Power Cleans

I'm relatively new to the coaching and weight training. I have been involved with the Bigger, Faster, Stronger program the last 3 years. This program includes the power clean as a primary lift along with dead lift, 2 squat variations, and 2 bench variations. The results have been great to witness.

It has always struck this "ole farmer" with how similar the power clean is to the motion that is used when stacking square bales. These days idoit cubes are gone and now 1 ton round/square bales are the norm. Tractors do the work -- not high school boys. However, I played against a couple of guys who hand stacked 5,000 square bales a summer and these boys were extremely powerful.
 
It is probably the most important lift you can do. My experience with it though is it takes time to teach properly, and there are actually a lot of coaches that teach it improperly. Dead lift falls in this category as well.
 
Coach Bear":1oupbw8a said:
It is probably the most important lift you can do. My experience with it though is it takes time to teach properly, and there are actually a lot of coaches that teach it improperly. Dead lift falls in this category as well.
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I'd also add squats to that list. It's actually frustrating just how many coaches know nothing about proper form.
 
We do the hang cleans. They are safer and we have had great results. They really build hip flexors and in turn explosion and acceleration. It helps in all sports-especially in football and track.
 
midkiff1":1t9zi3xp said:
We do the hang cleans. They are safer and we have had great results. They really build hip flexors and in turn explosion and acceleration. It helps in all sports-especially in football and track.
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Hang cleans are kinda like rack pulls. Neither of them teach you how lift real weight. Rack cleans are meant only as a supplement to actual cleans. Just like rack pulls are meant as a supplement to actual pulling from the floor.

God, I need to get a training certification. Ignorance is more rampant than AIDS.
 
My experience is, the better we are at power clean, the better we are at tackling. We do a lot of olympic lifts and we power-lift, but pc is the one that carries over to football the best. JMO We would like to have 12 to 15 kids that can PC over 200lbs every year.
 
I choose not to do hang clean simply because I believe the power clean is the better lift. But I have always had the philosophy that other lifts need to be supplemented when doing the main Olympic lifts. When we are doing power cleans, I make the boys do exercises that will help their cleans. We do dead lifts (be careful because if not done properly they can really hurt their lower backs) as it helps in the initial pull. Box jumps or other types of plyometrics will assist in the explosion phase of the lift, and then the final phase of the lift in the finished position, we focus on front squats. You can also super set with your power cleans with what I call med ball squat toss. Have your athlete hold a med ball in both hands, squat, then toss (explode, feet leaving the ground) the ball in the air as high as he can to another partner. The partner will catch the ball as he is coming down butt below the knees and toss the ball back to the partner. You'd be surprised how well this helps.

Here would be an example of one of our WWODs as I call them (Warrior workout of the day)

Front Squat @ 60% of 1RM 4 x 6, 8, 8, 6
Med Ball Squat Toss 3 x 10
Dead lift @ 80% of 1RM 4 x 6, 6, 5, 4
Box Jumps 3 x 14, 12, 10
Power Clean @ 80% of 1RM 4 x 3, 4, 4, 2-3
Leg Extension 3 x 10
Leg Curl 3 x 10
Dumbbell Calf Raise 3 x 30 (10 inside, 10 straight, 10 outside)

This WWOD would be on one of our heavy days front squat is lighter because of safety issues with the lift.

But there are a 1000 different philosophies on what to do in the weight room. This is just mine. Seems like a lot, but believe it or not, this can be done in 45 minutes. And if not, who cares? Running out of time in the weight room and not getting everything done is 10x better than having your boys done early and jacking around.
 
Not trying to be the eternal ass I am known for being - but -

Coach Bear - You say DL's are a lift you want to make sure is done with proper form. But the first lift you list in your training program is front squats. Do you have the same concern for safety with respect to front squats as you do for DL's?

Squats, in any form, present far more potential for injury than DL's, IMO.

Once you learn how to squat correctly - the world is your oyster. Because it is my opinion that squats and fish oil are the answer to almost every training related question.

I've never seen a kid blow out his knee attempting a dead lift.

But that's just me. I could be wrong.
 
Oh absolutely. We do not attempt a front squat until they have completely learned how to back barbell squat. That workout was in no particular order either. I was just sharing a workout I wrote up that I feel helps a kid strengthen his power clean max. And I agree 100%. A lot goes in to proper squat form. I have actually found front squats 40-60% of their back squat 1RM actually help them with better squatting form, and allows them to actually go a full 90 degrees or below, especially with the lighter weight. Where as regular squats it's hard getting the kid to actually go all the way to 90 degrees.

But going 90 degrees is a completely different debate by coaches as well. Some say never go 90 or below others say they should.
 
Coach Bear":20q8jgcz said:
But going 90 degrees is a completely different debate by coaches as well. Some say never go 90 or below others say they should.
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I think anyone arguing against anything less than ass-to-grass squats should be completely ignored. Especially in the context of Oly lifts.

Anyone ever seen a 3-white snatch that was less than 90 degrees? The snatch is little more than a glorified OH squat.

The best thing that could possibly happen to the strength/conditioning cesspool in the US is Oly-style training becoming more mainstream.
 
Going past 90 degrees is a horrible idea. Its bad for your knees. Those Olympic Lifters going past 90 are having a hard time getting out of bed by the time their 50. How many Baseball catchers in the Pros do you see with bad knees. Ask any PT or ortho doctor and he'll say going past 90 is a BAD idea. We aren't teaching our kids to be olympic lifters, most of those guys couldn't run out of sight in a day. We want them to be functional and not hurt.
 
techster2000":rwttqt3f said:
Going past 90 degrees is a horrible idea. Its bad for your knees. Those Olympic Lifters going past 90 are having a hard time getting out of bed by the time their 50. How many Baseball catchers in the Pros do you see with bad knees. Ask any PT or ortho doctor and he'll say going past 90 is a BAD idea. We aren't teaching our kids to be olympic lifters, most of those guys couldn't run out of sight in a day. We want them to be functional and not hurt.
Click to expand...


The most injurious thing that can happen to a kid is to be taught bad form.

1. Oly lifters get out of bed just like everyone else. Most people will never deal with the kind of poundage elite lifters deal with. But I would love to see a quote, or some facts, or pretty much anything than anecdotal generalizations.

2. Baseball catchers stay in a squat position with the feet at unsafe angles. Additionally, they are getting up and sitting down extremely quickly hundreds of times over the course of a regular 9 inning game.

Doing half-squats with bad form is far worse than going ATG with good form.

But this little tangent has little to do with incorporating PC's into a training program.
 

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