Takano Athletics

Aileen brought up this issue to me a few weeks ago, but this is the first time I’ve had to get around to writing about it.  She mentioned to me that she was having some discomfort while sleeping and that her neck in particular was feeling a little out of position when she woke up in the morning.

For the several weeks leading up to this I’d been watching Aileen’s body change as she was training with greater frequency and with heavier volumes and loads.  Although her bodyweight had not changed significantly, the configuration of her body had changed.

I told her that her shoulders were now significantly wider than they had been and this was causing her neck to lean at a different angle than she was accustomed to.  I asked her if she slept on her side and she answered in the affirmative.  I explained that her neck was probably bearing more of the weight of her head since it was placed higher than it had been previously.  Her pillows were probably no longer suited to supporting the weight of her head.

I suggested getting a different pillow or using two pillows.

During the past several months, Aileen has experienced so many of the body changes that are common to weightlifters as they develop into the bodies that are suited for the sport.  Thighs and buttocks become harder to fit into pants, and sometimes the pants split out.  Short sleeves may become uncomfortable as arm girth increases, and most clothing is not cut to accommodate the thickening of the latissimus muscles that results from proper pulling off the ground.

The sleep issue, however, is not one that is commonly discussed, but it is a relevant one.  Sleep is extremely important to weightlifters, and as the body changes, the former sleeping accommodations may need to be altered.  Not only the previously mentioned neck problem, but increased mass can also cause a lack of circulation in the “downward” arm when sleeping on the side.  The increased muscle mass also means that more body heat is generated so ventilation may become a factor to be adjusted.

While I’m on the topic I remember reading an old article out of the Eastern bloc advising lifters to get at least two full hours of sleep before midnight.  I believe this is a sound recommendation as most lifters should be training during the day and getting appropriate amounts of sleep at night.

It is also advisable for the athlete to wake up early enough to eat a meal and have it clear the  stomach before the first training of the day.  If there is only one training or a second training, the athlete should eat twice before that.  The lifter should be awake enough hours and fed before beginning training to get the most out of the session.

A meal of quality protein and carbohydrates should be consumed within thirty minutes after training.

I know the piece took off away from the original premise, but I believe there is a great value to the athlete to establish the most effective daily regimen for sleeping and eating that will afford the training to be of the greatest effectiveness.

WEEK 5

Day 1­–Tuesday

1) Back Squat: 60%/3, 70%/3, 80%/3, 85%/3, 90%/1                                 13:13

2) Snatch: 60%/3, 70%/3, 80%/3, 85%/2, 90%/1                                        12:25

3) Clean & Jerk: 60%/3+1, 70%/3+1, 80%/3+1, 85%/2+1, 90%/1+1          17:42

4) Snatch Extension: (90%/3)4                                                                    12:54

5) Press: (X/4)4                                                                                           16:70:70

Abdominals: (X/25)3

Day 2—Wednesday

1) Back Squat: 60%/3, 70%/3, (80%/3)3                                                     15:15

2) Power Snatch: 60%/3, 65%/3, (70%/3)2                                                 12:27

3) Power Clean & Jerk: 60%/3+1, 65%/3+1, (70%/3+1)2                           16:43

4) Good Morning: (X/6)4                                                                            24:67:137

Day 3—Thursday

1) Power Clean and Press: (X/1+3)4                                                           16:16

2) Front Squat: 60%/4, 70%/4, (80%/4)2                                                    16:32:269

Abs: (X/25)4

Day 5—Friday

1) Back Squat: 60%/4, 70%/4, (80%/4)2                                                     16:16

2) Snatch: 60%/2, 70%/2, 80%/2, 85%/2, 90%/1                                        09:25

3) Clean & Jerk: 60%/2+1, 70%/2+1, 80%/2+1, 85%/2+1, 90%/1+1          14:39

4) Clean Extension: (90%/3)4                                                                     12:51

5) Push Press: 60%/4, 65%/4, (70%/4)3                                                      20:71:340

This is a kind of a recounting of an interview I gave to some Canadian production company that was shooting footage for biographies of celebrities.  They came out to Van Nuys High School and spent a day shooting and interviewing.  I don’t know if it ever aired (they never got back to me after about a year), in Canada or anywhere else.  No, it’s not about weightlifting, but it is my blog and I guess every once in awhile I can write about something that strikes me as interesting. The prompt for this was the appearance of Paula last night on the season’s final episode of American Idol.

