There are many ways to skin a cat. Saying that one way is far superior to another depends on many issues:
- Your ability to teach and monitor technique
- The ability of the athlete to respond to the teaching and monitoring (some athletes hate squatting and deadlifting - do you force feed them?)
- Equipment at your disposal
- Contact time in the weight room and time/energy availability of that athlete (if they play many sports)
- Number of athletes you are teaching/monitoring at one time
- Previous injury history
- Etcetera, etcetera
I think if you fall back onto Charlie’s motor unit diagram displaying numerous lifting exercises and activities, you will always be able to come up with an exercise scheme that best fits your circumstances. I’m not a fan of saying that one particular lift is superior to another. As Charlie always says, “It depends…”
And, I do believe that when one puts forward an argument for or against a particular exercise/training scheme, there would be less friction with other forum members if they worded it as, “In my experience, I have found that such-and-such works best,” rather than “My methods are superior, and nothing else comes close.” Of course, the latter approach seems to sell more products to the less-educated masses.