Reddit mentions of Olympic Weightlifting: A Complete Guide for Athletes & Coaches

Because aside from the press, almost nothing in that book applies to Olympic weightlifting. Most weightlifters don't deadlift, bench press or low-bar squat with any real frequency. Even the power clean, an actual Olympic lift, is taught way differently in SS than how most Olympic coaches teach it and leads to performing the lift wrongly and inefficiently.

Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad book for powerlifting or general strength training. But it's not good for Olympic weightlifting. Greg Everett's book is much better for that purpose.

Olympic Weightlifting by Greg Everett.
http://www.amazon.com/Olympic-Weightlifting-Complete-Athletes-Coaches/dp/0980011116

Depending upon your athleticism, body awareness, and ability to critique your own videos, you might not have to get a coach. Greg Everett's book took me a long way. I feel like the reason I suck is 'cause I don't know jack shit about programming, not because I don't know how to do the lifts. So in my experience, learning the lifts isn't that hard, it just takes about a year and a half of diligence.

I can't read Russian but I know for sure Everett is the best in the English language. I can't recommend his book highly enough.

Olympic Weightlifting: A Complete Guide for Athletes & Coaches

I know everyone else is saying find a coach, and you definitely should..but the book is only $26 on Amazon and it shouldn't cost you anymore to ship to Toronto.

Link

Otherwise, I could pick it up for you and you could pay me for shipping. It would still cost you $35 probably.

High bar squats don't use as much hamstring as low bar squats. Or oly squats don't use as much hamstring as powerlifting squats. I'm reading this and he said just as much in the first few pages, but said that they hams do get used during the second pull of the actual oly lifts.

And like Wendy said, dominant just meaning they're stronger than the hamstrings. If you're trying to do a low bar squat and the bar/weight is coming forward every single time, you're in effect transferring weight onto your quads and then driving up. One's form can drift into that if your quads are stronger than your hams/glutes from the start. You have more strength there, so when the weight gets heavy instead of failing the rep you kind of tilt forward, hit the quads, and power through it. After a while you can be doing that every single time because it's the only way you can do your work sets. At least, that's how it worked for me.

This took me like five minutes to find just going through recent youtube videos. See how the bar starts over his mid foot and on the way down it goes over the balls of his feet? That's squatting with your quads.

My personal theory is that's the same reason you see people doing the stair machine with their torso leaned forward and their ass in the air. More of your weight goes up with your stronger quads and the pain becomes more tolerable.

I bought this book and I quite like it: http://www.amazon.com/Olympic-Weightlifting-Complete-Athletes-Coaches/dp/0980011116/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323208354&sr=8-1

Read the following

Fit

Practical Programming

Power, speed, endurance

Olympic Weightlifting

Also, 70's Big is a great resource. As well as Glenn Pendlay's Blog, and the articles section of his website.

Live and die by KISS principle when programming for yourself. My personal opinion is to squat and press heavy twice a week (volume day/intensity). Snatch, clean and jerk twice a week (volume/intensity). Two hard conditioning sessions a week of under 10 minutes.

I'll add:

• Overcoming Gravity: A Systematic Approach to Gymnastics and Bodyweight Strength
  
  
  This one covers way more than just gymnastics. I was very surprised at the breadth of coverage in this book, from how strength vs hypertrophy works, mobility, developing your own programming and quite a few other things that closely relate to CF.
  
  
  
• Olympic Weightlifting: A Complete Guide for Athletes & Coaches
  
  
  This book sort of hit the spot with me because I'm trying to be a better oly lifter. I was having trouble with banging my shoulders during heavy cleans. Low and behold, I was looking through this book and found a paragraph on just that topic and on how to correct it.
  
  

The only way to self-teach them is to film yourself CONSTANTLY.

I would also recommend Everett's book, found here.

What really has to happen is that you, as a trainee, need to understand the mechanics of the movement, visualize it, and furthermore, find cues that make sense to you. A lot of cues are sort of abstract; Don McCauley has a video explaining his "catapult" technique. This shit made zero sense to me, but my friend understood it. When I explained this technique and my interpretation of it to a semi-coach, he put it in different terms/cues, and now they are what I use.