Back in 1977 I had just transferred from a science teaching job at Henry T. Gage Junior High in Huntington Park to a job teaching biology at Van  Nuys High School.  All incoming 10th graders had to take biology.

Two years before my transfer, Van Nuys High had a race riot and the school district was looking for some leadership to put a damper on the situation and so in 1977 they installed a new principal, Herm Koster.  Herm felt that the way to develop unity on campus was to promote the football program.

The third strand in this story was Bob Glass, a biology teacher, who found that administrator-baiting was a major source of entertainment.  Bob, was to put it mildly, an iconoclast.  He once demonstrated optics by turning his entire classroom into a pinhole camera.

Well immediately upon Herm’s arrival, Bob became a thorn in his side over a number of issues and Herm began planning some way to write up Bob for being an incompetent teacher.  One day Bob rode his bicycle around his biology classroom to demonstrate the principle of the elliptical sprocket that he had recently put on the bike.  As it turned out this was the very class in which a 10th grade football cheerleader named Paula Abdul was enrolled along with her good friend Joy Share.

Through his connection to the football program, Herm found out about the incident and figured he could write up Bob if Paula and Joy would blow the whistle.  So they had some kind of a meeting with administrators and union reps and Paula and Joy testified that yes, Bob had ridden a bike around the classroom during class.  (Lucky for Bob there was no YouTube in those days!) Horrors! Yikes!

When the dust finally settled Herm didn’t have enough on Bob to write him up, but Herm was worried that Bob would retaliate against Paula and Joy, so he arranged to have them transferred into the biology class of the new guy (me), and that is how they ended up sitting in the front row of my classroom, 204.

Paula was a sweet kid with a great personality and a good word for everyone.  She was very friendly and well liked.  She knew that I was coaching weightlifters and so she used to smile and hit a double biceps pose for me.

I jokingly replied, “Wow, you’ve got some big guns!”  That eventually became my nickname for her–Big Guns.

Of course, she went on to become famous and I never saw her after her senior year, although she does occasionally send a greeting back through mutual acquaintances.

So that’s my Paula Abdul story.

Periodically and sometimes with amazing regularity phenomena develop or take place.  It helps if they have a name, but sometimes it takes awhile before they get a name.

What do you call that violent contact that your upper thigh or pubic area makes with the bar during the pull for the snatch or the clean?  I haven’t seen a name for it appear in the technical literature, but coaches and lifters refer to it all the time.  Often they refer to the lack of it during the learning process.

Anyway at one point in the history of the P.H.A.T. Elvis Weightlifting Club, I was admonishing one Gabe Cuauhtli (the Aztec Prince) for not properly completing the pull on one lift, when he retorted that he had properly exploded the weight off his hips, “PWOK….KLA-KLA!”  In  Gabe’s mind, that was his impression of the sound of the bar going off his hip and clattering into place overhead.  He had actually thought about a  sound that represented the action, an onomatopoeia.

So it wasn’t long before the term stuck in the gym, and all the P.H.A.T. Elvises began referring to that pop off the hip as a “Pwok” (rhymes with clock).  When some of the lifters were getting bruised in the pubic area and had to resort to wearing some padding to get through the workout, the device was referred to as a pwok pad.

So fast forward to 2010 and I’m coaching lifters and no one has yet to come up with a name for that violent contact with the bar.

I figured why not just call it a pwok and leave it at that.  From now on that’s what I’m going to call it and I’ll probably use it in clinics, blogs, articles and maybe even in an E-book or two.  It works, it kind of sounds like it, and nobody else has a better term.  The American weightlifting lexicon just got a little bit bigger.

