Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
MikeTheBear wrote:
toots27mkc wrote:
Is the deadlift body type ideal for olympic lifting? Or is olympic lifting more about being fast-twitch with great balance and coordination?
This is an interesting question. I always thought that an ideal deadlifter would not necessarily make a good OLer. For one, good DLer's tend to have long arms, which is somewhat of a disadvantage in OL given that you need to put weight overhead. I've read that good OLers have short arms, short legs, and a long torso. A tyrannosaurus rex would make an ideal OLer. However, there have been plenty of successful lifters who did not have the build of a T-rex. Good technique trumps all.
Somewhat correct. The best olympic lifting bodies tend to have limbs that are proportional to their torso. Even better (but pretty rare) is a body type with short legs, long arms and moderate length torso, Pyros Dimas comes to mind.
The former (balanced) body type will tend to be better in the snatch while the later (short legs, long arms) will tend to be better in the clean (although you can always find examples that go against the average).
The Russian (back in the days of the Soviet Union) did find that you can make a good olympic lifter with any torso-limb relationship as long as the training is adapted to the body structure.
For example lifters with a relatively long legs, short torso and short arms will tend to be very powerful lifters (their power clean and power snatch is very close to they full clean and full snatch)... typical examples being Naim Suleymanoglu, Ivan Ivanov and Georgi Gardev. Their short legs make them very strong on the recovery (standing up from the full squat position on cleans and snatches) BUT their torso to leg length ratio makes it harder for them to be super efficient at catching the bar in a full squat. They thus need to work on finishing the pull with a powerful snap (they might need an extra inch or so of pulling height to drop under the bar) and speed under the bar (e.g. high hang full snatch or clean).
Lifters with long limbs and a shorter torso will be less explosive but can more easily get under the bar during a full squat clean or full squat snatch. However they also tend to be ''weaker'' in the recovery (standing up from the squat position) and thus need to spend more time on strenthening the squat. They tend to be very strong on the full snatch, but not so much stronger on the clean. Normally your competition snatch is roughly 75-80% of your competition clean & jerk. These individuals have a ratio closer to 80-85%. A good example being Simon Kolecki.
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