Barbell Shrugged - 155- Part 3- Coaching is More Than Coaching

Episode Date: December 19, 2014

Part 3 of 3

Hey, what's up everybody? This is Chris. This week on Barbell Shrugged, it's not your typical episode, baby. Get on over to barbellshrugged.com, queue up the video version, get your friends over, make some food, turn on the HDTV, and enjoy the show. But, if you are listening to the audio version, we broke this episode down into three parts. You're listening to part three, where we chat with Anders Linsow, probably butchering that name, the head strength and weightlifting coach at Aleko Sport. Hey, this is Rich Froning.

You're listening to Barbell Shrug. For the video version, go to barbellshrug.com. Who do you think you are? It's only got to get this guy on track. And we're back with Anders. Last name? Lindvall. That's Swedish.

It sounds Swedish. Yes. And you're in charge of education here. Yeah. At Aleko. Yeah. Can you tell us what... So most people think of Aleko and they think barbells first,

weightlifting, strength training. And then we found out yesterday from Eric all the educational stuff that you guys have going on. Can you tell us about that? Yeah, there's a lot. I think if we want to sell a lot of barbells, I think you need to have some knowledge. And I think knowledge is power. That's what it is so so we like for 10 years ago we were starting a strength coach just to get some knowledge to the people and today we are doing that in three

separate levels a lake of strength coach and then it's there's a lake of personal trainer as well and there's power lifting and i think it's just good with knowledge because I think that's the problem out there that people are doing a lot of lifts, but they have no knowledge. They're just doing it. Yeah. And it's good. I love them anyway. So that was one of the things we talked, that was like one of the first things that we talked about when we met was that you don't care so much that people do it exactly right. But as long as people are lifting, you do want them to do it right. Absolutely. But you would get excited by just the fact that people are lifting. Yeah. But as long as people are lifting, you do want them to do it right. Absolutely. But you get excited by just the fact that people are lifting.

That's like, people loves what I love. I love them. So it's pretty easy. I think the barbell is... Oh, that's strategy. But the barbell is a very good equipment. It's very easy to use and all people around the world can use it.

There's no limitations in the barbells. It's easy. And maybe you can't do a 165-kilo snatch, but you can do a snatch. Right. You can do a power snatch or a split snatch or from hang. You can just have some fun with the barbell. If you have access to a barbell, you have no excuse to not be strong. No.

That's my opinion. The good thing about the classical lifts is they are fundamental to human movement. So it doesn't matter how old you are or maybe you're ill, you can do some scaled version to improve the way you navigate the world. That's what's beautiful.

So I think weightlifting is, besides with wrestling and gymnastics, it's the base. You need to be strong, you need to be in good control of your body, and you need to be quick, so maybe some track and field as well then you mix it together and and then you can try like general preparation so we talked before it's it's good stuff it's just good stuff we're talking about how much i'm doing a lot of gymnastics right now because i i am injured

so i can't do a lot a lot of lower body squats or anything like that. So I'm doing a lot of that, and I find that helps my overhead position with the barbell. And then you went into gymnastics. Throwing is great. People aren't doing enough throwing, especially younger athletes. Can you tell us about that? I think what people today, it's so important to be specific. And I think it's very nice when you're older when

it when there's no time to train a lot of stuff but when you need to develop your motoric skill you need to be a broad base to stand on and gymnastic with a lot of control with your own body weights and all the speed and the twists and all the stuff that they're doing and then together with track and feel they're running and jumping and having fun. And of course, throwing, it's a good thing to do. And if you look into young people, they really love to throw stuff.

Slipper balls. Oh, yeah. Why? Then we need to ask just why. And I think we need to have that in our training so they can love it. Because motivation is one of the key. If they want

to proceed with their weightlifting that's motivation and and throwing and jumping as well it's fun and it teaches you how to deliver force to the ground in a controlled you know unified way right it is that if you do it bad you know immediately when you do it bad because things didn't go as far no yeah good feedback and good feedback. And we need motoric skill. That's the key. If you have a lot of skills in different kind of ways, then you can learn weightlifting

in one hour. Much quicker. Yeah. A lot of people try to jump straight to the barbell without really getting good GPP behind them. Do you think that is

the major mistake that young athletes or young CrossFit athletes or anybody just discovering whatlifting will make is that they will try to rush their development? Yes, it is. I think that today's CrossFit, I think it's very good for the weightlifting and vice versa, but still they are older people. When I started to lift, I was 12 years old. I had no limitations. I had no flexibility problem. No injuries. I was just having fun. You felt no pain, did you? No pain. And today I'm 45. I have a

lot of pain. And I can't learn today how to lift. Because my body is in pain. But we can't teach the same way to adults as to young kids. So we need to do some kid stuff before to the adult people. What is some of some kid stuff before to the adult people.

