This 2016 video is a bit polarizing in that it illustrates objectively suspect methods and compromised mechanics while also showcasing Blake’s exceptional elastic, explosive, and force output qualities.
YouTube is not reality. Many of the video’s people make and then post invariablly promote the cut and paste mentality which veers away from the dedication and commitment and discipline of successful training. Let’s call them “Look at me videos”.
I especially dislike seeing exercises displayed that might be okay for someone to do under the circumstances of their training ( were they warmed up, how long have they been doing that exercise, over how many years? ) but viewers want to repeat what they see not knowing or appreciating what goes on for that particular athlete to accomplish special training moves.
And by the time you reach the Olympic final you have already won as far as I am concerned. Then it gets down to small issues and luck and time and chance.
He’s really lucky he didn’t get injured with that nonsense. I was cringing watching that.
Yeah especially when he was jumping out of the pool. Very high risk of slipping, I’d say.
Even though Blake and Bolt are in the same camp they appear to do different work. You couldn’t imagine Bolt doing some of this work.
Is there a dislike button for all of those exercises!?!??
Now this I believe. Simple, general training and nothing dangerous. First do no harm.
It is unbelievable that the world’s one of the most high level athlete is doing some bad exercises. That just shows how prevalent bad training is and how bad training is accepted as right thing to do. If even world’s elite of elite are exposed to bad training, imagine how likely someone will be to be taught with wrong way of training if they are at lower level of competition…
That limits potential advancement of many of those who want to enhance their performances and even short-cutting their athletic career. Unfortunately, proper coaching is not easy to find.
The all time great coaches demonstrate simplicity and specificity in their training models. Whoever advised Blake on some of this stuff clearly does not appreciate that.
IMHO many sports at the elite level suffer from unnecessary input from fitness/S&C/sports science input/personal trainer mentality. They need to justify their existence by adding on variations to the basic training methods. Hence we see exercises that are a waste of time/dangerous. It is not just athletics - we see have seen soccer players performing high volume/intensity exercise just before a tournament, cricket players injured in warm ups using soccer or touch rugby …
As Kwave says, this mentality can spread directly to coaches at lower levels who can foul up even without the army of advisers.
Finally, we should all note the comment RB34 just made in his training log. I cant think of a better summary of simple/specific.
“The older I get the more I move away from the olympic lifts. To technical and draining for me, I’ll rather use those resources on the track performing things that are more exciting and transfer towards sprinting.”
After Blake gets hurt this season. Next he will incorporate CROSSFIT
This is a very good point. After a return to regular exercise with the goal of general fitness, volleyball specific fitness, and possibly some (Master’s) javelin throwing, I also stopped doing olympic lifts. My technique degraded to the point where it seemed risky without any reason I couldn’t accomplish the same thing with safer, simpler exercises. I wish I could say it was entirely my own idea, but after a set of cleans a colleague of mine asked me “why are you doing those?” and as I started trying to justify it, I realized there was no good reason for me to do that.
You can probably achieve most of the benefits of olympic lifting with med ball throws.
Funny, going back to when I first joined this website in 2003, both here and on other sites, I received so much criticism for downplaying any significance of the Olympic lifts for any sport other than weightlifting. There are so many reasons for this, not the least of which is what has been mentioned by some of you here.
What’s more, an Olympic weightlifter who I coached 12-13 years ago was invited to train with Abadjiev after I coached him. When he was with Abadjiev he, at my request, asked Abadjiev what his thoughts were on athletes other than weightlifters performing the Olympic lifts. Abadjiev’s response was “leave weightlifting for the weightlifters”.
Around the same time, I spoke with a former Albanian weightlifter who was coaching football (the sport in which athletes manipulate the ball with their feet). In his career he had done 170 in the snatch and 190 in the C&J as a 77kg lifter. I asked him the same question and he said he could maybe see the value in some pulls but that’s it.
The simple immutable fact is this: any sport being prepared for consists of that sport’s structure (bioenergetic/biodynamic/biomotor) and that structure is what provides the context from which athletes must prepare. Invariably, the competitive/most specific preparation for any sport includes the technical composite (the technical/mechanical specifics that distinguish that sport from any other sports) of greatest, and usually demanding, importance.
For this reason, it is misguided for coaches to seek out preparatory motions, apart from dynamics of the sport in question, of additional mechanical complexity (particularly those of high structural/neuromuscular cost) that are, irrefutably, non-essential for the success of the sport in question.
THe only Oly lift I do now are High pulls. Id say the most basic and hard to fuck up. lol
https://www.facebook.com/Dynamicfitnessandstrength/?hc_ref=NEWSFEED
If you scroll down Blake is performing inverse curls.
Save your time and just do reg pulls, mid thigh, or counter move. High pulls are horrible.
Sooo inverse curls are for those that lack the strength to do any form of GHR. Kinda like doing that pull up machine. I know damn well Blake can do all forms of GHR.
Name one member of the former Mazda Track club pre 1988 who specialized or focused on Olympic lifts? ZERO.
See Weights for Speed Video’s sold here on my website today.
Coach Charlie Francis as well Angela Coon / National team member / wife of Charlie and Business own with Charlie/ 100 mh / coach and business owner and owner of CharlieFrancis.com now since 2000 have not ever promoted Olympic lifting for sprinting as a priority.
Most video’s online I have seen of the fastest woman John coaches or any of the Jamaican’s as well as the men, their Olympic lifts are average at best technically. We did a few but were extremely careful and mindful always of how to perform them and only when I was at my best was it added in. There are so many other things to do that are easier to execute well with success and not nearly the learning curve.
I haven’t seen one track and field sprinter performing any on the ol’s with decent form.
Bad ol tech but the video itself gets me ready to train daily…