To be honest, there is too much information out there for these lifts. There are different styles in terms of how they're approached and executed, so if you gather information from too many sources, you may find yourself taking in cues and positions from various sources that do not apply to one another. In the end, a lifter has to adapt these movements into things that work for their body and brain. This is where a coach is handy, because he can say, "try this" or "try that." If you're on your own, you have to film yourself, and diagnose what looks awkward and/or sub-optimal, then fix it.

It could be beneficial to mimic a lifter that is in your weight class and roughly the same height; if you try to mimic a lifter, you may fail. But emulation is part of the learning process.

I would start with Everett's book. I think he has an English degree. He's a pretty clear writer and there are a lot of pictures guiding you.

As for the snatch and clean, they feed off one another. Everett teaches the snatch first. In my experience, people gravitate towards one or the other. The same friend who understood the catapult technique has a really awesome bar path in his snatch, and for whatever reason, always has. It puts mine to shame. However, on the other hand, my cleans make him look goofy. It's probably part how we're built, but still, what works for him does not work for me. He also can only split-jerk; I have never felt comfortable in that movement so eventually I started push jerking and that is something that he struggles with.

One thing I will say, is ALWAYS learn the full movement first. IE, learn the full clean first, then the power clean. If you ONLY power clean, you will develop a motor pattern that says "catch the weight here." If you develop the clean first, your instinct will be to get under the bar, which translates into a superior power clean as well.

The same applies to the snatch, assuming you're flexible enough.

Good for you man. The classic lifts are a ton of fun! Here are some thoughts that you'll hopefully find helpful.

1. With those weights you are strong enough and skilled enough on the slow lifts to get into weight lifting. Go for it!
   
   
2. The classic lifts are very nuanced and technical. A bench press or a squat can be learned to proficiency in ~30 minutes. The classic lifts take weeks to become competent and years to master. You'll have to do a lot of technique training before your O lifts catch up with your slow lifts. This isn't meant to discourage you but to give you some idea of what to expect. Don't worry that you won't be playing with big weights for a while.
   
   
3. I highly recommend this book. It is long but very worthwhile. Buy it, read it, and do the training drills in it. Also, even though your program doesn't end until April, start teaching yourself the movements now (with just the bar). http://www.amazon.com/Olympic-Weightlifting-Complete-Athletes-Coaches/dp/0980011116/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420978850&sr=8-1&keywords=greg+everett
   
   
4. Watch, watch, watch! Remember that part about the lifts being technical? Humans are visual learners. I've spent hours upon hours watching guys from Cal Strength to Olympians on Youtube. Just watching them helps so much in picking up the lifts.
   
   
5. Stretch! Every day! I cannot stress this enough. The classic lifts require more flexibility and range of motion than the slow lifts. They are also more intense on your joints and tendons because of the increased RoM and ballistic nature of the lifts. Stretching is essential for being able to do the lifts and keeping yourself injury free.
   
   
6. Switch to squatting high bar and going deep into the hole (if you don't already). Also, build up your front squat. Your legs will already have the strength needed but there is musculature in your shoulders and back that the back squat has neglected and that you need to build up in order to front squat heavy loads.
   
   
7. Find good resources for help. You don't need a coach to teach the lifts. But it does help to have access to good information and some people in "the know." Catalyst Athletics is a great site that is full of useful information (http://www.catalystathletics.com/). /r/weightlifting is also a good place to hang. Make friends with people that know what they're doing. Also, watch out for all of the advice from crossfitters out there. Some of it is good, some is bad, and most isn't up to par with the guys training for O lifts exclusively (i.e. Everett and Catalyst).
   
   
8. If you don't have them already, buy oly shoes. They are a gift from the gods. I personally use AdiPowers. A little expensive but well worth the cost imo.
   
   
9. Hook grip is necessary for the clean and the snatch. Start using it. When you first start to use it it will be extremely painful. Your thumbs will feel like they're being smashed and pulled out of your hand simultaneously. Don't worry though, that will go away in a week or two. Just keep using hook grip for all of your pulling exercises.
   
   Best of luck mate!

