increased, movements can be practiced, and conditioning can begin.
Snatches and clean & jerks would be controlled by me according to the athlete’s performance on any given day. If an adequate technical foundation has been built, the lifts will be performed for singles (occasionally doubles) and the weight increased incrementally according to how the last lift looked and felt. Depending on the circumstances, we might do nothing more than build up gradually to a relatively heavy weight for that day; or we may build up to that weight and repeat it several times, or drop back down to a percentage of that top weight for more reps. In any case, the idea is simple—perform as many quality lifts at as heavy of a weight as possible at that time. Remember that heavy is entirely relative—the priority is technical soundness. At this point, the competition lifts are not a source of strength and power development—that will be taken care of by squatting, pulling and pressing.
Controlling these snatch and clean & jerk sessions may also mean substituting or adding certain competition lift related drills—lifts from the hang, snatch balances, and snatch and clean pulls would be the most common. This flexibility allows for quick and easy response to the lifter’s physical and mental state, and allows the coach to immediately address perceived deficits.
What this template also allows is a gradual conditioning of the athlete to heavier, more frequent performance of the competition lifts in terms of neurological elements and joint preparation. As the athlete proceeds, the coach will be able to determine how much of an increase in competition lift volume and intensity can be made relative to strength work. Again, an athlete with a reasonable strength background like a football player or thrower will generally be able to handle this sooner and to a greater degree than athletes from other sports.
The Mental Game
Training for weightlifting is extremely unique, and some athletes may be somewhat resistant to what they find contradictory or merely odd when compared to their previous athletic training experience. This can include all kinds of elements such as rest periods between sets, training similar movements multiple consecutive days, the use of the competition lifts themselves as fundamental training exercises, and the rarity of DOMS beyond an initial conditioning period.
Getting accustomed to these things is largely just a function of time and experience. Being surrounded by other weightlifters will help encourage compliance—an important part of any lifter’s initial training is experiencing the culture of weightlifting in and out of the gym. It’s far easier to accept new and strange things when the athlete can very clearly see examples of success. |
