Olympic Weightlifting as a sport and training addition to all sports by Martin Harlowe

Olympic Weightlifting is the most pure and original form of weight training. Indeed athletes and body builders use many Weightlifting training components and variations of these to meet their goals. Some of these variations are performed using machines and again there are many different varieties of these.

 In order to become a Weightlifter your body needs a certain amount of flexibility combined with mind and muscle control as well as strength. Strength is the least important component for a beginner as strength gains will be made after gains are made in the other areas.

 Flexibility tends to be a limiting factor with beginner Weightlifters so beginners who do not have adequate flexibility need to do a lot of flexibility work with optimum breathing and muscle control. Some versions of Yoga tend to work well with this but a good Weightlifting Coach will be able to teach the required movement skills.

The easier learnt Power Clean and Power Snatch are often used by athletes in other sports in order for them to develop power in conjunction with their current training programme. If the coaches of these sports are proficient enough then these athletes are encouraged to progress to the Snatch and the Clean so that they can develop even more strength and power. If the athlete continues to train with these lifts and performs them well they can obtain and /or maintain optimum flexibility, core and muscle control with very powerful hip, leg, back and shoulder strength which are the muscles needed in all sports. As Weightlifters have the lowest incidences of injuries throughout all sports, injuries in these aforementioned areas will become less likely as the athlete's muscles develop. 

The Snatch and the Clean and Jerk are the two lifts that are required in order to compete at Competitions. However these lifts are a lot harder to learn than the Power Snatch and Power Clean and require many hours of training per week to progress. It is often said that the Snatch is the hardest movement to learn in all sports. Once learnt, these  powerful, ballistic movements have the potential to transfer massive amounts of power to an athlete’s movement in his or her chosen sport. This is why at the elite level of Rugby League, Rugby union, soccer and all power and strength based sports, top level coaches use Weightlifting as an important training component throughout their yearly programmes. Unfortunately there are very few Weightlifting Coaches available in Australia, most are employed by top level sports teams or run Weightlifting clubs so junior and amateur athletes are not normally able to benefit from these highly skilled people.

There are about 16 different components to the Snatch one must perform correctly in order to Snatch and as the Snatch takes less than a second to do these must be performed without thinking about them. One of the main reasons why Weightlifters perform many hours of training a week in the gym is that these skills become second nature. When a trainee, regardless of age has developed optimum Weightlifting technique then weight may be added.When technique starts to break down then weight is removed.The coach analyses the reason for the technique failure and introduces assistance exercises with variations of squats, presses and pulls to develop strength in the areas that are lagging. A coach is absolutely critical to a Weightlifters progression through the monitoring and careful programming of each individual and this is one of the reasons that Olympic Weightlifting is considered and studies have shown to be the safest of all sports.

At the Triumph Weightlifting Club we cater for athletes from all sports. Everyone, given their limitations must perform various movements of Weightlifting. Those that have the aptitude to progress at the sport of Weightlifting are invited to compete with others from the club at the N.S.W. Weightlifting High Performance Centre at the State Sports Centre at Sydney Olympic Park. These competitions are run regularly throughout the year.

Tommy Kono performing the winning clean

and jerk lift at the 1959 World Weightlifting

Championships.