Year: 2011

In Why the US Sucks at Olympic Lifting: Olympic Lifting Part 2, I gave a primer on the technique of Olympic lifting looking only at the snatch, clean and jerk.  Continuing in that vein I want to now look at what physiological factors go into successful OL’ing performance as that will lead into the logical discussion of genetics, who’s the best and all the rest.   To save it being too long, I’m going to split this into two parts.   First a brief summary of the last two days.

Summarizing Olympic Lifting

Lifters compete in two lifts, the snatch and clean and jerk (the press having been dropping in 1972); lifters get three chances for each lift and the goal is to lift the most weight a single time with the lifter’s total for each lift (only successful lifts are counted) determining the winner.  In general, depending on the dynamics of the event, lifters have at a minimum 2 minutes between lifts (only in the situation where they follow themselves); in most situations they will have longer than that.… Keep Reading

Having looked yesterday in Why the US Sucks at Olympic Lifting: OL’ing Part 1 at the origin and history of weightlifting along with the basics of competition and judging I want to spend today giving a brief overview of the technique of the lifts.  Please note, this is going to be extremely general and I will be leaving out a lot of details, much to the chagrin of those who know the lifts.

Numerous books and hundreds if not thousands of pages of analysis have been dedicated to this topic, I’m spending a post on it.   So don’t get all twisted if I leave out some miniscule detail such as the need to flex the wrists during the ‘third pull’ (NB: there is no fourth pull despite what some particularly misguided individuals seem to think).  I’ve also provided links to the best sources of English language information on the lifts, technique, how to do and learn them, etc. … Keep Reading

In the past (insert stupid number) of parts of this series I’ve looked at a ton of different sports systems to see if there are commonalities, finishing with the bizarre situation in US Speedskating last time.  And certainly there often are.  Kenyan running, UK track cycling, the former Soviet Union, the GDR, Bulgaria, Australian swimming, the Chinese sports machine.  All had their own approach to the ‘problem’ but approached it or got there in roughly similar ways.In the majority of cases, a combination of large numbers of athletes, access to the sport, incentives of some sort, support, coaching (and often drugs) were part and parcel of consistent sporting success.

This was even true for America which despite its completely decentralized (and often screwed up) approach to sport is often successful or outright dominant, at least in certain types of sports.  There I looked at too much background in terms of geography, culture, economics, etc.… Keep Reading

Having looked at the sport in general, US dominance (more or less) and a host of other stuff yesterday in Why the US Sucks at Olympic Lifting: Part 21, let’s look at the sport in this country to see why we have produced so consistently.   This is actually where the true mindfreak is going to come in because the entire setup of the sport would seem to be all wrong.  And yet we somehow produce.  I also want to look at how the US appears to slipping and their current desperation move to try to fix it as this will also be illustrative for when I turn my eye to OL’ing on Monday.

So after you read this, on with the show.

US Speedskating (USS): Part 1

Unlike the other US sports I’ve discussed so far where there are usually pretty large numbers of folks involved, long-track speed skating is a stunningly niche sport. … Keep Reading

Yesterday, in Why the US Sucks at Olympic Lifting Part 20, I looked at US cycling, a sport that was always fairly small yet managed to produce at least at the Olympic level.  And which has simply blown up in the last 10 years due to the accomplishments of Lance Armstrong.  This is the home stretch, OL’ing on Monday.  Promise.

Continuing on with that, I want to look at another exception to everything that’s gone before, the sole winter sport I’m going to examine.  A sport which seems to have absolutely everything going against it: it’s niche, inaccessible, has few members, no incentives.  Basically it lacks everything that is usually required for success.  Yet has managed to thrive consistently.   And, of course, to adequately discuss this it will take today and tomorrow.  Then, Monday, OL’ing.  Finally.

Like cycling it is another sport pursued primarily by middle and upper class whites tying in both with swimming from Monday and cycling from the last two days.… Keep Reading