Weightlifting has a place in every weight room. I mean, I’m slightly biased because I love the sport, but I also think that it is one of the best forms of education, not just for physical exercise, but also for many other components of life. Let’s stick to the physical exercise component for today and discuss how weightlifting can be used to benefit athletes who compete in contact sports such as American football, rugby, or wrestling.

Much is often said about weightlifting’s success in developing not only strength but also power and rate of force development. If you look in many college or high school weight rooms across the country, you will see athletes using variations of the Olympic lifts, most notably the power clean and snatch high pull, to develop raw power and the ability to reach triple extension (hip, knee, and ankle).
 
The counter-argument put forward by some coaches is that the high technical efficiency needed is not worth the time commitment compared to other triple extension focused exercises such as throws, jumps and sprints, which are often much easier to coach to athletes of all levels. This is, in fact, the reason that I think they are worth pursuing, because if an athlete is able to learn the Olympic lifts to an efficient level, then they will be able to pick up almost any other movement with ease!
 
So why is the power clean taught so much more than the full lift? Largely because there are fewer elements to teach/learn, but also because it emphasizes the ability to produce upward momentum on the barbell with minimal downward movement on the catch compared to a full clean. Oftentimes the most difficult area of the clean for new athletes is the ability to pull under the bar. By focusing on the power, clean this struggle is largely taken away.

This is very much the same for the snatch high pull, where the downward portion of the movement and the turning over of the arms is taken away, leaving the athlete to only think about creating as much force upward as possible. Both of these movements also focus almost entirely on the concentric portion of the lifts, which means there will be much less risk of muscle soreness impacting future training.
 
There is another aspect of the lifts however that I feel is very beneficial, particularly for contact sports athletes, and that is the ability to not only produce force but to absorb it as well. Take the power clean, for example. As the bar reaches its highest point, you pull yourself underneath to meet the bar and immediately have to brace and decelerate all of that force. If you don’t, you’ll fall over backward, or you’ll compromise your structure and open the door for injury. If a running back is able to comfortably control the catch of a 150kg power clean, this will give them a big advantage when trying to bounce off the hit of a 110kg linebacker!

It’s not just the power clean that can be useful for this, but also the full clean, power or full snatch, snatch balance, and any power jerk or jerk variation, especially when being done for multiple reps. If you’re anything like me, the first few times you did jerks for multiple reps, without the luxury of blocks, you had a horrible time trying to get the right timing to receive the bar without crumpling into a mess and losing all your tension. Thankfully this becomes easier, once you get used to the timing and how to brace properly to receive heavy weight from overhead onto your shoulders. This, in my opinion, is one of the best ways to learn how to absorb force, and then to reapply that energy elsewhere.
 
When wanting to teach the absorption and reapplication of force, I like to use drills such as power clean to power jerk or split jerk but without any re-rack. Receive the bar, absorb without crumbling, and reapply immediately into a jerk. This has HUGE carryover into contact sports. The same can be said for jerk variations: lower the weight, receive it, and immediately regenerate force upward for another rep.
 
I understand that it can sometimes be easier to get athletes throwing, jumping and sprinting for power development, but I personally feel it is part of your role as a strength coach to give your athletes the knowledge and ability to use as many tools as possible, including the Olympic lifts. When playing contact sports, I think they are a must in developing the ability to not only produce force, but to absorb it as well.