This is a reprint of a Takanotes column published in IOL magazine in 1976. The information is still relevent. I’ve added some jumping stories at the end in italics.
What with the establishment of the biathlon there is no question that the single most important component of modern weight lifting is an explosive pull. With such a stress on pulling, the Bulgarians and Russians have developed and refined the modern pulling technique known as the double knee-bend. This particular technique is basically a series of leg and hip movements designed to get the bar into a position for maximum explosion. This position is reached when the bar is approximately at mid-thigh the weight is on the balls of the feet, and the back is at the optimum angle for a quick extension. Take a look at some of the sequence photos of the top international stars that you’ve seen recently in IOL, and you’ll notice that they all hit a position where the bar is at mid-thigh or higher just prior to top explosion.
If you study these photos very closely, you’ll notice that the optimum pulling position is very close to the starting position for a vertical or standing long jump. Obviously the Europeans are very cognizant of this as they incorporate a great deal of jumping training into their programs. This has to pay big dividends since the top of the modern pull is very nearly just a jump with the force transferred to the bar rather than maintained as vertical flight.
Of course other lifters have long incorporated some form of jumping in their training too. Back in the early and mid 1960 “s when most western lifters did little more than simply lift weights in their training, many people were amazed to find that the Japanese lifters spend a great deal of their warm-up time doing frog jumps, vertical jumps and standing long jumps. The effectiveness of these movements can be attested to by the fact that the Japanese lifters of those days were notoriously poor pressers and superlative quick lifters .
South Korean weight lifter Shin Hee Won is also a tremendous leaper and must incorporate a lot of jumping into his training. At only 162.5 cm. in height Won can leap up and grasp the rim of a standard basketball hoop.
World’s super heavy weight champion Alexeev, a former volleyball player, is another great jumper. Certainly his lifting must be a function of his ability to perform a vertical jump of over 76 cm.
There is thus little question that the world’s top lifters do a lot of jumping, and most of them are very proficient leapers. Those of you readers interested in increasing your totals should already be doing some jumping in your training if you are serious about competition. The beginning of the work out is the best time to do these movements as your explosiveness is at its peak. They also serve as a good means of warming up the joints and muscles for the heavier lifts to come.
THE BEST WAY TO JUMP— The Bulgarians figure that the best way to practice jumping is to have the lifter jump from the ground up onto a platform that is adjustable in height. They feel that a top lifter should be able to jump from the ground up onto a platform set at nipple height. You can use this as a guideline to see how you match up with the better lifters. If you have access to an adjustable platform you can use it to determine whether or not your jumping ability is improving. Keep track of any improvements you make in your training log and see if you can notice any correlation between them and your pulling ability.
Jumping up steps is another way to keep track of your ability provided that you jump on the same steps during your training.
Standing long jumps will give you a good explosion work out. By concentrating on a sharp back snap and a powerful leg drive, you can very closely approximate the type of movement used in pulling.
These preceding movements are included hopefully as a means of improving your jumping a-bility and hence your pulling ability. They are certainly not the only way to improve, but they do provide means by which one can easily measure progress . Jumping games (most notably basketball and volleyball) are also of great value though they present less of a controlled situation and can be inconvenient without a sufficient number of players.
Just as a final word to the wise, try to do as much of your jumping as you can in a good pair of well padded shoes, and on a soft surface like a lawn. The impact upon landing from a maximum effort vertical or horizontal jump can cause a great deal of trauma in the bones and joints, something that should be and can easily be avoided.
In those days we used the nipple height as a standard to see if we were explosive enough (please remember that all of this refers to males as there was no women’s weightlifting in those days). Most of us could jump up to a platform about halfway between the navel and the nipples.
One day in the training hall at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, we ended up having an impromptu jumping contest up onto stacked blocks. The two highest jumps were by Albert Hood (56 kg and 150 cm) and Guy Carlton (110 kg and 185 cm) who both jumped up on to heights even with their clavicles!
Several reliable witnesses have told me that they’ve seen my 62 kg lifter Nghiep Dinh jump on to a platform that lined up with his chin!
In the old P.H.A.T. Elvis days Nghiep, Franky Valdez and Thien-an Nguyen would have jumping contests trying to jump over the trunk of Franky’s Chevy Nova with a running start. I didn’t see too many bruises. I believe most of their attempts were successful. (Note: Franky’s Nova was not lowered. It was stock!).
Friday, August 13, 2010 at 11:25PM 