What is some of those kid stuff? Kids, just having fun. Yeah. Doing some handstands. Having good exercises or good movements.

I believe in movements. I'm not an exercise fan. I'm a movement fan. I think it's a big difference because when you're making exercise, you decide this is the way

you should do it when next time somebody asked me to water i'm not an exercise guy no no no but movement movement is how you solve it yourself movement is how you do how you pick up stuff from the floor but a dead lift is an exercise that's rules right and rules is killing people, you just said a great quote. No, but rules kill people. Put that on the picture. No, but exercise just kills people. I think that's when we start to live, when we're younger,

we're having a lot of fun. So you say people are focusing on movement in the context of exercise, but then as soon as they're not exercising, that goes out the window and they forget. So someone might be training the deadlift, they're not exercising that goes out the window and they forget. So like, you know, someone might be training the deadlift and they're out golfing

and they go to get the ball out of the hole and then they're like, they look like total shit when they go to get the ball out of the hole or when they pick up the pencil off the ground and that's when their back goes out. Because they can't connect it. Right.

Because all the rules in the gym is very, very specific. If you go into personal trainer or weightlifting trainer, you're not supposed to do that. You're not supposed to do that. Do it like this. Otherwise, you're going to die.

But that's not the way it's going to happen. And then you go out in the ski loop, and there's a lot of squats in the ski loops. Yeah. But now you don't need to think about it. Right. But it's still dangerous if you're doing it the wrong way. So you need to learn how to do movements.

That's the way I think. And that's the same in weightlifting. It's only movements. It's like you're lifting stuff. It's a lift. It's a deadlift. So you're lifting the bar from the ground. Then you're jumping. And you're not supposed to jump high. You're just supposed to jump. Because jump is to speed lifting the bar from the ground. Then you're jumping. And you're not supposed to jump high.

You're just supposed to jump. Because jump is to speed up the bar. It's not to jump it high up in the air. That's another competition. When you're weightlifting, you don't want to leave the ground. No, because then you're losing control. But you still need to jump without jumping. A lot of people make the mistake of cues.

It's this long pull. Get the bar as high as you can. It's not so. No, the highest, get the bar as high as you can. It's not so. No, the highest is not the key. It's the quickest. The speed of the barbell makes it to do kinetic movements,

kinetic when it's going away. No? No. Genetic? Genetic. Is that a Swedish word for something? No, when the barbell is getting away without,

flying. Like a momentum. Yeah, momentum. Okay. Probably a quick rapid impulse to the bar and get it going

That's what we need in weightlifting. We need it to go up so we can go under. Yeah. I think that's one of the biggest advantages of coming to a place

like, we tell people if you want to be really strong and better at weightlifting, probably you can read a bunch and you should and you should study and go to seminars.

But the best thing you can do, like you say, as a bunch, go to a place where there are fast athletes and see for yourself the kind of standard you need to achieve when it comes to rapid movement. Like Ilya and Ilya are somebody as explosive as a human being can get, and when you see that, you go, oh, man. Immediately your mindset changes. But I still think you need to solve problems.

Weightlifting is a problem. The weight is lying on the floor because of Isaac Newton. That's the way it is. Solve the problem. Right. Solve it. Then you need to understand Isaac Newton. There's three laws you need plus gravitation.

That's the way it is. Solve it. You have your limbs. You have your livers the way it is solve it you have your limbs you have your livers what they call you have a muscles solve it that's your toolbox right and we are not looking the same so we don't have the same toolbox but we need to do it close to the body otherwise the the Newton the Newton meter the talker the talker is getting too high and you're going to twist over. So you're going to lose your balance.

That's the way it is. It's mechanics. And then you need to lift it fast. Otherwise, you can't get the momentum. And then there's no time for you to get under the bar. And then you need to get under low, as low as you can. Because then you're getting a gap. And the gap is the result.

