if you had to pick between doing olifts or plyos for the develpment of speed (in addition to sprints ofcourse)… which would you do and why?
Also i don’t have a caoch to teach me the olifts so when i Power clean i basically just try to get the weight up to my shoulders from the ground without concerning myself with the technical aspects such as the double knee bend… would i still see the same benfits from olfits doing them the way i do?
In your situation I would just do plyos. If you want some stimulus similar to the olympic lifts, you could just do some variant of jump squats, reactive squats (ala inno sport), or plyos with a weight vest or dumbbells.
ok… but suppose i use great form for the olifts, would this make them more effective that regular plyos?
Well they train different parts of the force time curve each are different. According to Schmidtblicher you should ideally do both but short contact plyos are especially important.
You might say that olifts (or reactive squats / jump squats / explosive box squats) would help the early acceleration portion of your race.
Bodyweight plyos would help more in the top speed portion of your race.
does the double knee bend really matter?? i ask this because everytime i try to incorporate it into a power clean or snatch i end up lifting less than if i din’t do it…
It is debatable whether or not you should think about the double knee bend. If you have to think about it, it probably slows the lift down so you cannot lift as much.
It’s also debatable whether it should be taught or not. The majority of elite lifters will double knee bend without thinking about it.
Plyos and explosive med ball throws is what I would recommend for your particular situation.
I don’t think thinking about the dkb is really debatable. It may appear debatable as some inexperienced gurus are promoting teaching of it and focus on it (here in England at least).
Think about keeping the bar close and accelerating during the second pull. You should automatically move around the bar in such a way that the dkb happens.
if i had to pick i would pick oly lifts. i find oly lifts easily quantifiable, and directly related to speed development. in your case i would probably just do plyos.
Plyometrics come in all species…and for sure, if you have to chose btwn Ol and plyos, for a developing athlete would be easy to opt for plyos.So much of the spectrum of qualities required to sprint can be covered, especially if you do not have proper supervision on OL, which btw remain a general strength exercise, a strength speed one, but still far away from being specific to sprinting.
Whereas bounds and hops may have limited value for an elite sprinter, for a mid level one can be a great addition.