PR Friday boys and girls. Post this week’s PRs to the comments; weight lifted, eaten, or gained, pants ripped, children punted, trees kicked, villages pillaged, and ladies training — they’re all PRs.
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The USA Weightlifting Senior National Championships is going on this weekend in Peoria, Illinois. You can watch a live webcast of the lifting on Saturday and Sunday by clicking the following link: http://weightlifting.teamusa.org/live
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Here is a fitting comic from Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net
Click to see a full size image.
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Get Your Knowledge On
Here is the blog of Dr. Hartman. I’ll let this quote describe him:
Dr. Michael Hartman is a Sport Scientist, and recognized expert in training for Strength-Power and Performance. He earned his Doctorate in Muscle Physiology and has previously worked as a Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coach and Sport Scientist at the US Olympic Training Center where he was a member of the inaugural USA Weightlifting Performance Enhancement Team.
Dr. Hartman is also friends with Dr. Kilgore (who some of you may be familiar with), and I’ve also heard that he is a very good strategist as a platform coach (this means while he handles lifters at meets). I met him briefly when he was handling Dr. Kilgore at the USAPL Texas State Meet a couple months ago.
Anyway, his blog will cover topics of Strength-Power-Performance, Sport Science, general Strength & Conditioning, as well as current events in the media. Dr. Hartman’s research and practical experience should give us a unique perspective on these topics.
Superlatives have been bandied about way too much these last few years. We used to reserve terms like “great,” “best,” and “elite” for truly rare, truly spectacular moments or performances. Now, everything is great. Or it’s the Best. Post. Ever. And elite…hell, we all know what happened with that one.
Let’s get the bad news out of the way first. You are not elite. That’s fine. I’m not either. We do the best with what we have. But there are a few among us who have the genetics, mental focus, ambition, support, and luck to make it to the top.
I would like you to meet a friend and teammate of mine who may one day join the elites. His name is Devin. He has already won nine junior national championships in judo (there are three each year). He is 6’2” tall and weighs 210 pounds. He is twelve years old.
I am not one to pimp child athletes. Kids are usually too young and too immature to handle the scrutiny they get. I make an exception in this case because Devin is well-adjusted, has good family support, lives in Wichita Falls (where there aren’t many distractions), and plays judo (a sport nobody really gives a damn about).
The physical gifts are obvious. And because he is so big, he has been able to train with adult players the last few years. As a result, he has acquired some “game” from each weight class he passed through on the way up. He is a 200-pounder that throws stuff normally seen on the 66kg mat.
Mental focus and ambition go hand in hand. Judo is about mat hours and competition. The training is fun because we have a good club. State and regional tournaments are fun because we take a good size group. That’s easy. It gets harder at the national level, where it’s just the kid, the parents, and the coach. At the international level, it’s the kid and whatever coach is assigned to that squad (not always your personal coach). Beyond that, it’s spending every weekend on the road, sleeping in cars or hotels, and fighting in every gym in North America.
A typical match for Devin against an older opponent
There is a social cost to be paid as one advances in an individual sport such as this. Luckily Devin trains with several older junior athletes who are already on that path. He also got to spend some time with Ronda Rousey (2-time Olympian, Bronze in Bejing ’08, Silver in Worlds ’07), who talked a bit about her life as an elite judoka. He has time to be a kid now, but that free time will quickly vanish as he continues to pursue an Olympic dream.
Support is key to succeeding in judo or any other sport. He has great family support (meaning parents, not judo parents). He has a good local club. And he has friends when he wants to cut loose.
And then there is luck. In our club, there is a core group of adult players who have been competing, training, and teaching with each other for several years. These guys have all been able to train with and teach Devin SAFELY. As fortune would have it, we are all in different weight classes. So Devin has basically spent 6-9 months learning the habits and techniques particular to each weight class. As I mentioned, as he moves through weight classes, he retains some of the “game” from each. This kinda sucks for me, since I’m just now getting him. It’s like fighting Duncan McLeod.
Devin throwing me with his favorite technique, harai goshi
The coach is the most crucial piece here. Roy Hash has been Devin’s coach since he started judo five years ago. He makes the decisions of how to push, when to push, when to let Devin fight up a weight or age class, when to fight in senior tournaments, and when to put the brakes on. It is a delicate balancing act that can make or break a player.
So, with all the pieces in place, how does he train? He spends two (sometimes three) days a week in class with the Texoma Judo Jujitsu Club. He spends another evening a week training with a club in Dallas that has several older nationally ranked junior players (this was Roy’s recommendation, which is rare in the coaching world). He supplements with the occasional camp, including a recent one he was invited to at the Olympic Training Center.