Right. So if you have a lot of gap, you can add a lot of loads, and then it's very close. Then you're at your level. Yeah, I've heard a lot of high-level weightlifting coaches talking about it's not so high you get the bar, but how low you can get in your squat. Yeah. So that's getting your body as low as quickly as possible so as much speed in the bar as possible and then getting your butt down as low as possible that's the way it is it takes a lot of practice while keeping the bar close keeping the bar close

lift it fast and get it low that's the principles it's based on science it's it's pretty easy it's based on science but these are things that every weightlifting coach will agree on. And the other things are what people, they pick out other things to disagree about. Exactly. But close, fast, and deep, or low, you can't say against it because that's science. Right. In mechanics. So it's very hard to fight Isaac Newton.

And that's the way it is. And physics is physics. It's all the forces that are you need force and you need a muscle to create force you need a muscle to create force so the joint can be a liver and the liver is movement and it can add into the bar so it's pretty easy is this the way you approach like a new athlete comes in do you lay down a thesis that, look, here's where we want to go, but first there's a skill issue. Let's teach you the mechanics. Yeah.

Let's show you what fast means. Yeah. Cultivate that a little bit. And then have you practice this art of, because I think the biggest mistake people make is, I guess, they struggle getting under. Yeah. Because I think that's the hard part.

It's the scary part. And they don't practice as much because they can power clean or power snatch comfortably. I get asked all the time, like,'s the scary part. And they don't practice as much because they can power clean or power snatch comfortably. I get asked all the time, like, how do I get better at doing that? I go, well, you have to do it. Repeatedly. But if you're feeling unsafe, you're not supposed to do it. So then you're throwing

the bar away. That's because you're unsafe. You're not feeling comfort in what you're doing. That's because you haven't done it enough. More repetitions. So people are doing one and two repet doing. That's because you haven't done it enough. Yeah. More repetitions. So people are doing like one and two repetitions. That's performance. That's not skill practice.

And we can go back to the science again. We can separate skill into motoric coordination and motoric control. Then we can separate the sports in different kind of loops in the head. And weightlifting is a closed loop exercise because it takes less than one second so the muscle can't get feedback back

to the head and then correct it again because there's no time right so we can't give too much information this is science again so even if you're talking a lot like a coach that's just bullshit right then you need to think what what instruction do I need and it takes too long time because you have one miss second it's pretty it's a quick one is a quick one right that's a quick one so when you're up to that is when it's skill it's like I done before skill, it's like I've done before with Christmas. It's like coordination and control, motoric control, is not the same. So we're going back to the motoric behavior. Then we can see that coordination is which muscles should use, should activate, or what do you call it?

Activate in which sequences. That's coordination. And control is how much, the force into it. That's coordination. And control is how much the force into it. That's not the same. So I want Christmas to be in charge of the barbell. I want she to decide

to touch or not touch. I like that. She's in charge. Like I'm planning piano. I want to be in charge of the piano. Otherwise it's going to sound like you were whistling. It's not good. It's not good. I got to work on my of the piano. Otherwise, it's going to sound like you were whistling.

It's not good. It's not good. It's terrible. It's hideous, I know. That's a skill practice. I'm not in control of myself. So coordination and motoric control is not the same. And today, in control and coordination together

is motoric skill. And there's a lot of coaches, they are training skill, but they don't know what it is. It's just a fancy word. And to do coordination training, you need to push the athlete all the time so they can decide if it's good or not. Because I can't feel if this bar is touching her legs right she needs

to feel it she needs to decide because she needs to be in charge not me so that's that's how i'm teach and i'm always checking out the start position and end position because if they don't have the flexibility enough right they can do it in a timing way because it needs to be a good feeling feeling is good to motivate people if it's a bad feeling they're getting out from the weight room so i don't need the hook grip unless they need it and they need it after like 10 15 sessions because pain is taking timing away so if you are in pain and it's painful if you're not used to do it taking timing away so now you can't lift makes complete sense so I really think that hook grip is the very important for

weightlifters but now she's a weightlifter as well but if you have a beginner they are lifting weights they are not the weightlifter as well, but if you have a beginner, they are lifting weights. They are not the weightlifter. They don't have the feeling, the passion about weightlifting. And hook grip needs passion. That's the way it is. If something's painful, you have to have passion to stick with that. So that's how we are doing it. The end and the start position, and maybe there's a lot of people today

that can't even start from the lowest position because they don't have the flexibility enough then we just get it up a little bit so i think it's important to do all the movements they can because that's a good feeling i believe in feeling so we're talking about this weightlifting is beautiful it's a beautiful movement but you need to do it so you can feel the feel the movement and it's a pull and it's a beautiful movement but you need to do it so you can feel feel the movement and it's a pull and it's all the stuff it's inside

just in the mixed like a very very good mixed match like this is snatch and all the people in the world are doing different kind of snatches

because they don't have the same toolbox so we need to we need to solve the problem in different kind of ways. Someone needs to lift a little bit higher because they can't get low enough. Someone needs to lift a little bit closer. So the Chinese, they are doing...

