When I first got started in Olympic Weightlifting, a very thoughtful coach was nice enough to give me a couple of VHS video tapes with tons of weightlifting footage on them. He knew I was interested in becoming a weightlifter and he wanted to help me out, so he told me to take these tapes home and learn as much as I could from them. One of the tapes was an old weightlifting instructional video that was put together by the USWF (you’re showing your age when you recognize that abbreviation). I believe our former National Coaching Director Gene Baker was the narrator of the video and it was extremely helpful to me as I tried to learn the sport. In the video, a coach went through the standard teaching progression of the snatch, clean, jerk, and various assistance movements. There were several athletes who performed the Olympic lifts in the videos and I was blown away by how sharp and efficient their lifts were. Their technique mirrored the sequence photos I had seen on posters and in magazines. Their lifts looked exactly the way they were supposed to, according to everything I had learned. They had the proper starting position off the floor with flat backs and straight arms, they accelerated smoothly through the first and second pull, they kept their shoulders over the bar, they extended straight and shrugged hard at the top of the movement, etc. They were masters of what you might call "standard technique." Remember that phrase, "standard technique."

The other video the coach gave me was a collection of championship meets. One of the meets that was on the tape was the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. I probably watched this tape a thousand times (I still have it, by the way), and obviously the highlight of the whole show was Naim Suleymanoglu of Turkey, who won the gold medal in the old 60 kilo weight class with a 152.5 kilo snatch and 190 kilo clean and jerk. For those of you who don’t speak in kilos, that’s a 132 pound man who snatched 336 pounds and clean and jerked 418. Think about those numbers for a second.

Naim’s performance baffled me for a couple of reasons. First of all, it was difficult to understand how a man that size could lift those weights. I still don’t think the world has totally grasped it. But second, I was confused by Naim’s lifting because his technique was very, very different from the "standard technique" I had learned on the coaching video. Naim jerked the weights off the floor, his pull speed looked like a grinding max deadlift, he tilted his torso backwards at the top of his second pull, his turnover was like a rocket, his feet were set unevenly prior to his jerk dip, and then he seemed to lunge forward as he was splitting under the bar in the jerk. This wasn’t standard technique. This was freak-of-the-week technique, and he was lifting world records with it.

The confusion here is also the subject of this article. We’re going to talk about freaks. Or more concisely, we’re going to talk about world class athletes who smash records and win gold medals despite the fact that they drastically deviate from the normal, accepted technique of the Olympic lifts. When we use the phrase "standard technique" in this article, we’re talking about the classic, by-the-book technical models that all of us have probably learned through working with a coach, watching videos, studying sequence photos, etc. This standard technique approach is what almost every coach in the world uses to teach beginners, so how in the hell does it come to pass that certain athletes can modify this technique and then go on to beat everyone on the planet?

I’ll answer this question at the end of the article, brothers and sisters. But first, let’s take a look at a few of weightlifting’s greatest freaks and what it is that makes them so...you know, freaky.

That’s Mister Dimas, to you...

Pyrros Dimas of Greece is one of the most successful weightlifters in history. This man won three Olympic gold medals and was one jerk away from winning four. In addition to having this phenomenal record, Dimas is probably the most exciting, intense weightlifter I’ve seen in my lifetime. Dimas lifted weights the way Jimi Hendrix played guitar. It made your blood chill to watch him in action.

But Dimas stupefied the weightlifting community for years because of his pulling technique. If you’ve seen this man lift, you probably already know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t seen him lift, get on YouTube as soon as possible and check it out. Here’s how it worked: when Dimas pulled his snatches and cleans, the bar came off the floor and passed the knees in a pretty normal fashion. But when the bar was passing his knees, Dimas would actually stretch his neck forward and then violently whip his head back as he finished his top pull. Many of us called this "the Dimas head whip." It was odd to watch. Many other lifters have pulled their heads backwards as they finished their top pulls. Pyrros was not the only one. But the way he extended his neck forward and then blasted his skull backwards as he extended his second pull was unlike anyone else.