WEEK 4

Day 1—Monday, 24 May

1) Back Squat: 60%/4, 70%/4, 80%/4, (85%/4)3                                         24:24

2) Snatch: 60%/4, 70%/4, (80%/4, 85%/1)2                                                18:42

3) Clean & Jerk: 60%/4+1, 70%/4+1, (80%/4+1, 85%/1+1)2                      22:64

4) Jerk: 70%/3, (80%/3)4                                                                            15:79

5) Romanian Deadlift: (85%/4)5                                                                 16:95:95

Day 2—Tuesday, 25 May

1) Back Squat: 60%/3, 70%/3, (80%/3)4                                                     18:18

2) Power Snatch and Push Press and Overhead Squat: 60%/3+3+3, 65%/3+3+3, (70%/3+3+3)3

45:63

3) Power Clean and Front Squat & Jerk: 60%/3+3+3, 65%/3+3+3, (70%/3+3+3)3    45:108

4) Clean High Pull: (85%/4)4                                                                      16:124:218

Day 3—Wednesday, 26 May

1) Power Clean and Press: (X/1+5)5                                                           30:30

2) Front Squat: 60%/4, 70%/4, 80%/4, 85%/3, 80%/3, 85%/2                    20:50:268

Abdominals: (X/25)3

Day 4—Thursday, 27 May

1) Back Squat: 60%/3, 70%/3, 80%/3, (85%/3)3                                         18:18

2) Snatch: 60%/3, 70%/3, 80%/3, 85%/2, 80%/3                                        14:32

3) Clean & Jerk: 60%/3+1, 70%/3+1, 80%/3+1, 85%/2+1, 80%/2+1          18:50

4) Romanian Deadlift: (85%/5)4                                                                 20:70

5) Press: (X/5)4                                                                                           20:90:358

Day 5—Friday, 28 May

1) Back Squat: 60%/4, 70%/4, (80%/4)2                                                     16:16

2) Power Snatch: 60%/4, 65%/4, (70%/3)3                                                 17:33

3) Power Clean. & Jerk: 60%/4+1, 65%/4+1, (70%/3+1)3                          22:55

4) Snatch High Pull (80%/5)4                                                                      20:75:433

Abdominals.: (X/20)4

I wrote this article as part of the Takanotes series in International Olympic Lifter.  It’s still a good general blueprint for people that are interested in training pre and young intermediates.  Once they have developed proficiency at this level, and have demonstrated true interest in competitive weightlifting participation, they can start on a more focused serious routine.

I tend to shy away from absolutes since they are usually logically and intellectually inaccurate, especially when dealing with biological matters.  I do, however, see no point in training an individual for athletic competition if that individual has no real interest in the activity.  Twenty-four years of training weightlifters has taught me that “athletic selfishness” is a critical factor in the development of an athletic career.  Weightlifting training is simply too much hard work to be undertaken by anyone who does not see the performance of the training as a path to self-gain.

I also find it difficult to condone the training of youngsters by their parents unless those parents are sufficiently familiar with the behavioral norms of children.  It is apparently too difficult for most parents to view their offspring as simply athletes.  It is instead too easy for parents to view their children as chasing the parents’ dreams.  As in most instances, it is most efficient and judicious to allow a professional to handle the task.

The best approach to the development of a young weightlifter is to attempt to develop a well-rounded athlete during the formative years.  Coordination, anaerobic and aerobic capacities, and psychosocial skills must be stimulated during the period from age 6–8 to 12.  Gymnastics, track and field, soccer, and basketball are ideal activities to enhance the physical qualities that will be later required for weightlifting training.  The ability to perform on command is also a critical factor, and this quality can be developed through participation in the performing arts–singing, dancing, acting and public speaking.

If I could have things my way in an ideal world, I would like to start training a youngster at age 12 who had spent a year or so perfecting technique with a wooden stick or light bar.  This youngster would have had a varied athletic background that had produced sufficient flexibility, motor skills, some basic strength and personal enjoyment in performing well in athletic competitions.  I might also add that some emotional maturity would be a necessity.  At this point specific conditioning for weightlifting training could begin.

The general plan for the next year would involve the development of physical capacity to take greater training loads, the remediation of postural muscles, the development of neuromuscular qualities, the improvement of technique, and the further development of the psychological qualities necessary for competition.

