Power Cleans - Gatorade Commercial

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
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I’m sure most of you have seen the Gatorade commercial, highlighting Euless Trinity High School, when the school bus drives by and Bill Parcells is in the toll booth, and his voice over says “do you have what it takes, to pay the toll?”

Anyways, in the middle of the commercial, it shows several members of the team doing cleans, at the 13-14 second mark. One of the kids on the left side literally jumps off the ground and stomps his feet down trying to pull the clean, while everyone else stays close to the ground. Is this correct form?

Here is a link to the commercial:

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I would not base my form, for any type of lift, off of a gatorade commercial.

Since you are keen on youtube, search for “olympic lifts,” “weight lifting,” “clean lift,” etc. and you can watch a lot of different vids from the olympics (real pros competing) and there is even a vid of Tommy Kono teaching form from last years Arnold.

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I have seen many collegiate athletes do this as well. It does not make sense to me. Why propell the weight AND your body upward when you could just move the weight? I guess i understand the concept of trying to “jump” with the weight (ie being explosive) but literally comming off the ground seems to be a waste of effort. Economy of motion is key if you want to move big weight, sort of like shortening the ROM on a bench press.

4

[quote]gone heavy wrote:
I would not base my form, for any type of lift, off of a gatorade commercial.
[/quote]

LOL. Ya think? :wink:

5

The weight was most likely very light, thus the reason he came off the ground as high as he did.

A proper clean or snatch will usually have the lifter exploding into the air (even if only slightly and barely noticeable to the eye).

6

if the weight was so light for him why come off the ground @ all ?

i lift @ 2 different college gyms and see this jumping from teams all the time. it’s obviously made the rounds of the collegiate strength coach circuit.

i’m no expert @ o-lifting but i don’t think i have to be point out that guy has virtually no extension whatsoever, which is what cleaning is all about.

i think the jumping everyone does is stupid also. some lifters use a narrow foot position to get a longer pull and so will clear the ground a bit to move their feet out and receive the clean. and some lifter’s will clear the ground a bit as a means to initiate a rapid drop UNDER the bar. but the point is to get under as fast as possible, not to get up. the weight here is so light he doesn’t have a need to do either so what the fuck are they doing ? calf exercises ? the lack of extension is the worst though.

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i jump a little off the ground doing cleans, but its not intentional… more of a by-product of the explosion i guess.

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I would actually think that you should jump whenever you do them to enhance the explosiveness. however, the guy in the commercial obviously was using a much lighter weight due to his jump height. Theoretically one shouldn’t be able to jump that high due to the tremendous amount of weight they SHOULD be handling; implying that the guy obviously wasn’t using that much.

every single olympic weightlifting video i c on youtube has them slightly jumping off the ground. it just doesnt seem like they r going that high due to the weight they use.

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This is something I came across… exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/Clean.html

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this is called the “stomp” technique and is intentionally taught. It doesnt make much, if any intuitive sense to me, but I believe I’ve heard that it forces the athletes to absorb more force on the catch, since athletes absorb force a lot. I still dont think its such a great idea

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I did a screenshot of Halil Mutlu’s 155 C&J at the 1999 World Championships.

That’s as far as he “jumps.”

I read somewhere that focusing on the jump actually slows you down. It makes sense. The clean is so fast that if you think about jumping, you’ll cause a disruption.

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they’re jumping without any extension. look at the angle of his hips. any o-lifter you see on youtube will look like he’s stuffing his dick into the bar on the pull. that’s wher the energy from exploding should go, not the feet.

and again the explosive move you want is to get the WEIGHT up and the body UNDER. if you train cleans like that you will not improve much as you will have no speed getting under the bar.

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People fail to remember that team sports training and correct form are 3 different things.

As somebody said you should never base correct form on a commercial. That being said, when you are with your peers getting amped up in the gym you will do stuff to motivate yourself, that was more his purpose in stomping.

Also, people always get mad at football players and basketball players for incorrect form in the squats and other lifts. Often times what is correct form for competition does minimal when compared to minor adjustments in form for sport.