And remarkably, this technical abnormality created no problems for him. His balance was never adversely affected. The bar stayed close to his body, he had incredible consistency, and he also managed to snatch around 180 kilos and clean around 210 throughout his career in the 85 kilo class. How could the guy lift so successfully with such a strange, abnormal technical habit?

The Old Chicken Wing Special...

Pulling with bent arms, that’s what we’re talking about here. I would venture a guess that almost every single weightlifting instructor in history has probably taught his/her athletes to keep their arms straight throughout the pull. One of my first coaches used to say, "Your arms are like ropes. They’re just there to hang on to the bar. You pull the bar with your legs, back and traps." Okay, we get it. You might have even heard a similar piece of advice from a coach in your own weightlifting background.

So how in the heck can we explain it when we see some of the top weightlifters in the world pulling their lifts with their arms bent? Make no mistake about it, there have been some very successful lifters who have done it. Some of the greatest pound-for-pound lifts in history came from a lifter who many people have forgotten over the years, Bulgaria’s Mikhail Petrov. Petrov was a world champion in the old 67.5 kilo (148 pound) weight class in the mid-eighties. This man could snatch 157.5 kilos (347 lbs) and clean and jerk 200 kilos (440 lbs) in this weight class. And yes, he pulled his lifts with his arms bent. As soon as the bar came off the floor, his elbows were cocked and they stayed that way all throughout the top of his second pull. It was a violation of every fundamental weightlifting technique lesson in the sport, but Petrov wasn’t the only guilty party.

Another one of the world’s greatest bent-arm pullers comes right here from the good old United States. Mario Martinez is an American legend. 1984 Olympic silver medalist, ten-time national champion, American record-holder, Pan Am Champion, and the list goes on. I was fortunate enough to compete in some of the same meets with Mario in the early nineties when I was starting my career and he was finishing his. In the superheavyweight class, Mario snatched 415 pounds and clean and jerked 518. These are phenomenal accomplishments and still, to this day, the only American who has toppled these numbers is the Oklahoma Ox, Shane Hamman. But back to Mario... he was a notorious bent-arm puller. In both the snatch and the clean, just like Mikhail Petrov, Mario’s elbows were cocked before the bar even came off the ground. Both of these athletes utilized a technique deviation that no qualified weightlifting coach would allow a young athlete to do for two seconds. So once again, how could these guys lift so successfully with such a strange, abnormal technical habit?

Does a God Make Mistakes?

One of most respected and revered athletes in the history of our sport is the great Soviet Union legend Urik Vardanian. Over twenty years ago, Vardanian totaled 405 kilos in the old 82.5 kilo class. Just to put that in perspective for you newbies, the Olympic gold medals that are being won these days in the 85 kilo class are usually by way of totals in the 385-395 range. Vardanian set a standard of excellence in our sport that still stands as one of the benchmarks of weightlifting magnificence.

And technically, Vardanian was another one of those athletes who did things much differently from what we would consider normal. When Vardanian pulled the bar from the floor, his legs straightened and his hips shot up much earlier than standard technique would dictate. When the bar arrived at Vardanian’s knees, his body position looked a lot like an RDL. His legs were almost completely straight and his torso was leaning forward dramatically. Any coach who had a trainee exhibit this kind of technique in the gym would probably say something like "your butt is coming up too fast." And using this kind of technique, Vardanian snatched over 400 pounds at 180 bodyweight.

He had another crazy feature in the jerk, as well. Vardanian was a split jerker, as most lifters are, but he simply did not split his feet very far. I think almost every weightlifting coach in the world would consider Vardanian’s split position to be too narrow or shallow. But he used this narrow split and jerked almost 500 pounds at the same 180 bodyweight. I encourage you readers with internet access to get on YouTube and examine Urik’s lifts for yourself. Many of them are available in slow motion and you will see exactly what we’re talking about. All of this begs the question, how could the guy lift so successfully with such a strange, abnormal technical habit?

