I pretty much had no idea how to lift in high school. We (distance runners) would just screw around in the weight room, no method just madness. My leg work would consist of leg extensions and curls. Upper Body was curls and bench. Basically I lifted like the average gym goer. I thought squats and cleans were too difficult and were for football players(I didn’t want to get too big… Ibasically had no concept of how the neuromuscular system/CNS works). About a year ago I got into lifting and learned how to train for strength. I taught myself the squat and clean in a few weeks, then I learned to snatch and split jerk a little while later. If you have basic athleticism, flexibility, general strength (Zats. recommends 3 years of general training before weights) intelligence, and diligently research on the web or books learning the right way to lift isn’t hard. Of course it’d be much easier with a coach. For most people it’s more of a desire issue. Many know that squat, deadlifts, cleans etc… will benefit them more than curls and machines but they would rather get a pump and look at themselves in the mirror.
Point taken; however Ben couldn’t bc of knee problems if I understand correctly so he wouldn’t be able to do plyo’s no matter who his coach was. Tellez is a great coach no argument in that and CL is one of the best athletes of all time; however, when it did hurt to ask such a logical question? Opinions will vary but everything I’ve learned so far tells me that CF would have made CL the best. It does take a great athlete and a great coach.
Remember,
THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!
In the 100 we all know that it was Ben. Granted the title of the world’s best athlete could be given to CL. Finally in terms of coaching I see CF fitting that title. Remember no other coach for Canada has come close to what CF did in terms of medals for the sport of track and field!
I could see how things would go smoother if med ball work had been introduced in the past.
I don’t see how someone with a few months weight training experience would be able to lift nearly as much as that same person with 10 years experience, but I guess they would still achieve benefits from lifting no matter what.
I would like to think that you could compare two athletes, one with 2 years exp and the other 10 yr exp.
It’s called the point of diminshing returns. You can also think of it as platueing. The biggest gain I have made in my bench press in the last 10 years is 40lbs from benching 365lbs in college to doing 405lbs this year at the age of 27.
My experience with young swimmers -who generally are even weaker than young sprinters for the nature of the stimulus provided by the sport itself- has been that med ball and either classical and explosive bodyweight work provide a solid strength base before introducing weights in their training, and may be used for quite a long time with costant improvements (2-3 years).
After that weight exercises are quite easily learned and technique proficiency gets better and better only with a bit of patience by the coach as strength levels increase.
A couple of things I found quite helpful with beginners:
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staggered introduction and use of different exercises
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very smooth progressions in the loads (many details may show improvement from session to session with beginners,thus making further increases in load unnecessary).
When will people understand we are all different. Our body respond to different stims.