So,  Gil started his workshop on the ‘Application of Weightlifting to development of Speed and Power in Tennis’ with a photo similar to the one above.  He then asked us all to give our views on what fitness qualities someone would need to 1) pull the bar off the floor and up to the chest and b) catch the bar in the position above.

 

 

So what would you have come up with?

 

 

Well, we came up with the standard responses such as strength, power, flexibility, stability etc…..not earth shattering answers.  The next post (Lessons 2) will go into great detail on what strength is and  it’s proper definition- and which types are required during Olympic weightlifting.   But interesting though this was not the line Gil was going down initially!

 

 

Gil said in the initial pull the key qualities are:

 

 

>Core Strength

 

 

>Posture

 

 

>Balance

 

 

These are all inter-related as clearly having more core strength will help develop the bracing capability to hold a good posture which in turn will aid in maintenance of balance!

 

 

As far as the catch is concerned Gil outlined the importance of:

 

 

>Agility

 

 

>Motor coordination

 

 

 

 

This was really important for me as a light bulb moment because while we all wanted to talk about the gross qualities of maximum strength, RFD and dynamic flexibility Gil was really saying:

 

 

‘ Look, these lifts reinforce FUNDAMENTAL QUALITIES first and foremost in our athletes such as Posture that we spend so long trying to achieve with indirect methods targeting individual muscles such as movement prep type exercises and goodness knows what other functional, remedial type of  exercises.

 

 

A lot of these interventions are all well conceived but actually if you get a beginner to lift a bar over their head (starting with a broomstick and progressing from there) they hit A LOT of qualities that will build a robust athlete!!!