Okay, so?

These lifters are among the elite of our sport’s history. They have mastered the Olympic lifts to a degree that almost nobody has been able to equal, and each of them demonstrated technique variations that clearly contradict the normal movement models of the snatch, clean, and jerk. How is this possible, and how does it make any sense? The answer can be explained this way.

Some athletes are phenomenally talented. They are born with very unique combinations of athleticism, strength, and kinesthetic awareness. For those of you who don’t recognize that last term, kinesthetic awareness refers to an athlete’s heightened understanding of his/her body’s positions, strengths, and movements. People with increased kinesthetic awareness have the ability to move their bodies effectively without much coaching or instruction. As coaches, we have all worked with athletes who simply seem to "get it" much quicker than others. Some athletes need instructions, demonstrations, and literal hands-on manipulation to make their bodies move in the correct pattern; and then after all that work, they still struggle. And then other athletes can watch a skill demonstrated by someone else, listen to a few simple verbal cues, and then perform the skill with an immediate level of expertise. We all understand this. Some people have more natural ability than others.

However, athletes like Vardanian and Dimas have taken kinesthetic awareness to a higher level. These athletes have actually learned the standard technique of the Olympic lifts and then, over a long period of practice, they have customized the movements to fit their own individual strengths and proportions. They have formed their own technique the way a potter molds clay into the exact shape he wants to see. Vardanian’s hip-rise technique was formed because he had very long legs. His femurs were much longer proportionately than the average athlete, and so he found a way to adapt the standard technique of the lifts in the most advantageous way for his own personal physiology. He might not have even known that he was developing his own personal technique as he practiced and trained year after year. He might have simply been performing the snatch and the clean in the way that made him most comfortable and successful. Dimas, at some point in his training youth, found that his lifts were much more explosive and effective if he whipped his head back like a wrecking ball at the top of his pull. This discovery could have been the result of an extreme strength level in the muscles in the upper back, or some other region where he was personally more developed than other athletes. I doubt if Dimas himself could explain it to you any more clearly than a bird could explain to you how it files.

That leaves you, as coaches, in sticky territory because you have to ask yourself, "When is it okay for me to let my athletes deviate from standard technique?" If you’re working with a young lifter and, somewhere during the teaching process, this lifter starts to whip his head like Dimas, should you tell the lifter not to do it? Are you stopping that lifter from using a technique deviation that could eventually make him a world champion if he masters it? There isn’t an easy answer to this.

Athletes need quality coaching and instruction. We all understand this. However, athletes also need to be allowed some freedom at some point to develop on their own. This is the hardest thing to accept as a coach because you feel like you’re not doing your job if you’re not actively teaching. Letting the athlete "leave the nest" and develop on their own is a challenging thing. And I’m not saying that coaches should teach the basics to their athletes and then say, "Okay, now it’s all up to you." This is abandonment, which isn’t going to be productive in most cases. But I am saying that after the basic teaching and modeling has taken place, the athlete has to be allowed some leeway to practice and grow. If one of your lifters develops a technical deviation like the ones we’ve analyzed here, my advice would be to let them try it for a while and see if it leads to success. This probably contradicts a lot of coaching laws because most coaches are control freaks who want to administrate as much of the athlete’s life as possible. They feel like it’s their job and, to some degree, it is.

However, the performances of lifters like Dimas, Martinez, Petrov, and Vardanian are evidence that individualization has value in our sport. As a coach, you will develop your own skills of analysis and intuition as your career goes on. If your experience leads you to think that an athlete is doing something wrong, then get in there and fix it. Trust your instincts. If your experience leads you to think that you just need to stop talking and let the athlete lift, then give it a try. Being a good coach doesn’t mean you have to be constantly telling your athletes what to do. Sometimes, being a good coach means knowing when to keep quiet and let them figure it out for themselves. Are you going to make mistakes as you try to learn which one of these is called for? Absolutely. Why, did you think this was going to be easy?