Cues are very important for any athlete, one particular cue I don’t like in the sport of Olympic Weightlifting is “JUMP”. For athletic performance, it’s a different story, but we’re talking about Olympic Weightlifting, where the focus isn’t on the triple extension, the focus is on correct positioning to lift MAXIMAL weight!
As I said I don’t like this cue for Weightlifters, the reason being is that this promotes over extension of the 2nd pull, and I like my guys to really focus on going straight up and than down FAST. Focusing on the extension too much will waste precious time that could have been spent pulling under to meet the bar and potentially could place the bar in a bad position.
Would you step down or jump down to get to the floor as quickly as possible?
I would say that you would step down and not jump down because that’s the quickest way to get to the bottom position. If you’re not with me, next time you’re on the platform JUMP down/off, and then try stepping down, which one was faster? Hopefully this makes sense and that you now understand why it’s so crucial to not overextend and focus on speed DOWN!
You better believe that you want to be moving fast especially with 145k coming down at you!
At Fusion Weightlifting, we focus on a straight UP & DOWN position, I’m not a big fan of the “catapult” or hopping etc… I like to keep it simple- UP & Down 🙂
What do you guys think, to jump or not to jump?