I dont know if many of you seen it, but i guess back then there was a different approach to the clean and jerk:
whenever I watch them I cringe at the thought of their back snapping. Was this really how they lifted back then?
[quote]B.b. in stress! wrote:
I dont know if many of you seen it, but i guess back then there was a different approach to the clean and jerk:
whenever I watch them I cringe at the thought of their back snapping. Was this really how they lifted back then?[/quote]
This was back when olympic lifting consisted of three lifts - snatch, clean & jerk, clean & press. The clean & jerk looked much it does today, actually. The videos showed the clean & press, which was supposed to be a clean followed by a military press. Not unexpectedly, rather inconsistent judging meant people started bending back more and more to get more and more weight, and some turned it into a standing bench press followed by a massive crunch.
So, with all the judging difficulties, the press got dropped, leaving us with the modern olympic lifting event.
thank god!