With your permission, I’d love to use "I would go so far as to liken the intentional foot stomp to a quarterback who follows through so hard and through the entire amplitude that he hits himself in the balls. It’s just unnecessary and serves no useful purpose to the throw because it occurs after the ball has left his hand- just as the lifter cannot generate force for the pull once his/her feet have left the ground."
The next time I encounter a coach encouraging this, I might fall over from laughter.
Regarding the DKB, I used to believe that it did not have to be taught. I thought if someone moved the bar back far enough after the knees moved back that it would just happen. While I think that movement certainly improves the chance the DKB will happen, it is no guarantee and in some instances the movements will have to be taught.
Dr. Mike Stone said that approx. 40% of the athletes he has worked with over the years perform the DKB without any additional coaching but that obviously leaves 60% who do require this.
His wife, Meg Stone (former Ritchie) said with Jonathan Edwards, he was doing a modified version of a DKB but they changed/refined his technique though how this was done was not specified.
This fall, after using just clean pulls in the first block but emphasizing some of the cues Dr. Stone has promoted-knees back, knees forward, jump, shrug I can see technical improvements in the power cleans during the second and third block.
The double knee bend is an instinctive maneuver for those who have more training experience in the lifts as well as for those who have more genetically passed on and properly developed (early in life) athletic skills- because it facilitates the greatest mechanical advantage/leverage for the end range of the pull.
It is natural for lifters/athletes to initiate the pull during a hang clean from above the knee already in the position of double knee bend (knees forward of the bar/ lifters COM behind the bar) following a countermovement.
While we don’t have our players perform any Olympic lift variants, if we did, I would ensure that they perform the lifts in the most natural possible way, relative to their anatomy, that facilitates the greatest power output/maximal efficiency and the double knee bend plays a critical role in this process regarding the variants that are initiated below the knee.
Just as in any other exercise it is only logical that the athlete works towards executing it with the greatest mechanical efficiency that, in the case of CNS intensive maneuvers, provides for the highest power output to be generated as smoothly/rhythmically and orthopedically sound as possible.
I just jumped on the end of this one so I’ll have to go back in read but my college strength coach in the late 80’s was taught by Joe Mills and he did teach us the DKB.
Fast forward 10 years or so and Charles Poliquin felt it didn’t need to be taught.
I would go so far as to liken the intentional foot stomp to a quarterback who follows through so hard and through the entire amplitude that he hits himself in the balls. It’s just unnecessary and serves no useful purpose to the throw because it occurs after the ball has left his hand- just as the lifter cannot generate force for the pull once his/her feet have left the ground. hahahahahaha. I can barely catch my breath. That’s funny stuff. I agree, most of my kids hit the jump and grounf submax, but when the load gets high, they may just have a slight lift at the heel. Yeah, the Godzilla stomp isn’t possible at max loads. james, your comment reminded me of those old Cialis commercials where they show the guy in his back yard throwing a football though a tire. On Jim Romes show he did a little but on it. His buddy asked how the Cialis was working out, he said " Great, the only problem is my wood keeps getting in the way of my follow through." You get kudos for being brilliant and funny, they are two qualities that needn’t be mutually exclusive. Good stuff.