USA Weightlifting has announced the world team for 2010.  Here’s the list of people representing the US in Antalya Turkey from September 17th till the 26th.  This years worlds, and next years will determine the number of “slots” or people we get to have in the 2012 Olympic Games in London.  So, it ain’t no small thang …

Women

Kelly Rexroad (48 kg)

Amanda Hubbard (58 kg)

Natalie Burgener (63 kg)

Danica Rue (69 kg)

Erin Wallace (75 kg)

Rachel Crass (editor of Strength Plus Magazine!) (75 kg)

Sarah Robles (+75 kg)

Men

Alex Lee (62 kg)

Chad Vaughn (77 kg)

Kendrick Farris (85 kg) b

Matt Bruce (85 kg)

Donny Shankle (105 kg)

Casey Burgener (105 kg)

Patrick Judge (+105 kg)

Collin Ito (+105 kg)

[Hat Tip: Bob Takano’s newsletter – which you can sign up for at his website www.takanoathletics.com.  Still the best Olympic weightlifting specific newsletter on the web.]

Another great issue of Strength+ magazine is out.  You can go here to download it.

Inside are articles on the 2010 Nationals, including the Burgener couple making the world team. (As a side note, I was sad not to see Oregon’s Sarah Bertram not making the team, but that’s another story.)

The issue also has articles on Olympic weightlifting’s use for football, gymnastics, and even how to juggle weightlifting with parenting!

Bob Takano contributes a piece, “An Introduction to Weightlifting Training Programs.”

A retrospective of the 2000 National Championships.

And finally a great comparison of the technique of Casey Burgener and Matt Rue, “Who’s got better technique?  You decide.”  This one’s just fun. 

For my part, I’d go with Casey.  But, I’m not one who thinks there is such a thing as “perfect” technique that applies to everyone.  Different body proportions will dictate a lot of what a lifter is going to have to do given the fact that the bar is a fixed object (the diameter of a plate is the same for everyone regardless of limb/torso length).  Not just height, but leg and arm length both relative to torso. 

But, the things I DO emphasize with my lifters are in line with Casey: Getting into a solid vertical jump position in the second pull and a deep extension at the end of the second pull (like a bow and arrow). Yes, Casey’s hips start high, but they don’t RISE too high – that’s the important thing.  The first pull exists ONLY to set you up for a powerful second pull. Period.  He does that.  Very solid.

Here’s a vid of the 105k’s at the 2010 Nationals

One of my lifters, Beth, tipped me off to this new development at USA Weightlifting:  A new hybrid USAW/CrossFit competition:

The event will join weightlifting – one of the oldest Olympic sports – with CrossFit – one of the most popular strength and conditioning programs in the nation that combines weightlifting, sprinting and gymnastics.

Yep, USA Weightlifting is finally thinking outside the box.  Now … it’s true that a lot of weightlifting coaches behind closed doors have a lot of negative things to say about CrossFit.  Some of these complaints are well founded, most are not.  But …

The REAL question is, “is this new move going to help USA Weightlifting – as a business – or is it just another bad business decision on their part?”

Here are the facts.  CrossFIt is THE most popular fitness system in the world that includes the Olympic lifts.  Period.

Most people (the general public) don’t even know that Olympic weightlifting exists as a sport – at all.  They think we oil ourselves up and pose in panties.

And the few who might not be that clueless, still think we’re Powerlifters who compete in the Bench.  We’re an extremely underground sport.  How is it that an obscure sport like Bobsledding has top of mind awareness (everyone knows what it is), but weightlifting – a sport anyone with a bar can do – doesn’t?

CrossFitters may be the only people on earth who actually know what it is that we do.  More over, they have respect for us, and actively seek us out to help them with their technique on the lifts.

I’ve had LOADS of local CrossFitters here in Portland come to me to improve their technique.  I currently have a few CrossFit practitioners on my competitive team.

USA Weightlifting embracing CrossFit is (in my opinion) a great move.  It may ruffle some feathers.  But, if USA Weightlifting doesn’t start making some changes – soon – there won’t be a USAW.

One might also ask, “who is going to go to this contest?”

I admit, my first response to seeing this new hybrid competition was, “No weightlifter is going to do that.”

Weightlifters don’t do reps.  And certainly not for time!

But, who cares?  We don’t need to have a new contest for people who are ALREADY members of USAW and compete regularly – we’ve already converted them!

We need something (a lot of something’s) to inspire new blood to give weightlifting – as a sport – a go.  This is a middle ground, opening a door, wetting an appetite.

CrossFit has a reach that USA Weightlifting can only dream about.  It has a cult following (that admittedly turns off many non-CrossFitters) that is easy to move en masse.  If you get loads of CrossFitters excited about lifting competitively, you have a whole new market of potential lifters who already know about the lifts and are excited about them.

We call those “highly qualified leads” in business.  USA Weightlifting is a business.  I’m glad to see a step in the direction of it being run like one.

Check out the first issue of a new online strength magazine focused on Olympic Weightlifting, Strength Plus.  Scroll to the bottom and right click the image of Kendrick Ferris to ‘save as’.  It looks like this:

This issue is ‘inside the French system’.  Oooh, sexy!  It’s pretty massive (70 pages).  It also includes an interview with Kendrick Ferris (they also feature a weeks-worth of his workouts!), photos and commentary from the 2010 Arnold, a cartoon, and a feature on Sarah Roble’s transition from throwing to lifting.

It’s put together by Rachel Crass – Editor; Robert Hall – assistant editor; and Rampant Lion Productions – Publisher. 

From the editorial intro by Rachel Crass:

The first issue is done, and what a crazy ride it has been. When I chose to create a magazine devoted to Olympic-style weightlifting, I had no idea what awaited me. But perhaps my naïveté was a good thing, as this magazine might not be here without it; few enlightened peo-ple would have taken on such a mind-bending project.

Nevertheless, here we are. Weightlifting in the United States has a magazine again and, hopefully, will have one for a long time to come.

I’m looking forward to it!

A nearby weightlifting club is running a level 1 coaching course on May 23rd right here in the Metro-area of Portland – specifically in Vancouver (known as “the ‘couve”).  It’s being organized by Bridget Raach, and the coach will be Harvey Newton. 

It’s a good certification to get if you have any interest in coaching weightlifting at any level (or if you just want a quick crash course in how to lift correctly).  This includes strength coaches who never plan on coaching competitive weightlifters but would like to be better at coaching the clean and snatch to their athletes – which should be ALL strength coaches!

Dates: Saturday, May 22nd, 8AM – 6:15 PM and Sunday, May 23rd, 8 AM – 3:30 PM

Location: Crossfit Fort Vancouver, 1901 East 5th St., Unit D, Vancouver, WA 98661

Registration:  USA Weightlifting

Don McCauley has an interesting take on the evolution of modern weightlifting and how we coaches should be teaching lifters.  I’m amenable to many of his ideas, actually, and hesitant about others.   But, I thought I’d post all four of his Youtube vids on the subject for you to judge for yourself.

The good thing is, he’s thinking outside the box.  We could use more of that.