I'd recommend the first exercise in this video for shoulder flexibility, it has helped me a lot. I generally do a short stretching circuit after training two or three times a week. As my flexibility improved the amount of stretching I do has lessened. It is usually composed of the shoulder dislocate in the video, I touch my toes standing and sitting, I stretch my hips and glutes with the butterfly stretch, stretch my quads and hips with the quad stretch, and I also stretch my shoulders/pectorals with the pectoral stretch. Many of these can be found by googling them, though I've gotten most of my stretch work from this book

Also a nice guide.

http://www.catalystathletics.com/articles/article.php?articleID=137

Pendlay's and Nick Horton's tutorials, as mentioned elsewhere in the thread, are pretty good. Here's another one I like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjkK_eSIs2g

If you want a book, Don McCauley's Power Trip and Greg Everett's Olympic Weightlifting are your two best options. If you can only afford one, I would pick McCauley's, but since they are both very good and quite complementary, it is worth reading both.

> it's really hard to have my feet closer together and point my toes are far out as they supposedly should be (same goes for my knees).

The toes do not HAVE to point out. You do what is most comfortable to you. As long as they don't point in, you're fine. Same with knees. For reference, I suggest the chapter on (high bar) squats in Olympic Weightlifting by Greg Everett.

It is true that Rippetoe advocates for toes out in Starting Strength, but that's for low bar squats.

Disclaimer: Also not an expert, in fact I posted a form check as recently as yesterday.

You shouldn't be using arms, once you use your arms u negate most of the power from the ground plus the bar swings away from you. Your arms should be loose, elbows external rotated, chest up, lats engaged (personal cue: I think about bending the bar around me with my chest/lats/core).

There are a bunch of other issues but its best to tackle one thing first. I agree its too much to start from the floor at this point. I'm not sure what you've been reading but I got a lot from this book

There's a lack of hip drive for, working from the hang position as you are doing is probably a good idea, to drill the triple extension.

Have a look at the Catalyst Athletics website they've a bunch of videos and other resources that'll help you, one of their coaches, Greg Everett, has also written a book which is pretty good too.

I can't stress enough though that if you don't already, get a Coach. Given how technical the classical lifts are, the advice and guidance a coach can give you is invaluable.

>Is it just for beginnings as I assume or is there anything useful experienced lifters can get out of it?

I had been lifting for ~10 years when I finally picked it up. Think of it as a book for people just starting to strength train or want to start actually studying/learning the trade, regardless of how long you've been training. I actually just finished re-reading it last week, I try to brush up once a year on my basics and given my recent bout of tendinitis I figured it was time. Right now I'm 175lbs w/ a 515 lb deadlift and a 425lb squat, and those are real numbers, not half ass squats or hitched deadlifts.

Starting Strength isn't a program, it's like a shop manual for lifting. How to do exercises (also quite a bit on how not to do them), why their done, how to program your routine effectively, etc. He gives a sample routine somewhere in the book but that's about it as far as him telling you when to do what.

As for "Maximum Strength", I haven't read it or heard of it before and the tagline is enough to make me not want to, "Get Your Strongest Body in 16 Weeks with the Ultimate Weight-Training Program." IMO anything that says something to the effect of "get all the plus with none of the minus," which in this case is all the strength w/o the years of training, is bogus.

I also do not like P90x or cross fit.

FWIW, my recommendation

I also liked this book . It's good for info on the Olympic lifts, just be forewarned Greg Everett (the author of this book) disagrees w/ Starting Strength's author on how the clean is initiated. Seems minor but as you'll find out the starting position is very important since it dictates how the rest of the lift goes. Personally, I side with Starting Strength.

From the bar, do small jumps. Add #5 and do a triple. Put another #5 if it felt good and not like shit. Do it again at the same weight if they didnt feel good.

Film your lifts, post them here and someone will chime in.

Start from the high hang.

If you can afford it, get this.

https://www.amazon.com/Olympic-Weightlifting-Complete-Athletes-Coaches/dp/0980011116

Maybe the used version or 2nd edition if its too much.

Here's a great book on the subject. You can probably get it at your local library or on inter-library loan if you're a student (or, you know, buy it).

I have this book at home. According to Greg the difference between a power clean and a clean is where you catch the bar. He teaches that if your thigh breaks parallel it is a clean. If they don't get to parallel it is a power clean.

http://www.amazon.com/Olympic-Weightlifting-Complete-Athletes-Coaches/dp/0980011116/

Stop running, start lifting.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0980011116/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_3?ie=UTF8&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER