Adarq.org

what's your SVJ now, again?

We talked about 6 very important things.

Balance
Fulcrum/Leverage (I’m still arguing with him to change the word fulcrum to leverage)
Coordination
Tempo
Feelings when training
The focus on perfection in technique

Balance:
Balance is the idea where you want to have all the load, directly in the middle of the foot. Only when it’s at the middle of the foot, will you minimize the muscular work required to keep the bar balanced. When we are able to achieve this, we will be able to minimize the stress on the body and yet still hit solid numbers in our training.

Fulcrum/Leverage
The idea of fulcrum, is, how can we possible use the least amount of effort to lift the maximum amount of weight? This all revolves around the basic idea of keeping the weight centered on the body and not have it shift back or forward. Any anterior, posterior, lateral (okay, fine. Those were big words. Any front back side movement) is a waste and what can we do to achieve maximum weight with least amount of effort.  He always told me, if you can lift well, you will lift 100KG with only 95KG of force. You let your body hold on to positions that are necessary to minimize the feeling of the weight on your body.

Coordination
Why coordination is important when wanting to have good tempo

Tempo
The importance of not rushing and cutting the pull short and diving under the bar. Why it’s far more important to have a good consistent and solid tempo, regardless of weight (meaning all loads are lifted with the same sort of speed). This is rather neural.

Feelings
When I say feeling, I don’t mean emotionally how you feel. I couldn’t be less bothered about how you feel emotionally when training. What I’m interested in is the feeling your body is providing you when you’re training. What is weak and what isn’t what is strong and what is imbalanced. How would you go about fixing all these little issues. You can’t do this without being able to feel because there’s this small problem.
The coach has the experience and can see what’s happening. But athletes are experts in hiding the real pain and imbalance so even experienced coaches can sometimes miss it. Most of the times, the athlete doesn’t even know they’re doing it. The athlete however, doesn’t have the knowledge nor the experience to tell what’s going wrong. So they need to rely on the coaches. That’s why I always stress coach and athlete relationship. If the athlete doesn’t respond to what the coaches are trying to convey, the coach will have a real hard time trying to get to the root of the issue.

The focus of perfection in technique

In order to tie up all the above things that we’ve discussed, there’s a need to have perfect technique. All the time. Regardless of weight. 20KG must look the same as 160KG that sort of idea. The same speed, the same everything. Only then can your brains and muscles coordinate and get the movement to be more and more efficient and you become “stronger and stronger”.
We then move to the practical side of training and he sends them back to do these weird exercises.
First, what I think the breakdancing community knows as “the worm”

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bUKb2Tb_Es" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bUKb2Tb_Es</a>

Something I like to call, the “panda pull”

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu7JQS2b2_Q" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu7JQS2b2_Q</a>

And then the boys go and do their homework.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3T444mnWCs" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3T444mnWCs</a>

Now before you ask me how many reps and sets at what weight should I do it, let’s ….let’s walk away from that way of thinking momentarily. Remember at the previous article, I spoke about how Liao Hui’s coach generally allows him to do his own thing? And when the coach gets pissed at him, he starts to smarten up and train properly?
I’ll repeat, “Coach usually allows me to do my own thing. If I get too playful, he starts to get pissed at me and I smarten up”
Points out something yet? Remember, the Chinese weightlifting methods finds its roots in the gymnastics training. Gymnasts are the strongest people per pound of bodyweight, in the world. Try asking a gymnast, how many reps and sets to do for their muscle-ups or backflips. I’m not sure if they’ll even know what you’re trying to ask.
Anyway, practice practice practice. Hopefully, as my brains begin to work back into writing, I’ll be able to churn out better writing. I’m a bit dissatisfied by the lack of creativity in my writing today. Must be the Saturday night beers I tell ya.