How come the US sucks so bad in olympic weightlifting?

[Zaphod]

Because we are a nation of pussies and cosseted f.aggots who have become spoilt and lazy.
we can only win stuff if the odds are heavily in our favor and even then we often fuck it up. we are weak fuckers and our strength is only in our numbers. numbers largely swelled by inferior beings.

BECAUSE WE DON'T HAVE COMMUNIST STYLE STATE SPOSNSORED ROBOTS

[Michaeloz]

BECAUSE WE DON'T HAVE COMMUNIST STYLE STATE SPOSNSORED ROBOTS

You are an idiot.   >:(Thanks for wrecking a good post.

[Campeon Del Mundo]

Olympic style weightlifting is a dying sport...there's only a handful of guys in the world that still practice it...i've never even heard of an olympic weightlifting club before or gym...ever

[biceps]

"Do you also think that the learning curve is really hard in Olympic lifting.It takes tons of skill to perform the lifts and they are very difficult to learn.Plus ,so many Americans are benching from day one that they loose the flexibility in their shoulders to then learn Olympic lifting becomes impossible.I also agree that our strongest,best athletes go into football and then start lifting for football.In other countries,if your strong,you lift.Here,if your strong or large,you play football."

I think ideally for a lifter, you should start before 12. I started at 13. The top countries start their people at 5 or 6. That does not mean that at 5 or 6 they are doing actual lifts. Rather, they spend 2-3 years doing a combination of jumping, stretching, gymnastics, and things like throwing medicine balls, and doing things like burpies (kind of a squat, pressup, jump exercise), and doing lifts with a wooden stick, with a total focus on speed, flexibility technique. So, at age 9 you then have kids with awesome flexibility, great technique, good exposiveness. And then you gradually start introducing weight on the bar (still very light) perhaps total 10kg for the lifts, and a little more for squats and pulls. Bones are still growing and developing at this age. The, during the ages of 10-13 you very gradually start increasing the weight, still with the major focus on speed and technique. Then, at ages 13-18 the weight really starts increasing, in a controlled way, making very sure to avoid injury. And then at 18 onwards, depending on maturity and growth the weight starts increasing quite rapidly (and at the right time, performace enhancing substances are added). And then 18-28 is when the really big gains start coming, and the real muscle development takes place.

Now, compare that to your average American kid. Perhaps at age 14-15, he walks into a gym, and starts doing a few bicep curls, and some benches. He is usally a bit overweight, has poor flexibility, and its simply too late to develop the kind of base that the kids have who started at 5.

You get the picture, right? This is really how is starts in the Eastern European countries, and in China. The US does this with gymnastics, and swimming, and they get good results, but they are way way way behind in weightlifting.

Did you head a chance to train with  Dragomir? 

[gib]

Biceps - I am not from the US. I know who Dragomir is of course, but no I have not trained with him.

He is a person who clearly was a great lifter who has done some amazing lifts. I am sure he knows what would be needed to produce a great team at a national level. He would, I am sure, also have a pretty good idea of what the top weightlifting countries are doing both in terms of selection, training, and with regard to performance enhancing substances. This of course also puts him in difficult position of having to work with atheletes in the USA who have come into weightlifting relatively late in the game compared to the ages of the leading countries, and further to have to do it cleanly, without a systemized doping regeime, and then to fulfill the expectation to "get results".

And even with his knowledge, I just dont think in a free country like the USA, weightlifting can get a good supply of young atheletes, who pretty much eat/sleep/train, and do a bit of schooling. Perhaps in swimming, or gymnastics, with ultru pushy parents this happens, but its much rarer with weightlifting.

I have met and been coached by people from Eastern Europe, who really know exactly what goes on there. Probably the most advanced and valuable training and substance methods come from Bulgaria.

Now on to another topic. China - there is just no way their Olympic female lifters are clean. What they are lifting is really pretty mindblowing.

As from the comment from Zaphod "BECAUSE WE DON'T HAVE COMMUNIST STYLE STATE SPOSNSORED ROBOTS", well - this is a harsh comment, but I know the point he is trying to make. Really, I think these Chinese athletes are pretty much controlled by the Govt, and are not really competing for themselves. They really are more of the mindset of having to complete "a job or mission for the State". Look at those poor little gymnast girls. Even at their current age, I think they have no real comprehension of the significance to China of their competing, let alone at the age they were "selected". A around 3 years of age, China already selects thousands of kids, who are brutally trained, and pushed increadibly hard, with the injured ones simply discarded once they are no longer of use, and then of couse the international community only sees the ones who have made it to the top of this selection process. Sooner or later, in the future, there will be a tell-all documentry made, that comes out (much like all the stuff that came out in the last 10 years about what was going on with the Eastern European athletes) and I am sure there will be some extermely shocking and sad stories that come out.

[m8]

What do you think about this, gib? Does it happen often?

[gib]

Accidents like that are suprisingly rare.

I only know of one lifter who has actually had a similar injury (dislocating an elbow) and he was suprisingly back training after 3 months.

Much more common is people getting strain injuries in various joints, eg wrists, knees, shoulders, and lower back.

Of course I have seen any times things like a lifter passing out during a lift, or taking a fall after losing balance, but you get pretty good at safely "failing" a lift and letting a weight drop.