Dr Mel Siff Blog

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Several months ago I posted in the Supertraining “Files” a series of
photographs on the different pulling styles used by the world’s top
weightlifters during the snatch and clean:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Supertraining/files

I have just completed several hours of normal and slow motion viewing of
video tapes of several recent weightlifting championships, including the
European and World Championships from 1999 onwards in an attempt to assess if
most of the world’s top lifters indeed use the allegedly more efficient
pulling with little or no plantarflexion (heel raise) method vs the style of
pulling with prominent plantarflexion, as has been claimed by some present
day coaches. What I saw was that most lifters still pull with a significant
degree of plantarflexion, so it would be interesting to know why this is so,
assuming that this method should be regarded as archaic and inefficient.

This suggests one of several things:

1. The majority of modern lifters are lifting in an inefficient manner and
would improve their totals if they changed to the more flatfooted pulling
style?

2. Those lifters have found that the plantarflexed pulling style produces
better results for them. In other words, different pulling styles suit
different individuals, but that the plantarflexed style suits most lifters.

3. Most lifters don’t really concern themselves with what happens to their
heels during the pull and that they simply focus on pulling as powerfully as
possible, no matter whether this involves plantarflexion or not.

Which of the above possibilities is correct? Or are there other alternatives?

Dr Mel C Siff
Denver, USA
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Supertraining/

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Tags: Dr Mel Siff, Flatfooted, Lifters, Mel Siff, olympic lifting, Plantarflexion, Possibilities, Slow Motion, Super Training, Supertraining, video analysis, Video Tapes, Weightlifters, Weightlifting, World Championships