[quote]tom63 wrote:
Okay, I finally watched the video in it’s entirety. Their form isn’t hat bad. Yes, the lifts are ballistic, but very little seemed unsafe to me and i could see some of the why to it.
At the end for shoudlrs, i do a similar exercise. I call them seated dumbell power cleans and I got them from Louie Simmons at Westside. I do a very quick lateral similiar to a highpull with the dumbells. This has done more for my traps and upper back than any other exercise.
more than shrugs and more than regular power cleans, which now I won’t do because of other issues, such as possible wrist injury.
As for some of the cleans, I don’t see a problem with them. The rows are a little ballistic, but believe it or not that sometimes works a lot better for strength than your 2up 4 down tempo. Or as Dave Tate and Jim Wendler say, no one pays attention to tempo.
Sometimes this looser form stuff actually promotes strength better than super tight form. go train at Westside some time and watch them do auxillary exercises. Their form would not be considered “good” by very many weak people here.[/quote]
I agree with this 100%. However, what I find interesting here are some of the comments made by others. When I see a tape like this it makes me seriously re-think what I think I know about strength training and how that relates to getting better at sports. It humbles the shit out of me.
Sure, when you see a guy jerking around weights like that you first instinct as a trained professional is to criticize, however, once you get past what you think you know to be right, I believe there is a lot to be learned here.
The video, as stated, was the University of Iowa wrestling team, the 2008 national wrestling champions of division 1A.
They won DI’s by a good margin this year and pretty much dominated the entire year with the exception of 1 close loss to o.k. state in a duel back in December.
So I will have to emphatically argue that they might know a lot about what it takes to get good at wrestling. It might not be what the established lifting community thinks is right but then again maybe most of the established lifting community doesn’t know as much as it thinks it does. I mean no offense by that, but sometimes the best way to improve is to seriously re think what you know to be right.
Before people claim their success comes down to talent, please understand that the University of Iowa wrestling team has been notorious for developing talent over the years. Sure they have gotten their hands on some real studs through the years (Joe Williams, Lincoln Mac., Metcalf etc.).
However Iowa under then coach Dan gable and current coach tom brands (both Olympic and world champs, NCAA too) are mostly known for taking lesser athletes and turning them into champions.
If you watch tom brands old competition video with his twin brother terry, you will see that they lift exactly like this. The video is called TnT if you are interested.
In the video the brands brothers (tom=3 NCAA titles terry=2 NCAA titles and two world gold medals) lift with fellow wrestler Lincoln Mac. (3 NCAA titles, 4 finals appearances, Olympic bronze medal) and as stated their form is no better than what you see on the flocast video.
To talk about improvement, tom brands (current Iowa coach) wasn’t even the top recruit comming out of high school despite the fact he wound up with all those credentials (4 time all American and ncaa outstanding wrestler his senior year). He got his butt whipped by another awesome wrestler named Alan fried during his senior year out at junior nationals.
The match wasn’t even close with fried tech falling brands in the match. However, with training exactly like this brands wound up beating fried in the national finals twice in college. Talk about improvement!
In closing, I am sorry if this comes across as negative but some of the comments here don’t match up with the facts. Iowa is the best wrestling school in DI this year.
They had a down period after gable retired but only two years after brands came in with this system they were back on top after finishing as low as eighth under their old coach. Iowa guys improve in college, they get better and this is the system they use.
In brands defense he does admit that training like a “gable trained” athlete cannot be done for life (it is too hard on the body) which is why most Iowa guys last for about one Olympic cycle and call it quits. However, they know what it takes to get better and just because it may not match up with what we think is right; it doesn’t mean they are wrong. Maybe we are the ones with the problem?
Thanks,
Mike Cruickshank
TOM BRANDS
IOWA HEAD COACH
1996 Olympic Gold Medalist
NCAA 75th Anniversary Team member (one of 15 named)
3x NCAA National Champion
4x NCAA All-American
3x Big Ten Champion
1993 World Freestyle Championships Gold Medalist
1994 & 1995 World Cup Gold Medalist
1995 Pan American Games Champion
1993-1996 U.S. National Champion
2000 NWCA Assistant Coach of the Year (IOWA)
2002 & 2003 Freestyle Coach of the Year by USA Wrestling
1993 USA Wrestling Athlete of the Year
1993 John Smith Outstanding Freestyle Wrestler
1993 Amateur Wrestling News Man of the Year
2008 Doesn�??t know much about weight training according to some people on T-Nation.