The general program for the daily training would consist of the following in this precise order.

Stretching for flexibility with special attention being given to problem areas.

Technical training on the lifts.

Exercises to develop neuromotor skills

Remedial weight training

Games and drills for developing psychological qualities and enhancing motor skills

A sample workout might look like this:

1.     Stretching with special emphasis on ankles, shoulders, hips and wrists for 10 minutes.

2.     Working with light weights to emulate the snatch and the clean & jerk for 20 minutes.

3.     Jumping and sprinting drills for 5 minutes.

4.     Bodybuilding movements to develop postural muscles (especially abdominals and back) for 15 minutes.

5.     Basketball, volleyball, soccer and track and field drills for 10 minutes (These should be varied from day to day)

I wrote this article for the local throwaway and it never got published.  I thought I’d include it here since summer is a great time for parents of athletes to begin thinking about finding a strength and conditioning coach.

Today’s talented adolescent athletes are entering into a competitive world that is much different from that experienced by previous generations.  In a world of hundreds of cable and satellite television stations, there is coverage of more college and high school sports events than ever before.  Every high school, club and college team has at least one website that focuses attention on athletes and any promising youngster is therefore subjected to some very serious scrutiny.

The pressure on many athletes and their coaches to perform well and to win can be overwhelming.  Much of this pressure can be eliminated through thorough preparation for sports participation and it is important for athletes, coaches and parents to understand how meaningful a factor strength training can be in the developmental process.  If other factors such as talent, coaching, opportunity, equipment  and facilities are equal or nearly equal, strength training can prove to be a very decisive factor between a highly successful athletic career and a mediocre one.

If your teen-age son or daughter has aspirations of a successful athletic career and has been identified as talented by a competent sports coach, you might consider involving him or her in a strength training regimen.  Here are five good reasons to make that decision.

1. 1. A stronger athlete is a more durable athlete. Proper strength training not only develops muscles; it also strengthens ligaments, tendons and bones.   I’ve strength coached dozens of female high school volleyball players and none of them suffered a non-contact ACL injury. The number of female athletes that suffer this injury in the USA annually is 38,000.   Not only are strong athletes less likely to get injured or injured seriously, they heal more quickly when they are injured. 
2. 2. A properly strength trained athlete is more explosive. The most explosive athletes on the planet, whether basketball players, football players, track and field athletes or weightlifters, spend a great deal of time performing explosive movements with relatively heavy weights to insure that their performance levels improve.  It is not coincidental that the general level of athleticism has increased as professional and top college teams have added strength and conditioning programs.
3. 3. Properly strength trained athletes perform closer to 100% late in the game. Because a good strength training regimen requires athletes to perform explosively when exhausted it is not unusual for these athletes to win competitions in the latter stages of the event.  While their competition may be exhausted, the trained athlete can still run quickly and jump higher.  A team that takes an early lead only to lose with regularity in the late stages of its competitions  is a team of talent with poor conditioning. 
4. 4. Proper strength training and diet facilitates genetic growth potential. Because proper training and diet stimulate appropriate hormonal release the adolescent athlete can find his or her body in the appropriate metabolic state to insure that maximum genetic potential is reached.  In the many sports where height is coveted, the scholarships are bestowed upon the taller athletes. 
5. 5. Properly trained athletes are more highly coveted by university teams. More and more frequently the athletes that I coach are being asked questions about whether or not they strength train, how they train, and they are being shown the weight room during their tours of the campuses.   Strength coaches are talking to them and are involved in the recruiting process.

OK, you have a teen-ager who is very enthusiastic about playing a sport that he or she enjoys and shows some potential for success.  You know that strength training would provide significant improvement.  Where would you look for these services?

While there are personal trainers in gyms all over the country, you need to realize that the vast majority have specialties.  Trainers usually specialize in niches and are usually comfortable working with specific clientele.  You need to look for a strength and conditioning coach who has a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) credential from the National Strength and Conditioning Association.  

