Which is better for athletic performance, football to be specific, hang cleans, power cleans, or full cleans? I play in a spring league, games start march 15th. I play wide receiver on offense and corner, free, or strong safety on defense.
My guess would be that all are equal in value.
I’d say the hang clean is the most applicable. It’s most like a jump in my eyes. There’s no 1st pull to set up the 2nd one. It’s just bend your knees, then explode up.
Many people confuse the Clean movement definitions. What needs to be understood is that Hang refers to the start of the movement, and both Power and Squat refer to the end/receiving/catch portion.
The Power Clean is “caught” while bending one’s legs bent less then 90 degrees, while a Squat Clean is “caught” with the legs bent more then 90 degrees (usually ATG).
Both variations can be started from the floor, or from the hang.
The “Hang” is variable, because it can be anywhere between just breaking the floor and standing on one’s tip toes.
The hardest variation to learn is the Squat Clean from the floor, and the easiest to learn is a Hang Power Clean from the Jump Position. The Jump Position refers to: elbows straight, hips and knees unlocked, the bar touching the thighs 1/4 to 1/3 the way down between the hips and knees (closer to hips).
I don’t think that there is much difference in how much the variations improve athletic performance, and because of this I don’t think most athletes need to learn any variation other than the Hang Power Clean from the Jump Position.
I agree. The hang clean is the easiest to learn and a little more applicable to an athletic position. You would never really be in the starting position of power clean playing wide out.
Go with hang power cleans.
id go with jump variations and speed squats personally
People tend to ignore the benefits of doing the full squat clean. It certainly allows you to do more weight, but it also teaches you how to amortize the weight more, which teaches you how to receive force better. The resistive action performed during a full clean actually helps prevent a lot of injury by building up the stabilizers necessary to receive force, as well as the timing/neurological factors that go into this.
If I was playing football still, I’d much rather be capable of taking larger forces than not. One of the best investments an athlete can make is spending 6 months learning the Olympic lifts while young.
[quote]big49ersfan wrote:
id go with jump variations and speed squats personally
[/quote]
I agree with this. Most of the time, I’d have someone do this rather then olympic lifts. But if a person really wants to learn them, then the person can. It would add variety as well. Also, my achilles tendon and knee hurts sometimes and I’ll do hang cleans so I can still get some explosive work in with triple extension without putting too much stress on my achilles tendon and knee.
I did hang cleans throughout high school.
My vertical didn’t increase until I started deadlifting.
I don’t want to downplay the significance of cleans, but if they are not properly taught and executed I see little value in them. With that, I second Dr. Manhattan and think the full squat clean is the way to go.
Trying to completely mimmick an athletic position in the weightroom is pointless. The only way to mimmick it is to get on the field. Developing strength and speed should be the top priority, and IMO the full clean is the best at this. Don’t leave out the variations though, as they still have benefits.
[quote]Dr. Manhattan wrote:
People tend to ignore the benefits of doing the full squat clean. It certainly allows you to do more weight, but it also teaches you how to amortize the weight more, which teaches you how to receive force better. The resistive action performed during a full clean actually helps prevent a lot of injury by building up the stabilizers necessary to receive force, as well as the timing/neurological factors that go into this.
If I was playing football still, I’d much rather be capable of taking larger forces than not. One of the best investments an athlete can make is spending 6 months learning the Olympic lifts while young. [/quote]
Surely traditional plyometrics would be a much more effective method of training force adsorption.
What are you basing your statement that “The resistive action performed during a full clean actually helps prevent a lot of injury by building up the stabilizers necessary to receive force” on.
[quote]Regular Gonzalez wrote:
Surely traditional plyometrics would be a much more effective method of training force adsorption.
What are you basing your statement that “The resistive action performed during a full clean actually helps prevent a lot of injury by building up the stabilizers necessary to receive force” on.
[/quote]
Why would plyometrics be better? You can get a higher power output from olympic lifting than you can from jumping without weight. (Think of trying to throw a whiffle bar versus throwing a baseball). Training to be able to produce more power should cause you to be able to produce more power.
