In High School? You Bet!

CLEAN & JERK CONTESTS! IN HIGH SCHOOL? YOU BET!! By Ollie Whaley M.A., C.S.C.S. Football Coach, Monument Valley H.S., Utah Last fall the BFS Journal article entitled “The Clean & Jerk in Track & Field, Why Not?” really caught my attention. At Monument Valley, on the Navajo Indian Reservation in southeastern Utah, we have taught the core lifts (as advocated by BFS) and sponsored a high school power lifting meet each of the past four years, with great success.

This past year we have become very enthusiastic about the addition of Olympic-style weightlifting movements to our program. The writings of Dr. Mike Sione Heimuli cleaned 280 and almost jerked it. He finished with 250 pounds. Sione, a 193-pound senior, was an all-state presentations by the United States Weightlifting running back and a second team BFS All-America selection.

Stone and Dr. John Garhammer on the importance of speed-strength Federation, really had an influence on our thinking. My own Master’s thesis was a comparison of two training programs. One group did only slow strengthoriented movements, such as Heavy Squats, Benches, and Dead lifts. The other group also did these lifts plus some high-speed power movements, such as Clean, Push Press, and Fast (Jump) Squats. The training volume for both groups was basically identical during the eight-week period.

The group which included the high-speed power movements showed significantly greater gains in lower-body power, as measured by the vertical jump and the Lewis power formula (to account for body-weight differences). We have by no means abandoned our core lifts, as we have realized great results and believe they are essential for building an adequate strength base. The Olympicstyle Donald Mose, 121-pound sophomore, finished with a 155-pound effort! explosiveness and athletic power that they should not be ignored. Watching a high-level weightlifter in action is an impressive sight. The combination of speed, quickness, and strength is hard to match.

We began posting school records in the Clean and Jerk along with our standard core lifts. We also decided to revise our Competition into a two-lift format. This year we hosted the first Navajo Nation lronman competition, in which we contested the Clean and Jerk and the Squat. This format has many advantages. First, it gave our athletes incentive to maximize their clean & jerk technique and, along with it, their explosive power.

Second, it was much easier to manage as the two lifts took less time and the Clean and Jerk is easier to judge. Third, it deemphasizes the Bench. This makes it easier to keep the athletes Benching with the narrower, Brent Denny, 171-pound junior, locking out with 185.

Brent will be a football co-captain this fall.

Spotting is Coach Whaley.

JUNIOR OLYMPIC NATIONAL WEIGHTLIFTING CHAMPIONSHIPS SARASOTA HIGH SCHOOL Coach Smithers likes to have his football players compete to keep intensity at a high level in the off-season. He stated, = “We really push it during the school year and work a lot on technique. We also lift in-season. All our athletes lift. It’s mandatory for our baseball team, which was ranked third in the nation under Coach Clyde Metcalf.” All the athletes on the weightlifting team are football players. Football remains the number one sport but the weightlifting contests are both fun and challenging. Ben Thomas, a three-time state lifting champ, is 5-10, 230, and runs a 4.9 forty.

He will play football at Henderson State in Arkansas. Paul Short, a senior with a 3.5 GPA, is 6-0, 198, and runs a 4.8 forty from his linebacker position. George Lockett, a lineman, is also a senior with a 3.0 GPA. He is a 6-0, 225, and runs a 5.0 forty. Jon Rissler, a 6-2, 200-pound sophomore, plays defensive end. He carries a 3.8 GPA an runs a 4.8 forty.

CLEAN & JERK CONTESTS Continued from page 53 elbows-in grip recommended by BFS. If you have Bench competitions, athletes tend to use form rather than technique for optimal Benching, which has greater carryover value for other sports. (This can also be true of the Squat and Dead lift, if the coach is not careful.)

Christie competed in the 105-pound class and beat all the boys in the 12-to-13-year-old age group with a 99-pound Snatch and a 132-pound Clean and Jerk. Christie Green is from Newnay, Georgia, and Fourth, Olympic-style weightlifting develops footwork. competed this past July in Boca Raton, Florida, at the While power lifting requires athletes to plant their feet, Junior National Championships. Her father, Ben Green, weightlifting requires quick, coordinated footwork with is a competitive Masters lifter and has been training heavy weights.

Christie since she was eight years old. Christie has been We believe our initial try at this format was a success. competing for one year and will be an eighth grader at Our athletes enjoyed the Clean and Jerk and the feeling that O.P. Evans Junior High. “All the kids are supportive of comes with driving heavy weights overhead. We also found me lifting,” grinned Christie. “They don’t think it’s that, with proper training, weightlifting is very safe. unfeminine at all. A few of my girlfriends are even This past June, | had the opportunity to attend a starting to get interested in lifting.”

weightlifting clinic at the United States Olympic Christie has tremendous technique, which explains why Training Center at Colorado Springs. It was a great she can lift so much. She also built a strong base with Squats experience to be able to learn the technical aspects of and Benches, with some plyometrics added for explosiveness. weightlifting from the top experts in the United States.

Christie is so good that she is in the top twelve American We will include the Snatch and some of it’s related women lifters by formula. However, she’s too young to movements in our program in the near future. We also represent the United States in international competition. That learned that weightlifting is a great sport that athletes will have to wait until next next year when she turns fourteen. can enjoy after their team-sport careers are over. For “My goal is to be at the World Championships when I'm those with elite potential, there are opportunities for fourteen, and then maybe the Olympics, if it becomes an international travel and competition. ofÏcial sport,”

Christie said hopefully.

Many coaches shy away from these lifts, thinking I asked Christie about anabolic steroids. She exthem dangerous or too difÏcult to teach. This is not the claimed, “No way! It’s like men taking estrogen (estrogen is a female hormone). | then asked with a little training background, the lifts can be taught safely and effectively. The USWF has a variety of twinkle, “Are you too young to have a boyfriend? She coaching resources available. Their video tapes, training quickly looked at her father and laughed, “Yes sir.” manuals, and clinics are of the highest quality, and are relatively inexpensive.

For further information contact: United States Weightlifting Federation Christie would like to be a Physical Therapist someday perspective. My final question was to ask her what the most important thing was in life. She squeezed her father’s arm and rested her head on his shoulder and said, “My daddy.”

From BFS Magazine — September/October 1988. Part of the BFS Magazine Archive (1980–2014).