Let’s start things off with this disclaimer, this article will sting for the Olympic lift diehard coaches. They will like the outcome – improved Olympic lifting technique. However, there will be no mention of broomsticks or months of clean and snatch pulls. What we will discuss is my use of Olympic lifts within the 1×20 system; how it fits well with the principle of motor learning from the 1×20 system. The thing that makes this system better than other Olympic lifting progressions is your athletes will have more exposure per week to the Olympic lifts than 99% of your competition. Additionally, they will not waste time with broomsticks and will be able to learn more variations of the Olympic lifts sooner.
Background and rationale of 1×20
You might be asking yourself what is the 1×20 system? The 1×20 system is a training system created by Dr Yessis, based on the principle of training multiple movements every training session with a moderate load. He created this system because he did not feel there was an ideal program for novice athletes, who need practice and repetitions of exercises, so he created the 1×20 system. Early in an athlete’s development, the adaption and improvement are attributed to neural development. Therefore, the rationale of the 1×20 system fits with the neural adaptation that occurs early in an athletes training. Within the 1×20 system coaches will prescribe 1 set of 20 reps for various movements – squat, lunge, hinge, press, pull and give their athletes the same exercise each training session and simply add weight each training session. This allows the athletes to learn movement execution as they have so many reps to practice the technique. Additionally, with the high number of reps per set – the load is moderate, meaning the athletes CNS can recover from training.
At a certain point progression within a movement will stop, you will simply not be able to add weight to each set forever. At this point, the reps drop to 14 per set, and eventually to 8 reps per set. At a certain point 8 reps will no longer drive adaptation, and change will be required for your athletes. At this point, the 1×20 system calls for 1×20 and 1×14 for each exercise. Then finally performing 1×20, 1×14, and 1×8 for a given movement. Not really 1×20 as the name suggests, why is that? Because as great as the system is, after time, athletes need true power and strength. Once athletes have got every ounce of strength and movement execution from the 1×20 system, it is time to move on to more power and lower rep strength work.
1×20 application to Olympic lifts
How does this apply to the use of Olympic lifts within the 1×20 system? Using motor learning and exercise technique with higher rep ranges and moderate load. You might be saying to yourself wait, 1 set of 20 reps for Olympic lifts, that many reps won’t produce the right amount of force! Calm down. It’s my bastardized version. The progression is 8, 5, 3. Again, you might be thinking eight reps that is too many reps; it does not fit with what Olympic lifts should be working on with ground-based power – give back your PhD right now! My counter to that statement would be the same reason why it is alright to do 20 reps of a movement designed to improve strength? The goal is to improve exercise technique within the 1×20 program. Therefore, they need a higher number of reps to get exposure to that exercise. I understand that if you program 3×5 or 4×5 that is more reps than 8. But you are only getting 15-20 reps of that Olympic movement for the week. You are not gaining the technical execution with all the Olympic lifts. If you do 1×8 with clean, snatch, and jerk variations 3 times per week that is 24 reps per week of each exercise.
This is one of the things people mess up when implementing the Olympic lifts. Athletes are only exposed to one movement per day, and if you only have your athletes in the weight room 2-3 times per week, they might only be exposed to 2 or 3 Olympic movements. Remember, we are talking about novice athletes that need to learn movement technique and gain movement competency. Athletes need exposure to more reps of something to get better at it. How many times have you got a new athlete and said to yourself, “man, they cannot do ____”? Well, they simply did not have enough exposure to that movement. We are not talking about an 8RM every day. It is 8 reps with a moderate load every time they perform that given Olympic lift.
An additional limitation that happens when most people implement the Olympic lifts is using a broomstick to teach the movement. The rationale is that the stick is light, and athletes can get away with faulty movement execution when learning the Olympic lifts because of how light the stick is. I would agree that athletes need to learn how to perform the Olympic lifts and make mistakes in the learning process – however, a broomstick is way too light to use when performing an Olympic lift. There is no way performing a hang power clean with a stick and with 135lb is the same thing for a 225lb OLB. Yes, athletes need to have the ability to feel their mistakes with a lighter load – but the lighter load needs to be within reason of that athlete’s strength level.
The final limitation that occurs most often with teaching the Olympic lifts is only using pulls from various start positions to teach their athletes the proper bar path. Coaches will pair these pulls with front squats and overhead squats with the rationale of – once they know how to pull properly and can receive the load properly then they can perform the actual Olympic lift. What? Just because you can pull a bar from the ground and can front squat does not mean you can clean. I’m sorry, you are skipping the part where they are performing the movement – the clean. If you want your athletes to be able to clean you need them to be performing the clean. Yes, they need to work their bar path and their catch position, but they need to do those things while working the actual movement.
