Quote: (07-22-2013 05:34 PM)dog24 Wrote:
Anyone ever bought VS athletics shoes? Looks like a piece of crap but its the cheapest ive found will they be good enough for training?...... Also if anyone is really into weightlifting how come usa is so shitty at weightlifting but dominates every other sport? Is usada really that strict on their testing? Do olympians cycle on and off all the time? What do they commonly use?
I am not an olympic weightlifter, but I do love the sport and have followed it a little in the past in this is the gist I have gotten.
-USAW (USA Weightlifting) has shitty training methods. This may or may not have changed in the past few years with the rise in success and popularity of places like Broz Gym, Cal Strength, and MD USA, I don't know for sure on that. My understanding of USAW training methods focused mainly on speed and semi neglecting strength. Their athletes were strong don't get me wrong, but you're not going to C&J 500lbs without being able to handle the weight and also have the strength reserve.
-Foreign olympic weightlifting athletes are true professional athletes. Their compensation is higher as well as their supportive staff such as coaches, technique analysts, doctors, massage therapists, other restoration practitioners, etc are in greater supply.
-Training methods in other countries are better. There are videos online of the Polish weightlifting team in the 50s using training techniques that weren't popularized in the west until the 90s. Plyometrics were developed in the Soviet Union long before they were even known in the west. The Soviets took a much more scientific approach to their training. Their translated texts (from Yuri Verkhonshansky for example) remain some of the best. The Bulgarian method was used for decades before the outside world knew the details. The Iranian's have their own method now that they have developed over the past couple decades that has given them tremendous success. To my knowledge, a lot of these methods weren't used by USAW to a large extent.
-They start with their specialization earlier. There are videos online of Chinese weightliting camps with kids performing oly lifts with coaches monitoring them. Naim Suleymanoglu of Bulgaria(also Naim Suleyman when he changed citizenship to Turkey, not sure of spelling on both) was selected as a weightlifter by coaches looking for certain characteristics in kids. He started his specialized training very early.
-Tradition of sport in countries like Russia and Eastern Europe. They have been weightlifting powerhouses since the 50s/60s. Dmitri Klokov's father, for example, was a high level weightlifter. Drugs were a big part of that, but that's not the point. The Olympic or World Record (not sure which one) C&J prior to weight class rearrangements in 2000? was like 594 or something. The current record is 586 or something. The record from the 80s still hasn't been passed, but is not valid any more since they altered weight classes.
-Number of lifters. The US dominates other sports. A tremendous amount of athletic potential has gone to other sports. If you have 500 lifters to choose from, your chances of success are limited. If you have thousands of lifters to choose from, you have a higher chance of finding a few special athletes.
-Olympic lifting is tremendously difficult to master. Until recently it would have been nearly impossible to find a coach to teach you technique or analyze your technique. As much as I dislike CF, it has popularized the oly lifts (not in an entirely good way) and you can find coaches online to analyze your technique through video analysis. On top of the technique, the lifts require a tremendous amount of strength and flexibility.
-Training methods are more intense. To truly master the lifts you don't just go and do them a few times a week. Pretty much every successful oly athlete I know of trains the lifts daily. The Bulgarian method popularized multiple workouts a day. Places like Broz gym, Cal Strength, etc train multiple times a day. I don't know the specifics of USAW, but I would assume daily workouts if not multiple training sessions. It is a huge time commitment.
-Teenage boys don't want to train legs and back. Olympic lifters can have fantastic physiques, but you won't likely develop a defined chest and biceps early on. You will develop leg strength, low back strength, and upper back strength.
-My understanding of the drug policy is that is is more stringent in the US. It sounded like USAW or whatever drug agency they used were hounding Pat Mendes non-stop with random testings with ridiculous policies (he had to be at X place on X date with short notice and this happened repeatedly). Granted, he got busted with HGH, but still. There were a number of athletes busted prior to the 2012 Olympics (I don't remember what country). I remember hearing a story of a lifter in Russia who got busted for a DUI or something and was given mandatory time off from competition, but it was a cover up for him to drug up to a higher weight class and get clean for competition again.