In the world of athletic training, there are multiple methodologies that promise to increase athletic ability, make you run faster, jump higher, and, of course, improve your performance through programs that are supposedly “sport specific.” Methods come and go, and I recognize that I may have a biased opinion, but Olympic Weightlifting increases athletic performance in a way that cannot be replicated through other methods. Time and again, Weightlifting proves itself to be one of the most effective ways to develop athletic performance. Just look at the athletic abilities of some of the best weightlifters in history.
Shane Hammon, who was the U.S. super heavyweight in the late 1990s and early 2000s, could dunk a basketball despite standing just 5'9" tall and weighing in excess of 350 pounds. Yurik Vardanyan, the 1980 Olympic Gold Medalist from the Soviet Union, has been recorded running a 10.6-second 100-meter dash, performing a standing broad jump of over 12 feet, and clearing a high jump of over 7 feet. These were not activities he regularly practiced. These were athletic feats he could perform because he trained in Weightlifting with the goal of becoming as explosive as possible. Along with developing incredible strength and muscularity, he became an all-around athlete that few could match.
I could go on about former Olympic champions and their athletic abilities. Yuri Zakhareivich, for example, could run an 11.5-second 100-meter dash despite weighing over 245 pounds. But the point is simple: when it comes to developing athletic performance, nothing holds a candle to Olympic Weightlifting.
You can practice all the sprinting mechanics you want, and you can run until your legs fall off. While those activities will certainly improve your sprinting mechanics, at some point you have to put a bigger engine in the car.
The same principle applies to every other sport. Yes, you need to practice the actual sport, but your strength training time should be devoted to getting stronger and more explosive. Adding more agility drills, Bosu ball balancing acts, and a myriad of easy, lying-down pressing exercises has limited benefit when it comes to sports that require an enormous amount of explosive power to be generated in a very short amount of time.
So why aren't the Olympic lifts used more often?
Simple. Very few people know how to properly coach and teach them. Those people are easy to identify. They will be the first to point out that the Olympic lifts are too technical, require too much time to learn, or that they can achieve similar results using simpler methods.
But just as in physics, there is no such thing as a free lunch in strength training. You cannot recreate all of the athletic qualities and benefits of a snatch or a clean by doing something else. You might be able to mimic part of the movement, but you cannot replicate the whole. And the whole is where the benefit lies.
Strength and conditioning programs often appear effective because athletes leave the gym sweating and feeling like they've put in a tremendous amount of work. But if all they've done is 45 minutes of agility drills with minimal actual lifting, it's like driving a Corvette with a Chevette engine. It might look impressive, but it's just not the same.
At some point, you have to put a bigger engine in the car if you want it to go faster.
Oh, and then you have to learn how to drive it.