You can access a list of CSCS professionals in your local area by going to the NSCA website at www.nsca-lift.org.  When you speak with her or him, find out if she or he is experienced coaching adolescents, at coaching the favorite sport of your teen-ager, and has a resume or coaching history.  Effective strength training will go a long way towards securing success for your young athlete’s sports career and help to provide a rewarding, injury free experience.

June, 2010 will be the month in which the last two significant national weightlifting championships in the U.S.A. will be conducted and save for the elite level athletes that will be going on to international events, the “weightlifting season” will be concluded.

It is at this juncture that local weightlifting committees (LWC) should be planning the yearly meet schedule for 2010–2011.

I’ve found that the normal procedure in much of the country is to schedule competitions on a seemingly month to month basis with many meet directors simply deciding to hold a competition much like people decide to hold a picnic or a party.

In the interest of developing athletes for this sport, I am suggested that a meeting be held in each LWC soon after the National School-Age Championships are concluded on the weekend of June 25, 2010.  The sole purpose of this meeting should be to set up a hard schedule of meets that will satisfy the deadlines for setting qualifying totals for the national events so that lifters registered in the LWC will not have to go travel excessively in order to qualify for national championships.

I’ve already suggested this to our Southern Pacific LWC chairperson Danny McDermott and I believe that we will convene a meeting at the California State Games which will take place on July 10.  By the way the date of the State Games is pre-established by the State Games committee, and is one of the dates that we have to work around.

In addition to setting the dates for qualifying events, I believe we will make sure that there are dates set for the LWC championships and enough open meets to provide upcoming lifters to have enough opportunities to develop their competitive skills.  Danny recently informed me that we have had one meet a month in the Southern Pacific LWC for the past year.  I hope we would plan to continue this practice and then to make sure the schedule is publicized to all of the LWC clubs.

For those of you not familiar with the peaking process of weightlifting training, training is designed with the purpose of  achieving optimal results at scheduled events.  For younger lifters, the time between meets is relatively short and they can and should be expected to make regular gains in performance.  The competitions are necessary for lifters to hone their performance skills and to determine whether the training has worked properly as planned.

When I first got into the sport there were no junior or school-age meets.  There were developmental meets and then meets that had some form of qualification.  We started the competitive calendar with the Southern Pacific Novice meet in the fall which was open to anyone who had never won this meet, or the district Junior or Senior Meets.  The Junior (not under 20, but group B lifters) championships were held about a month later and open to all those who had never won this meet or the Senior Meet.  The Senior Meet  or LWC championships, were held in December and January and had minimum qualifying totals.

In February we held the Southern California Championships which had higher qualifying totals and was restricted to lifters from the Southern Pacific and Pacific Southwest Associations (LWC’s).  In late March or early April, the State Championships were held with even higher qualifying totals.  It was open to athletes from the Southern Pacific, Pacific Southwest and Pacific Associations.

Those lifters who lifted enough weight would then compete in the Junior Nationals (now the American Open), and then Senior Nationals (Now USA National Championships).

Throughout that calendar were sprinkled developmental meets for lifters who could not qualify for any of the aforementioned competitions.  Plenty of competitive opportunities.

I’m not advocating that we copy this plan, but merely present it to show that there was a developmental plan involved in planning the annual schedule.  Furthermore knowing of the schedule well in advance would give lifters something to point to and plan for.

Please keep in mind that the meets that appear on the USA Weightlifting website calendar are those that have had their sanction applications approved and paid for.  Meet directors may not have the details taken care of well enough to fill out the required information on the sanction application a year in advance, but they should have the date established and those dates should go out to everyone in the LWC.

Those LWC chairpersons interested in having their meet schedules posted in advance can e-mail them to me at info@takanoathletics.com and I will be happy to post them on this website’s event calendar.  At a minimum each event should have a date, city and state and contact information for the meet director listed.

This could help coaches, athletes and their families to plan their schedules well in advance.

Hope this helps.