My improvements
Alright, so what do I think is better? If you want to get better at doing something, you need to do that thing. So, my improvement is performing the Olympic movement you want your athletes to be able to do. Perform it with high reps and a moderate load every day that they lift so they can learn technical competency for the movement. Repeat that for time, reduce the reps from 8 to 5 to 3. And after 6-8 weeks your athletes will be highly competent for team sport athletes with the Olympic lifts. Your next question might be how will this pair with the rest of their training? My answer – perfectly. The rest of their training will be 20, 14, or 8 reps of moderate load strength movements – squat, RDL, bench press, bent over row, pull up – all movements that teach athletes how to move through a full range of motion and develop strength of their entire body.
The principle behind this teaching for the Olympic lifts is the S.A.I.D principle. You want to get better at the clean, do the clean. You cannot withhold performing the clean with your athletes while only performing pulls and front squats and expect the clean to look right. Another governing principle of this teaching is motor learning. I am not going to dive deep down this rabbit hole, Steffan Jones did a great job on this in the Fundamentals Course. What I will highlight is the same things Dr Yessis noted when he introduced the 1×20 program – athletes need opportunities to practice movement technique. Ask yourself if an athlete only performs 1 Olympic lift per day is that the optimal way to teach movement technique? Or would having multiple times per week to teach the foundational movements of your program result in improvement in exercise technique?
How to implement
Like the 1×20 program for strength movements, this method of teaching will start with the higher reps. Over time the reps will drop, and the load will increase. For the Olympic lifts, I will go from 8 to 5 to 3. I start with the hang power snatch, front jerk, and hang power clean. I chose these movements because to me they are the simplest to teach to new athletes. Starting from the hang and catching in the power position requires the least amount of teaching for the clean and snatch variations. The front jerk can be easily explained as cheating an overhead press (again, I know it’s more complex – remember Oly lifting coach, I said this article was going to sting) I am talking about athletes who have little, to no exposure in the weight room.
Most of my athletes will have 3 or 4 days in the offseason to train. Therefore, they will use those three movements each day for 2 weeks with 8 reps. After 2 weeks they will go down to 5 reps and after 2 weeks at 5 reps, they will perform two weeks of triples. Once those 6 weeks are complete, what I like to do is teach the clean and snatch variation from the floor, and the jerk from behind the neck. They will perform the same 6-week progression with these three new movements. After this, each day the athletes are in I change the movement. There will always be a snatch, jerk, and clean variation – but the movements will differ each day after the initial 12 weeks. When my athletes are on a 3-day split the way in which I progress the snatch and clean are – power, block power and hang power. For the Jerk, I will program front jerk, behind the neck jerk, and front split jerk. These movements will all be performed for 8 reps, 5 reps, and 3 reps over 2-3 weeks. After that, I will change the movements, usually to full catches on snatch and clean, or I will add volume with 1×8 and 1×5. What drives my decision making is the time of the year.
Here’s my example laid out:
3 days of lifting
Snatch variation: Hang power snatch
Clean variation: Hang power clean
Jerk variation: Front jerk
Weeks 1-2: 8 reps
Weeks 3-4: 5 reps
Weeks 5-6: 3 reps
(New cycle)
3 days of lifting
Snatch variation: Power snatch
Clean variation: Power clean
Jerk variation: Behind the neck jerk
Weeks 1-2: 8 reps
Weeks 3-4: 5 reps
Weeks 5-6: 3 reps
(New cycle)
3 days of lifting
Snatch variation: Power snatch, block power snatch, hang power snatch
Clean variation: Power clean, block power clean, hang power clean
Jerk variation: Front jerk, behind the neck jerk, front split jerk
Weeks 1-2: 8 reps
Weeks 3-4: 5 reps
Weeks 5-6: 3 reps
Once this system no longer works and all the strength gains have been obtained from these foundation level athletes it is time to progress to true power and strength work for the Olympic lifts. In this time, you have taught movement execution, now that movement execution is competent it is time to increase each movement with higher loads. This requires more stress on the CNS, thus requiring each movement to be performed on separate days. The same thought process will need to occur with your strength exercises – yet another reason why this compliments the 1×20 program so well.
Summary
If you made it this far, chances are you know the broomstick and pulls only approach isn’t how you should teach your team sport athletes to Olympic lift. Good for you. Now, go and think about what your choice is for clean, snatch and jerk variation. With those movements in mind, see how many days per week you are training your athletes. With this teaching method, you will be able to get your novice athletes more exposure to your foundational (and in theory most important) lifts in your program. This additional exposure will set your athletes up to look better doing the Olympic lifts, use more weight sooner, and they will learn more variations of the Olympic lifts sooner than athletes at other schools who don’t use this approach. For more information on the 1×20 program check out Dr Yessis 1×20 presentation at CVASPS 2013. If you’re not a member, then sign up for $1 for 24 hours and check out the whole site, drop a comment in the members forum and I’ll talk with you more there!