He trains two days at the gym (he recently started linear progression with Justin and is currently squatting 205x5x3, benching 130x5x3, and deadlifting 205x5x1). He also does 2-3 sessions a week of running and cardio with his mother. This will change some as he hits puberty (kids are not suited for anaerobic training) and when his matches start lasting more than a few seconds.
I spend one day a week with him working on throwing combinations and groundwork. By the time he is fourteen, I will no longer be able to handle him. And I’m ok with that.
Demonstrating a few throws
The bottom line is that, to be elite, you have to have the right gifts and be in the right circumstances. Devin is a good kid with immense physical gifts, talent, and interest in judo. He has a good group of coaches, parents, training partners, and friends around him. If everything stays on course, he could make a run for the rings in next decade or so.
But right now, he is twelve. The best anyone can do for him (or any other kid) is to encourage him and cultivate whatever talent he has. Me? I’ll be slamming him into the mat for the next year or so…just in case.
Kendrick Farris is America’s star lifter. He’s won four Senior National Championships, placed 8th in the 2008 Olympic games, placed 12th in the Senior World Championships, and won a gold medal at the Senior Pan American Championships. He holds the American record in the clean and jerk (203kg) and the American record in the total (362kg) — all in the 85kg weight class. But…is that enough to take on the world?
There are two lifters in particular with existing international track records that currently stand in Kendrick’s way; Andrei Rybakou and Lu Yong (surnames come first in most Asian cultures…according to Brent). Rybakou has been called a “specialist” in the snatch as he has snatched an amazing world record 187kg (remember, he is an 85kg lifter). He also is tied in the world record with Lu Yong in the total with 394kg. Rybakou has won the 2006 European Championships, the 2006-07 World Championships, and won a silver medal at both the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. Here is the video of Rybakou breaking his own World Record in the snatch with a 187kg lift (go to 4:10 in the vid):
Lu Yong has a similarly impressive list of accomplishments. He won a silver medal at the Asian Games, a silver medal at the 2005 World Championships, a gold medal at the 2009 World Championships, and most important of all…a gold medal at the 2008 Olympics. He won it in a battle against Rybakou, who was a pubic hair away from winning gold. Lu Yong had to hit a lift to tie his total (he was at a lighter bodyweight and would win the tie), and he did so on his second clean and jerk. However, the jury reversed the decision because of a pressout, and he came back on the third attempt to hit the lift for the gold — quite impressive. Here’s the video — the whole thing is very good, but if you just want to see the final lift, go to 4:10 for Lu Yong’s second attempt, and then 7:50 for the third:
Lu Yong matched Rybakou’s total, but since Rybakou made the total first, he maintains the world record until someone else beats it.
As you see, these 85kg lifters are very good. I don’t know if they have room to improve on their current total — Rybakou needs to improve his jerk to become an Olympic champion, and Lu Yong needs to stay one step ahead. Kendrick Farris has snatched 160kg (at the 2008 Olympics) and clean and jerked 203kg (at this year’s Pan-Ams). Kendrick is a very good with the clean and jerk as he has hit 211 in training, and has cleaned and just misses the jerk forward at 218.
There have been whispers of Kendrick setting a World Record in the clean and jerk (which is 218kg in the 85kg class), but even if he were to do so, he’ll need to improve his snatch significantly before the Olympic games in London. Going 170/220 would still only yield a 390 total. I hope he does, and I’m rooting for him more than ever. He’s got quite the task ahead of him, so let’s stay behind him (well, at least us Americans) as he prepares for 2012.
I understand why the Body Mass Index (BMI) was created — it’s so much easier to let the computer divide two numbers (mass (kg) / height^2 (m)) than to implement some kind of bodyfat measurement. But using it as a metric to inform people whether they are healthy or not? Are you kidding me?
The general public was introduced to the BMI in the late 1990s as an initiative for healthy eating and exercise. If the government didn’t officially recommend a shitty diet in the first place, we wouldn’t have as large of a problem, but that’s another story altogether. In any case, Americans who are ignorant in the realm of health and/or exercise bought into this crappy hysteria, thinking that if they were “overweight” by the BMI standards (AKA government standards), then they needed to lose weight (ignoring body composition completely). The BMI is horse puckey because it doesn’t take into account lean body mass; it is merely a ratio of height and weight. This means that anybody who has some muscle (i.e. adult males) are considered, at the very least, overweight. And now that I think about it, I blame the government for acting as the catalyst that made America think being small is not only okay, but preferred. This is what we’re up against folks; government and society.
Anyway, this article points out how Mike Tyson (in his prime) is considered “obese”, and Lance Armstrong is considered “overweight”. On a similar note, the military uses the BMI to gauge health in their preventative health assessments. Not to mention the Air Force’s PT test includes a waist circumference measure that accounts for 30% of their total grade. And height isn’t taken into account, so a 6’7″ guy in the Air Force (I’ve met one) is measured to the same standards as a 5’7″ guy. And this somehow makes sense…?
Click to see the BMI chart
Look America, the BMI is getting old. I don’t know how you’re going to gauge the health of your citizens — the logistics are your problem. But this index is convincing everybody to be pretty much small and worthless, and that is despicable. There are plenty of bodyfat measures, although all the bio-impedence tools are almost as worthless as a 135 pound “guy”.
Weakling society and stupid regulations aside, the BMI is branding anybody who is decently strong as “unhealthy” when this couldn’t be further from the truth. When strength is maintained properly throughout life, it serves as the primary aid in old age. Get strong, stay strong, train/exercise consistently, eat moderately healthy, and you’ll be prepared for longevity to the best of your ability. If you can ignore the doctor claiming that you’re obese…
In two “Letter of Intent” posts (first and second) we urged 70’s Big readers to go out and compete. The fear of taking a risk is what holds most people back from taking the first step to compete, and that is usually the fear of “not being good enough”. One important aspect of committing to a competition is that the athlete has to focus their training into a specific event. They require a plan, and that plan must culminate into a specific event. Programming exercises, sets, reps, and conditioning may be a part of that plan, but in order to be effective, the athlete must accomplish something throughout their training as well as at the competition itself. The athlete must set, work towards, and achieve their goals.
Goals can’t just be set in a shoot-from-the-hip style — properly setting goals is important to its effectiveness. Instead of subjectively thinking “I want to lift well at the meet”, the thought should be, “I want to at least complete four of five lifts and total 250 kg”. This makes the goal objective, tangible, and can help unlock an athlete‘s potential.
All goals are not created equal. Outcome goals are based on the result of a competitive event. Performance goals revolve around hitting objectives within competition — such as going four for six at the meet. Process goals are the actions within the athlete’s performance that they must execute properly in order to achieve the performance goals. In lifting this might be bouncing out of the bottom of the squat, or having a sharp dip/drive on a jerk. In football this might mean the defensive end must maintain outside containment on the quarterback in specific plays. Each athlete will have different kinds of goals based on a variety of factors, such as skill level, importance of the competition, physical/mental state, and experience level.
While goals are important overall in life, specifically applying these principles to training for a competitive event is the focus here. Having goals can induce effective behavior change, maintain persistence in preparation of competition, mobilize the athlete’s efforts, and create an environment for the athlete to develop effective strategies. Most of all, it helps the athlete stay focused on the task at hand. However, these benefits are dependent on the goals being set properly.
A good rule of thumb is to create “SMART” goals. These are goals that meet the criteria of being Specific, Measurable, Action oriented, Realistic and Timely. If the goal does not clearly state what it sets out to do, then it’s worthless. Do you want to “do well”, or do you want to break your personal record on the snatch? That specific goal needs to be measurable as well — if your PR is 120 kg, then 121 is the minimum if you are going to set a personal record. If your goal can’t be measured, then there is no sure fire way to know if you achieved it or not. Indicating a specific number means there is something that needs to get done. You have a task before you, and you will either succeed or fail. Making this goal realistic is important though. Has the lifter snatched more than 120kg in training? Or are they only successfully snatching 110kg? If the goal is unrealistic, then the lifter is only setting herself up for failure. Timely goals have a deadline. There shouldn’t be any leeway on accomplishing it because then there isn’t a sense of urgency to do so. If your goals meet each of these five criteria, then striving towards success will be easier.
Remember the different types of goals; outcome, performance, and process goals. Unless the athlete is an elite level competitor, performance goals will be the emphasis (trying to better a previous performance). In order to achieve performance goals, process goals will maintain priority — doing the little things correctly to execute the task at hand. For a new lifter, this might be listening to the judge’s commands and executing a single cue from their coach. If the process isn’t properly performed, then the lifter won’t be able to achieve their performance goals. This is where having a coach is a luxury in single competitor sports. The coach will dictate these details to the athlete so that the athlete it is not bothered by ancillary details and can remain focused.
If an athlete is new to goal setting, then a competition makes for a great opportunity to start. Set a performance based goal for the competition as well as a process goal for training (the SMART goal principles will help). Keep it simple in the beginning — an athlete shouldn’t be bogged down with superfluous amounts of goals early on. As the competition nears, an honest evaluation should take place to see if the goal(s) need any adjustment. Properly setting goals can help direct an athlete’s focus into successful training and competition efforts.
Source:
Gould and Weinberg (2007). Foundations of Sport and Exercise Psychology.Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