It has been shown many times in studies and on the field that a partial squat has better on the field effects than a full “Ass to the Grass” squat.

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[quote]Airtruth wrote:
People fail to remember that team sports training and correct form are 3 different things.

As somebody said you should never base correct form on a commercial. That being said, when you are with your peers getting amped up in the gym you will do stuff to motivate yourself, that was more his purpose in stomping.

Also, people always get mad at football players and basketball players for incorrect form in the squats and other lifts. Often times what is correct form for competition does minimal when compared to minor adjustments in form for sport.

It has been shown many times in studies and on the field that a partial squat has better on the field effects than a full “Ass to the Grass” squat. [/quote]

Jumping in the clean and jerk OR the snatch, is absolutely a great idea. However, don’t take it too far. One MUST jump when cleaning or snatching, its not an economy of motion issue, it’s an issue of getting the job done and correctly at that!

Jumping, and yes, stomping one’s feet into the platform helps in many ways. Virtually all elite lifters jump their feet, how else do they end up slightly wider than during the initial pull? Sure, everyone’s style is slightly different, but some commonalities do exist.

Oh yeah, as the weight gets heavier and heavier it will surely be more and more difficult to crisply move ones feet, but nevertheless, it should occur!
(don’t get me wrong, leaping into the air is not really necessary!)

Lastly, I’m actually really curious what kind of sources you have regarding partial squats being more applicable to on the field events over full squats. If you wouldn’t mind posting some of them, it would be interesting to read.

p.s. Here is a video of a GREAT lifter training…I’m pretty sure his feet move, both REALLY fast and really crisp.

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Awesome responses so far, thanks for everyone’s info. I didn’t think it was correct form, I just thought he was doing it on purpose to look cool on national tv lol.

I’m with most everyone: The weight can’t be that much if he is jumping that high. I think he was pulling 135, but I can’t tell.

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I’m guessing you mean that a partial squat is better for a clean or snatch in training athletes, aka a power clean or power snatch. Surely you’re not suggesting that athletes should do partial back, front, and overhead squats when NOT performing the Olympic lifts?

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[quote]tmoney1 wrote:
I’m sure most of you have seen the Gatorade commercial, highlighting Euless Trinity High School, when the school bus drives by and Bill Parcells is in the toll booth, and his voice over says “do you have what it takes, to pay the toll?”

Anyways, in the middle of the commercial, it shows several members of the team doing cleans, at the 13-14 second mark. One of the kids on the left side literally jumps off the ground and stomps his feet down trying to pull the clean, while everyone else stays close to the ground. Is this correct form?

Here is a link to the commercial:

It’s not uncommon to see a lifter jump and stamp their feet. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily WRONG - some people do like to get some lift and really stamp the floor - but it does mean he isn’t transferring all of the energy to the bar. The height he was getting was definately a bit high.

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It would make sense not to do full squats since linemen rarely get past lower than a slight knee bend. It’s like a high jumper training the triple jump. Why would they train the distance if they don’t need it.

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[quote]Taquito wrote:
It would make sense not to do full squats since linemen rarely get past lower than a slight knee bend. It’s like a high jumper training the triple jump. Why would they train the distance if they don’t need it.[/quote]

Lineman very frequently get past a slight knee bend as the picture shows below. I think you’d have an even harder time arguing skill positions don’t. But lets assume for the moment that you are right about linemen. The squat is a great way to work total lower body strength, since the lower you go, the more you recruit your glutes and hamstrings.

There are a huge number of benefits to going through a full range of motion including strength throughout the full range, better flexibility, better balance, and more muscle groups used.

Finally, your last example doesn’t make much sense. The triple jump requires different mechanics than a high jump. A squat doesn’t require different mechanics than squatting down into a many football positions.

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[quote]Airtruth wrote:
It has been shown many times in studies and on the field that a partial squat has better on the field effects than a full “Ass to the Grass” squat. [/quote]

Please show us the studies; this statement holds about as much truth as your moniker.