WEEK 3

Day 1—Monday, 17 May

1) Back Squat: 60%/5, 70%/5, (80%/5)4                                                     30:30

2) Snatch: 60%/3, 70%/3, 80%/3, (85%/3)3                                                18:48

3) Clean & Jerk: 60%/3+1, 70%/3+1, (80%/3+1, 85%/3+1)2                      24:72

4) Romanian Deadlift: (85%/5)5                                                                 25:97

5) Press: (X/5)4                                                                                           20:117:117

Day 2—Tuesday, 18 May

1) Back Squat: 60%/4, 70%/4, 80%/4, 85%/3, 80%/3, 85%/2                     20:20

2) Power Snatch. and Push Press and Overhead Squat: 60%/3+3+3, 65%/3+3+3, (70%/3+2+2)3

39:59

3) Power Clean and Front Squat and Jerk.: 60%/3+3+3, 65%/3+3+3, (70%/3+2+2)3            39:98

4) Snatch Extension: (85%/4)4                                                                    16:115

5) Good Morning: (X/6)4                                                                            24:139:256

Day 3—Wednesday, 19 May

1) Front Squat: 60%/4, 70%/4, (80%/4)4                                                    24:24

2) Snatch: 60%/2, 70%/2, 80%/2, 85%/1                                                    07:31

3) Clean & Jerk: 60%/2+1, 70%/2+1, 80%/2+1, 85%/1+1                          11:42

4) Romanian Deadlift: (80%/4)4                                                                 16:58:314

Day 4—Thursday, 20 May

1) Back Squat: 60%/4, 70%/4, (80%/4)4                                                     24:24

2) Snatch: 60%/4, 70%/4, (80%/4)3, 80%/3                                                23:47

3) Clean & Jerk: 60%/4+1, 70%/4+1, (80%/4+1)3, 80%/2+1                      28:75

4) Clean Extension: (80%/5)4                                                                     20:95

5) Push Press: 60%/4, 65%/4, (70%/4)4                                                      24:119:433

Day 5—Friday , 21 May

1) Back Squat: 60%/4, 70%/4, 80%/4, 85%/3                                             15:15

2) Power Snatch and Push Press and Overhead Squat: 60%/3+3+3, 65%/3+3+3, (70%/3+2+3)3

36:51

3) Power Clean and Front Squat and Jerk: 60%/3+3+3, 65%/3+3+3, (70%/3+2+3)3 36:87:

4) Good Morning: (X/8)4                                                                            32:129:

5) Press: (X/4)5                                                                                           20:149:582

As you embark upon your career as a weightlifter you will more than likely encounter new Olympic bars either at competition or at new gyms while traveling.  In all likelihood you are going to be lifting them and in some cases you may want to buy one.  To help you out I’m presenting an easy three step test to determine whether or not this new bar meets the standards that you would require in order to achieve an optimal performance.

All three of these are performed with a shod foot.

1) The straightness test.  Simply place the ball of your foot against the handle of the bar as it lays horizontal upon a level surface and push the bar forward so that it rolls forward.  If it rolls evenly with consistent speed, then the bar is straight.  If it rolls at an uneven pace, then the bar has a bend in the center.

2) The spin test.  Again place the ball of your foot atop the center of the handle of the bar and pull backwards while exerting force.  If the bar spins freely after the foot leaves the bar, then it probably has needle bearings which allow for the greatest spin velocity.  This will insure that the bar spins appropriately when completing the snatch or the clean.  If the bar spins freely but stops soon after the foot leaves the bar, it is still probably a good bar but without the rotational capabilities required for international calibre bars.  If it has a rather sluggish spin that stops immediately after the foot leaves the bar it is probably a poor quality bar with poor machining characteristics.  Don’t expect PR’s on this one.

3) The steel quality test.  This is what I call twanging the bar.  Simply kick the handle of the bar and see if it vibrates.  If it “twangs” with a fine hum like a tuning fork for a few seconds after the kick, it is probably made of the high grade steel alloys used in top quality bars and used in the landing gears of passenger jets.  If it “twangs” for a second, it’s probably an OK bar.  If the kick produces a “clunk” and no vibration, it’s probably great for concentration curls.

As a coach you should perform these tests on the competition bar as soon as you get to a meet and factor it into your calling of the weights during the competition.  Then check to see if the warm-up bars are similar or close and realize that there may be a big disparity between bar speed in the warm-up and bar speed on the competition platform.