It seems pretty obvious that if what you are training forces you to receive progressively heavier forces, you will become better at receiving force. Stabilizers are one thing that eccentric motions tax a great deal.
What about altitude drops then? Can’t you learn to absorb force by doing those?
[quote]Dr. Manhattan wrote:
Regular Gonzalez wrote:
Surely traditional plyometrics would be a much more effective method of training force adsorption.
What are you basing your statement that “The resistive action performed during a full clean actually helps prevent a lot of injury by building up the stabilizers necessary to receive force” on.
Why would plyometrics be better? You can get a higher power output from olympic lifting than you can from jumping without weight. (Think of trying to throw a whiffle bar versus throwing a baseball). Training to be able to produce more power should cause you to be able to produce more power.
It seems pretty obvious that if what you are training forces you to receive progressively heavier forces, you will become better at receiving force. Stabilizers are one thing that eccentric motions tax a great deal. [/quote]
Im not sure why you are mentioning power output when I was specifically referring to you comment on full cleans training your ability to recieve force.
The reason that I feel plyometrics would be a better option is because there are a large number of studies proving that they can improve force absorption capability. I don’t think that this is the case with o-lifts, although I am not copletely sure…
Perhaps I have misinterpreted what you meant when you said recieving force. Did you mean that they teach you to absorb force in the same way that a depth drop does, or did you mean something more like taking the force of a hit from an opposition player?
[quote]DjSm28 wrote:
What about altitude drops then? Can’t you learn to absorb force by doing those? [/quote]
Yes,
BTW you mentioned earlier that you sometimes have a sore achilles tendon. Have you tried using eccentric calf raises to strenghten the tendon?
[quote]Regular Gonzalez wrote:
DjSm28 wrote:
What about altitude drops then? Can’t you learn to absorb force by doing those?
Yes,
BTW you mentioned earlier that you sometimes have a sore achilles tendon. Have you tried using eccentric calf raises to strenghten the tendon?
[/quote]
Yeah. I do those. As well as slow eccentrics for my knee when doing step ups. I just started to do them though because I was not aware that eccentrics promoted more collagen building up. I also foam roll and do dynamic stretching before a workout, and static stretching at night. I just have to wait for the results. I might need to go to a doctor though because its my heel that hurts the most. Maybe whatever is bothering that is causing my other problems.
[quote]jmatcha wrote:
Which is better for athletic performance, football to be specific, hang cleans, power cleans, or full cleans? I play in a spring league, games start march 15th. I play wide receiver on offense and corner, free, or strong safety on defense. [/quote]
Read the first link here and educate yourself:
like said if you know what you are doing vary the lot in with like i said jump variaions and speed squats dude wil stop you being bored
i.e. can do 3sets of 1-3reps prior to squats or deads.
or do 5-8 sets of 1-3 as the first exercise on its on day.
just keep the exercises changing. providing you can actually do all the movements.
You can do more than just clean variations, but to answer your question directly:
snatch pull
power clean from blocks
best combo imo
[quote]Dr. Manhattan wrote:
People tend to ignore the benefits of doing the full squat clean. It certainly allows you to do more weight, but it also teaches you how to amortize the weight more, which teaches you how to receive force better. The resistive action performed during a full clean actually helps prevent a lot of injury by building up the stabilizers necessary to receive force, as well as the timing/neurological factors that go into this.
If I was playing football still, I’d much rather be capable of taking larger forces than not. One of the best investments an athlete can make is spending 6 months learning the Olympic lifts while young. [/quote]
Totally agree.
The full versions are NOT THAT HARD to do. You just have to read and learn a bit. WHAT athlete is not capable of doing this? Once you have gotten over the first 8-12 weeks of technique work your technique should be pretty consistent. BUT the issue is, that most athletes can’t be assed with it.
Learn the full versions and you can switch to any of the other versions VERY EASILY afterwards. If you learn to do the power versions you never really learn how to catch the weight in a full squat or a change of speed under the bar (biggest difference between a beginner and a good lifter)
Koing