I should have clarified it further, for example.
- Snatch, clean, focus with front squat, RDL as accessory
- bench, chins, as focus, back squat, GHR as accessory
- Snatch, clean, focus with overhead squat, SLDL as accessory.
All things equal, I think that what you are proposing would be fine for an advanced sprinter who already has sufficient muscle cross-section in the prime movers.
If you were to employ those parameters than you would obviously have to closely monitor your loading as the OL lifts rank high on the charts of high threshold MU recruitment.
Managing CNS stress is a huge factor.
james is slowly turning, dont deny it ;). first he says oly variants are fine and NOW hes doing the variants himself!!!
Agreed, what about as a phase of training for a more generalist athlete (say, someone called John C-S 
) after a 12 week Westside style focussed period?
I would first ask the question (to this John C-S character LOL) what is the theme and goal of your training programme?
OB1 has taught you well young cockysprinter…
My contention lies against the use of overhead lift variations for in season contact sport athletes. Not against OL lifting as an entity onto itself.
I have always been a fan of Olifting and I have researched the sport and its history fairly extensively.
Most of what I know stems from the Soviet coaches who spent much time monitoring and administering the training of Soviet OL lifters.
I am a proponent of walking the talk, therefore, I feel personally compelled to develop at least one big OL variation (in my case the clean) so that I may have more credibility when debating the utilization and efficacy of OL variants in any training program.
I will listen to what almost anyone has to say, however, in the end I have always put the most stock into the individuals who have been in the trenches and also possess the skills to articulate various concepts of training.
I don’t care how many letters an individual has after their name, if he/she is talking about the development of strength and power than he/she better be able to damn well express some of their own. This is my personal view, talk is cheap.
Ironic that I am writing this on an internet forum.LOL
Doing the full lifts will improve form of the power versions I’ve found.
There is less margin for form error in the full lifts, so you maintain a certain level of consistency, and they also teach you to do the power versions properly
At least do the fullcleans, full snatches are a different kettle of fish 
If you can do full cleans, powercleans are cake, just a lighter load going higher. If you start doing powercleans by themselves, most people end up swinging the bar up in a dangerous fashion
High hang squat cleans will clean up the form a bit.
Blitzforce, you bring up a valid point. I am fortunate to have a digital camera which has the capacity to record short movies. Accordingly, I am able to critique my technique in slow motion.
However, what is your view of the schools of thought which propose the instruction of the clean by starting with versions from the hang and working on down to the floor incrementally?
When I teach athletes the clean this is what I’ve found to be very effective. I Teach the first pull first. Basically a basic deadlift with a pronated grip. After they learn that properly I teach them the high pull. Basically cue them to pull shrug & jump. After they have mastered that I then show them the hang clean and the common problem I find is their ability to rack the weight. At first athletes will catch the weight with closed hands. I cue the elbows up and semi open hands so that the bar will hit them in the chest/anterior deltiods where it should be caught/racked. I then put then 2 together (1st pull and hang clean) and usually this works well.
James sorry about your back, i hope things heal up for you soon. But I am super pumped you are giving the clean a go, I love that fact that you just want a big clean, i did that once with the deadlift to shut up a bunch of muscle heads that used to go to my former gym. I have no doubt that you will reach your goals sooner than you think!!!
I dont know if you have ever heard of Anthony Ditillo, he wrote two gems of a book back in the 70’s on muscular bulk and power, and now the articles can be found in MILO from ironmind. Anyways Ditillo wrote a great article called “Olympic Assistance Movements for size and strength” I believe was the title. Basically it was an offseason strength program utilizing the the olympic assistance movements for power lifters. For a few months the lifter would emply, high bar squats instead of the powerlifting style, you would do high pulls instead of deads as well as snatch grip deads, cleans and heavy shrug pulls. He theorized that using this different style of training will hit the bofy in different way, thus developing new muscle size and special strength to carry back over to the powerlifting platfom. Its not a far cry from the congugate method! Its pretty neat and Ditillo was a guy who walked the walk as you do and he had close connections with some eastern bloc OL’s and he was a powerlifter himself!!! I can send you the article if you want, as i know you would enjoy it.
Frit, Ditillo is a familiar name, however, I am not familiar with his writings.
I would definitely like to check out the article.
I have been meaning on getting your email address anyway.
Go ahead and email me at James@powerdevelopmentinc.com
Generalist would be an appropriate term although I may do some masters track later in the year (summer here now) 100, 200 poss 400m and will decide later in the yearthe plan at this stage is
Jan - Mar
Drop bf% and get stronger and faster.
Apr- June
Get as strong as possible while maintaining or slightly increasing bf%
July - Sept
Improve Olympic lit technique, maintain bf%
Oct-Dec
same as Jan - Mar.
The full gory details are in my training log .
John, after having skimmed over your training log I would say that you have put a lot of thought into it and it appears as if you know what works for you. Accordingly, I would expect that you would get the ‘generalist’ development which you seek.
Thanks, what a nice way of saying you will be the epitomy of ‘Jack of all trades master of none’
Anthony DiTillo use to write great articles in the old Perry Rader Ironman. He did alot of short range lifts, like the seated military, with mongo weight. After a while he cut from the 300’s down to 180ish. Unfortunately he recently passed. I remember eagerly wanted for those issues back in the late 70’s to early 80’s to read his articles. Thank you for reminding me. I can see the picture of him with glasses, a black beard and a huge chest. He would keep track of little things. Ahead of his time. That’s when Ironman was a good mag.
Acudave,
you can still buy his books. A guy named Bill Hinbern sells them. His website is
Frit, cool link. Do you recommend or endorse one of the Ditillo’s texts over the other?
Hang cleans are going well, 5x1 with 225 real easy today. I have been using a counter movement and I am still catching the bar standing almost straight up.
My wrist flexibility is improving by the workout. As I stated before, I feel that I could hit 315 right now, but I am still feeling some activity in the low back so I want to be careful.
Also, send me an email when you get a chance.
Frit17,
Thanks. The guy was awesome!
Sorry i havnt e-mailed you yet. I will fire out out to you this weekend.
The Ditillo book that I have is called the development of physical strength. I highly recomend it.
James thats great about the cleans. I think with the backround you have you will be at 315 in no time. I would definitally try to build up to the 315 slowly just to be on the safe side. I tried 315 once after a long lay off and although i didnt get hurt my body or (CNS) was junk for a few days after. I just wasnt ready for that kind of effort yet. Anyways i finally got my hands on some very good Weightlifting shoes(can you believe i have been doing this stuff for the past five years in nike’s LOL) and they really help alot especially squating i can notice a huge difference.