Recently posted a quick note on my Instagram page (@appyhour) about how we don’t utilize Olympic lifting in the programs of our ballplayers. Quite honestly thought it was a mild statement essentially detailing a few quick reasons why we can do OTHER THINGS (exercises, subcategories, and modalities) that give us a bigger bang for our buck, at lower risk, and more specificity.
GUESS I WAS WRONG. A lot of Weight lifting enthusiasts started saying crazy things. So according to them the reason weightlifting (I’d call it Olympic lifting but let’s be honest none of these kids getting mad at me on Instagram are going to the olympics) isn’t used in my program is because I can’t “coach the lifts”
BUT the truth of the matter is the argument for Olympic lifts hit a wall relatively early on for me for ballplayers.
SPEED STRENGTH CONTINUUM
WHEN we look at true movement speed: throwing a baseball is the fastest motion in all of sports occurring quite frequently over 90 MPH (that is obviously BALL velocity Upon release not true segmental velocity but I’ll get to the point in a second) that equates to roughly 40 Meters/Second. Olympic lifts even in proficient olympic lifters occur between 1.5 M/S and 2.5 M/S - so in terms of specificity we already have STRIKE 1 against olympic lifting. Olympic lifting isn't alone here by the way, in fairness, all barbell lifting occurs between .4ish M/S and 2.5 M/S and I'm certainly not advocating for NO strength training, I'm advocating for strength training that increases the level of readiness for the ballplayer, increasing his robustness and resiliency, and adds lean functional muscle and THEN or IN CONJUNCTION WITH great effective power work that's more specific and offers the opportunity for more carryover (more on that upcoming.)
For comparison in our facility we routinely see sprints that are equivalent to 8 M/S and medicine ball throws we've clocked up to 17 M/S - doesn't take a PhD to see that in terms of Speed of movement that sprints and medicine ball throws are more specific in terms of movement speed (We'll talk more about how they're more specific to task related demands in our third strike).
You can see barbell lifting for me falls on the left of the spectrum, be it olympic lifting or otherwise, it's not to say we don't do barbell lifting but it IS to say we choose exercises that are more specific and less risky on that end AND with usually a different goal in mind.
RISK VS REWARD
ALL training has an inherent risk associated with it. All movement has an inherit risk. Competition as a whole is INHERENTLY DANGEROUS. But the role of the performance coach is to first and foremost DO NO HARM, and one of the primary ways we can do exactly that is to select exercises that have HIGH REWARD and LOW RISK.
The risk associated with olympic lifting is relatively high in several joints, specifically in the upper extremity (shoulder and wrist) which is actually exacerbated by the predisposition of ballplayers instability in the shoulder and relative stiffness in the wrists. ENGLISH TRANSLATION: ballplayers because they're built to play baseball, AREN'T BUILT TO OLYMPIC LIFT. The demands are simply too different and therefore STRIKE TWO against olympic lifting is the high RISK and relatively LOW reWARD as discussed throughout this blog.
DIRECTIONALITY OF FORCE DISPLACEMENT
Many like to refer to olympic lifting as a power developer. Which it certainly CAN be. There's a BIG can there by the way. But even if you ARE proficient in the lifts as a ballplayer you're still training power in the SPECIFIC plane of motion you're utilizing.
Olympic lifting is linear in nature with vertical displacement. In terms of the ballplayers what's the ultimate goal? To ROTATE and move explosively horizontally and laterally. And there in lies strike three against the olympic lifts, unlike sprinting that is an actual sport specific task and build speed and power horizontally, or jumps that can be manipulated to the transverse and frontal plane, and medicine ball throws that relatively closely replicate rotational sport demands - they're just straight lines up and down.
So sure you COULD use olympic lifts - but you'd be doing yourself a disservice in regards to how specific you could be, and of course how much you COULD derive from your training in terms of carryover.
Do THESE throws OR a clean / snatch look more like a swing or throw that occurs on the field?
STRIKE THREE YOU'RE OUT.
All jokes and banter aside, olympic lifts aren't "bad" movements and I don't "hate" them. I just want to use the means that are MOST EFFECTIVE and OPTIMAL for my athletes and their goals. And to that end ballplayers should opt to use their training reserves on training means more specific to develop baseball specific power!
Until next time.
-Coach Appy, THE Baseball Performance Coach.