Background and rationale of 1×20
You might be asking yourself what is the 1×20 system? The 1×20 system is a training system created by Dr Yessis, based on the principle of training multiple movements every training session with a moderate load. He created this system because he did not feel there was an ideal program for novice athletes, who need practice and repetitions of exercises, so he created the 1×20 system. Early in an athlete’s development, the adaption and improvement are attributed to neural development. Therefore, the rationale of the 1×20 system fits with the neural adaptation that occurs early in an athletes training. Within the 1×20 system coaches will prescribe 1 set of 20 reps for various movements – squat, lunge, hinge, press, pull and give their athletes the same exercise each training session and simply add weight each training session. This allows the athletes to learn movement execution as they have so many reps to practice the technique. Additionally, with the high number of reps per set – the load is moderate, meaning the athletes CNS can recover from training.
At a certain point progression within a movement will stop, you will simply not be able to add weight to each set forever. At this point, the reps drop to 14 per set, and eventually to 8 reps per set. At a certain point 8 reps will no longer drive adaptation, and change will be required for your athletes. At this point, the 1×20 system calls for 1×20 and 1×14 for each exercise. Then finally performing 1×20, 1×14, and 1×8 for a given movement. Not really 1×20 as the name suggests, why is that? Because as great as the system is, after time, athletes need true power and strength. Once athletes have got every ounce of strength and movement execution from the 1×20 system, it is time to move on to more power and lower rep strength work.
1×20 application to Olympic lifts
How does this apply to the use of Olympic lifts within the 1×20 system? Using motor learning and exercise technique with higher rep ranges and moderate load. You might be saying to yourself wait, 1 set of 20 reps for Olympic lifts, that many reps won’t produce the right amount of force! Calm down. It’s my bastardized version. The progression is 8, 5, 3. Again, you might be thinking eight reps that is too many reps; it does not fit with what Olympic lifts should be working on with ground-based power – give back your PhD right now! My counter to that statement would be the same reason why it is alright to do 20 reps of a movement designed to improve strength? The goal is to improve exercise technique within the 1×20 program. Therefore, they need a higher number of reps to get exposure to that exercise. I understand that if you program 3×5 or 4×5 that is more reps than 8. But you are only getting 15-20 reps of that Olympic movement for the week. You are not gaining the technical execution with all the Olympic lifts. If you do 1×8 with clean, snatch, and jerk variations 3 times per week that is 24 reps per week of each exercise.
This is one of the things people mess up when implementing the Olympic lifts. Athletes are only exposed to one movement per day, and if you only have your athletes in the weight room 2-3 times per week, they might only be exposed to 2 or 3 Olympic movements. Remember, we are talking about novice athletes that need to learn movement technique and gain movement competency. Athletes need exposure to more reps of something to get better at it. How many times have you got a new athlete and said to yourself, “man, they cannot do ____”? Well, they simply did not have enough exposure to that movement. We are not talking about an 8RM every day. It is 8 reps with a moderate load every time they perform that given Olympic lift.
An additional limitation that happens when most people implement the Olympic lifts is using a broomstick to teach the movement. The rationale is that the stick is light, and athletes can get away with faulty movement execution when learning the Olympic lifts because of how light the stick is. I would agree that athletes need to learn how to perform the Olympic lifts and make mistakes in the learning process – however, a broomstick is way too light to use when performing an Olympic lift. There is no way performing a hang power clean with a stick and with 135lb is the same thing for a 225lb OLB. Yes, athletes need to have the ability to feel their mistakes with a lighter load – but the lighter load needs to be within reason of that athlete’s strength level.
The final limitation that occurs most often with teaching the Olympic lifts is only using pulls from various start positions to teach their athletes the proper bar path. Coaches will pair these pulls with front squats and overhead squats with the rationale of – once they know how to pull properly and can receive the load properly then they can perform the actual Olympic lift. What? Just because you can pull a bar from the ground and can front squat does not mean you can clean. I’m sorry, you are skipping the part where they are performing the movement – the clean. If you want your athletes to be able to clean you need them to be performing the clean. Yes, they need to work their bar path and their catch position, but they need to do those things while working the actual movement.
My improvements
Alright, so what do I think is better? If you want to get better at doing something, you need to do that thing. So, my improvement is performing the Olympic movement you want your athletes to be able to do. Perform it with high reps and a moderate load every day that they lift so they can learn technical competency for the movement. Repeat that for time, reduce the reps from 8 to 5 to 3. And after 6-8 weeks your athletes will be highly competent for team sport athletes with the Olympic lifts. Your next question might be how will this pair with the rest of their training? My answer – perfectly. The rest of their training will be 20, 14, or 8 reps of moderate load strength movements – squat, RDL, bench press, bent over row, pull up – all movements that teach athletes how to move through a full range of motion and develop strength of their entire body.
The principle behind this teaching for the Olympic lifts is the S.A.I.D principle. You want to get better at the clean, do the clean. You cannot withhold performing the clean with your athletes while only performing pulls and front squats and expect the clean to look right. Another governing principle of this teaching is motor learning. I am not going to dive deep down this rabbit hole, Steffan Jones did a great job on this in the Fundamentals Course. What I will highlight is the same things Dr Yessis noted when he introduced the 1×20 program – athletes need opportunities to practice movement technique. Ask yourself if an athlete only performs 1 Olympic lift per day is that the optimal way to teach movement technique? Or would having multiple times per week to teach the foundational movements of your program result in improvement in exercise technique?
How to implement
Like the 1×20 program for strength movements, this method of teaching will start with the higher reps. Over time the reps will drop, and the load will increase. For the Olympic lifts, I will go from 8 to 5 to 3. I start with the hang power snatch, front jerk, and hang power clean. I chose these movements because to me they are the simplest to teach to new athletes. Starting from the hang and catching in the power position requires the least amount of teaching for the clean and snatch variations. The front jerk can be easily explained as cheating an overhead press (again, I know it’s more complex – remember Oly lifting coach, I said this article was going to sting) I am talking about athletes who have little, to no exposure in the weight room.
Most of my athletes will have 3 or 4 days in the offseason to train. Therefore, they will use those three movements each day for 2 weeks with 8 reps. After 2 weeks they will go down to 5 reps and after 2 weeks at 5 reps, they will perform two weeks of triples. Once those 6 weeks are complete, what I like to do is teach the clean and snatch variation from the floor, and the jerk from behind the neck. They will perform the same 6-week progression with these three new movements. After this, each day the athletes are in I change the movement. There will always be a snatch, jerk, and clean variation – but the movements will differ each day after the initial 12 weeks. When my athletes are on a 3-day split the way in which I progress the snatch and clean are – power, block power and hang power. For the Jerk, I will program front jerk, behind the neck jerk, and front split jerk. These movements will all be performed for 8 reps, 5 reps, and 3 reps over 2-3 weeks. After that, I will change the movements, usually to full catches on snatch and clean, or I will add volume with 1×8 and 1×5. What drives my decision making is the time of the year.
Here’s my example laid out:
3 days of lifting
Snatch variation: Hang power snatch
Clean variation: Hang power clean
Jerk variation: Front jerk
Weeks 1-2: 8 reps
Weeks 3-4: 5 reps
Weeks 5-6: 3 reps
(New cycle)
3 days of lifting
Snatch variation: Power snatch
Clean variation: Power clean
Jerk variation: Behind the neck jerk
Weeks 1-2: 8 reps
Weeks 3-4: 5 reps
Weeks 5-6: 3 reps
(New cycle)
3 days of lifting
Snatch variation: Power snatch, block power snatch, hang power snatch
Clean variation: Power clean, block power clean, hang power clean
Jerk variation: Front jerk, behind the neck jerk, front split jerk
Weeks 1-2: 8 reps
Weeks 3-4: 5 reps
Weeks 5-6: 3 reps
Once this system no longer works and all the strength gains have been obtained from these foundation level athletes it is time to progress to true power and strength work for the Olympic lifts. In this time, you have taught movement execution, now that movement execution is competent it is time to increase each movement with higher loads. This requires more stress on the CNS, thus requiring each movement to be performed on separate days. The same thought process will need to occur with your strength exercises – yet another reason why this compliments the 1×20 program so well.
Summary
If you made it this far, chances are you know the broomstick and pulls only approach isn’t how you should teach your team sport athletes to Olympic lift. Good for you. Now, go and think about what your choice is for clean, snatch and jerk variation. With those movements in mind, see how many days per week you are training your athletes. With this teaching method, you will be able to get your novice athletes more exposure to your foundational (and in theory most important) lifts in your program. This additional exposure will set your athletes up to look better doing the Olympic lifts, use more weight sooner, and they will learn more variations of the Olympic lifts sooner than athletes at other schools who don’t use this approach. For more information on the 1×20 program check out Dr Yessis 1×20 presentation at CVASPS 2013. If you’re not a member, then sign up for $1 for 24 hours and check out the whole site, drop a comment in the members forum and I’ll talk with you more there!
