Topic: ROCKY GIBRALTAR PROJECT DISCUSSION

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

Pete,

I have seen blocks used set at just below knee height, right at knee height, just above knee height, at mid-thigh, and at the brush point (top of thigh/waist.

Which one to use? I guess that depends on exactly what you are trying to accomplish with the exercise and/or where your strengths and weaknesses lie.

Sorry not to give you a clear answer, but this was a very good, but complicated question. Hopefully, some others will weight in with their opinions.

[Pete_Stewart]

Thanks Chris for your input,

I will try the brush point position tonight without the blocks.  I think my coach back in Ireland called these cleans from the dead position.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

Pete,

Mike Conroy passed this along for you:

First of all, as a fellow Irishman, relatively new to "The States" (The Conroy's left County Cork in 1855 and settled in Boston, after the Civil War they took jobs with the railroad and by 1870 where in San Francisco.) After setting up a successful brewery business they called for their cousins, the Shanahan's, who came in 1881. I am the proud owner of my Great Great Aunt Annie Shanahan's upright grand piano made in Boston in 1881. Some one told me that there is in fact a current Irish Weightlifter with the same name as mine (Although I'm 53 so I doubt we are related). Anyway enough of that.

Chris is correct. The height of the block and the position of the body lever to the barbell will be based upon what you are trying to achieve from the block work. I have had a lot of conversations with a lot of coaches about block work but let me share the two that have had the most influence on me.

Bob Takano told me the primary goal of both 'hang' position work and block work was to focus the attention on the receiving position. Takano taught me how to perform the 'eccentric slide' when doing hangs. In this exercise, the athlete grabs the barbell with either the clean or snatch grip and stands up. 'Flattening' the lower back and staying as 'flat-footed' for as long as possible, the athlete pushes their hips backwards and lets the barbell 'slide' down the thigh to one of three positions (which can be the athlete's choice)- a position directly above the knee, a position directly below the knee or a position that (as best as possible) mimics the barbell position in the 'transition' phase (in other words to the position that is the point between the 'first' pull and the 'second' pull).

In my times with the junior squad camps, I was working off the blocks and the US Women's Resident Coach Bob Morris (who I have 'total' respect for) made a comment of importance. You would have to go a very long way before you could find a coach with a better 'eye' and better technical error correction skills than Bob.

He approached me and immediately started asking me questions as to 'what' I was trying to accomplish off the blocks. When I answered that it was 'threefold' and that I wanted to #1 strengthen the lower back hamstring tie-in muscles so the athlete could better hold their lever, and that #2 I was trying to get a better and more complete 'second pull' extension, and finally #3 to improve both the timing and depth of the reception phase, Bob replied "Then you better get set up correctly." Bob was less concerned with where the barbell and the knee where (as that height could be adjusted) and more concerned to the relationship between the shoulder and barbell and how flat-footed the athlete was. "You are already done with the first pull so you DO NOT want your shoulders in advance of the barbell."

Bob suggested that the athlete get in a position where the coach could see that the locked elbows and the knees where in the same plane (The shoulders where 'equal' to the barbell neither in front or behind) and the knees neither 'stuck' in front of the elbows nor 'lagged' behind the elbows.

When you get in this position you are 'amazingly' uncomfortable. You have to 'lock' every lever in your body as tight as possible, which brings up another Bob Takano quote. Bob told me that "If you are comfortable, you're probably doing it wrong."

I found, as a final suggestion, that right before I lifted if I just 'crushed the barbell', and I mean grip that bar as tight as I could, it tightened my "lats" and straightened my arms and when I pulled everything moved at once and I made a very successful lift. I found out years later in talking with Hungarian lifters that they, too, believe in this "Crush the bar" mentality as do the coaches at Columbus Barbell, the hosts of the annual Arnold Classic.

So my fellow Irishman, there is the rational for "how" my athletes do block work. But remember Chris is right. There are plenty of ways to benefit from block work, this is just one.

Erin Go' Braugh

Conroy