Olympic Weightlifting within Sports Performance

The ability to be able to produce high peak ground reaction force is vital within sports performance. However, the high velocities involved within most sport actions requires athletes to not only produce high peak forces, but rather produce high forces within a short time frame. This athletic quality is referred to as ‘rate of force development’ (RFD) and is a direct extension of power production. RFD can be defined as the ability to produce force within a limited time frame (Gamble, 2009) or mathematically defined as: 

RFD = ∆F/∆t 

Where RFD represents an athlete’s rate of force development, ∆F represents the change in force from the initiation of the concentric action to the peak force achieved during the concentric action, and ∆t represents the change in time from the same corresponding force measures. This can be measured as the overall change in force from the overall time taken to complete the concentric action, or as the change in force between each individual time step during the concentric action (e.g. every two milliseconds). The latter being referred to as instantaneous RFD.

Olympic weightlifting methods require the ability to produce high power and RFD outputs, as heavy external loads are lifted in an explosive manner. Olympic lifts also involve a rapid triple extension at the ankle, knee and hip during the explosive 2nd pull phase, and therefore closely match the kinematics of sporting actions that involve the same movement demands (e.g. jumping, sprinting, etc.).

Baker (1996) previously reported a positive correlation between vertical jump, 20m sprint, loaded squat jump and hang power clean performance in semi-professional league players, suggesting that the athletes with higher hang power clean scores performed better at each of the other performance measures. A further study by Baker and Nance (1999) demonstrated a similar relationship between Olympic weightlifting performance and 10m and 40m sprint performance. These findings demonstrate the benefits of Olympic weightlifting within athletic preparation, providing a means of increasing power and RFD output in athletes. Such improvements power in RFD will ultimately (all else being equal) enhance the performance of the explosive-based movements often seen within sports (sprinting, jumping, striking, etc.).  

The classic competition lift variations are as follows: the snatch, and the clean and jerk. However, each Olympic lift has a variety of derivatives which can be applied to improve a certain key point when performing one of the main competition lifts (e.g. hang clean/snatch, power clean/snatch). Both the competition lifts and lift derivatives are of great use to the strength and conditioning coach. However, it must be noted that learning the Olympic lifts takes time and commitment from both the coach and athletes’ perspective, as the execution of the lifts is complex and therefore takes a lot of practice and correct guidance

This can be achieved by firstly introducing athletes to the Olympic lifts with technique bars and wooden dowels within warm ups prior to any strength and power-based gym session, which when accumulated over a season, adds to a high amount of good quality practice. During this time the strength and conditioning coach can look to other alternative training methods that increase RFD and power production in athletes, such as loaded jumps and/or plyometrics.

Another key consideration when programming the Olympic lifts within athletic performance is the load selected. Strength and conditioning coaches need to consider the purpose of why they are programming the Olympic lifts, which is ultimately, to increase power production that directly transfers to sports performance. Therefore, coaches need to select loads where peak power occurs when performing an Olympic lift variation. For example, a previous investigation by Kawamori et al (2005) previously demonstrated that the highest peak power and average power occurs between 50 to 90 %1RM when performing the hang power clean, and should therefore be programmed within that range when implemented within athletic preparation.   

It is clear that Olympic weightlifting training methods offer a high transfer of training effects to sports performance, as they match both the kinetic (RFD) and kinematic (triple extension, landing mechanics, braking mechanics) of athletic performance, and are therefore of great use to the strength and conditioning coach.