Frog stance? Exactly. Why? Because it's science. It's closer to the center of gravity. And that may not be good for me. For me? No. No, it's not. It's close to the center of gravity. And that may not be good for me. For me? No. No, it's not.

It's good for them. Right. Because they need to solve the problem. And they are not so categorical. So they're just, this is the only way. They are smart people. You think too many people are doing that? Too many people are going, Kloakov does it that way, so I will.

So I should do pause snatches and all this stuff. Or it's just not the best way. No. Right. You got to be very careful. It is for him,

but not for you. Mimicry is a very dangerous thing to do in training. People like Klokov at the top level, they are using their toolbox the optimal way.

They are fantastic athletes, but I can't lift like Klokov. That's the way fantastic athletes but I can't lift like Klakov. That's the way it is because I don't have his toolbox.

So we need to see what happens in our body. We need to see what the levels, if you have a good squat, it's

going to be very, very easy to teach lifting if they have a good squat. Why? Because we're

doing a lot of squats in weightlifting. It's pretty easy. And we're doing it? Because we're doing a lot of squats in weightlifting. It's pretty easy. And we're not aware of the squats because when we're doing squats in clean, it's just that we're catching the weight in a squat. We don't know that.

We're catching the weight because we need to do it. We need to solve the problem. So there's a lot of people doing back squat in one long stance and then when they're catching weight, they're doing it in another stance. So it feels foreign to them. Exactly. They need, because what happens if they're losing their balance a little bit, they need to correct it. We can be categorical again. This is the only way because if I'm losing balance, it's good to take a step.

Right. It's pretty easy. so i think just to if they can feel it a little bit better have the feeling for weight lifting then they can lift a lot of weights they're making sure that everything sorry dougie yeah everything that you do make sure it aligns and drives forward to build the core lift like i said squat i understand it's nice if you can widen your stance or tweak something and you can squat more yeah but if it's not what's going to be practiced and it's not building the motor control and you can't scale the force appropriately if you're not doing it as you would catch a clean then it won't really help you that much you'll just you'll satisfy your ego yeah motivation so maybe sometimes

it's very good to do heavy squats and weightlifting, but every time you do a heavy exercise, it's going to cost you to recover. It's going to cost you something. Every time you do something, it's going to cost you something. That's the way it is. So if you're doing weightlifting and you want to become a good weightlifter and you're doing a lot of bad technique squats for good motivation you're too tired to improve your skills in weightlifting now we have a problem so you need motivation to do the skill but you're too tired that's momentum 22 it's you do nothing nothing

gonna happen and that happens all the time so you need to be a good coach and say no this is not the right way we need to do more of that one or that, because I don't know. Sometimes motivation is more important than skill. This is fingertop. This is, you can't, it's a finger. You need to feel it. You need to see in your lifter's eyes if it's a good or bad decision. Because you can see it and you can't do it over over you can't have more than

maybe three four athletes at a time because you need to look them into their eyes otherwise you can't be a good coach otherwise it's just the way it is you can't be a good instructor you can be a good but to be a good coach you be there feel it for them you have to build this relationship not just knowing how to train something and we know that all people around the world

know that but we need to do some quick fix do it quicker but that's not the way if we want to get to the next level right

so whenever you get a new athlete you just ask them you've never seen them lift before you say show me your start position show me your finish position and then watch a full movement and then just ask them how

they feel and then go from there yeah because if they can't do a good start position then i need to decide to to train only the start position or i just take away the start position i just get a higher position because everyone can start from position above the knee. Everyone. Even me. No, no, no. Not me. No. Close to everyone.

He saw me deadlift there like you're never going to get in position. I just want to find where I feel comfort. Right. So we can do the timing stuff. Then we can train

to improve their flexibility later in the session. But not together with timing. Flexibility problem is not good for timing. So we need to do it out of timing. When we're doing like you, you just slow, easy, just improve the timing. But we can do power snatch from hang.

Good feeling, a good lift, and do it so they can get motivated and they can feel weightlifting. You can't feel weightlifting in overhead squat. So if you don't have a good starting position, you have no business doing a snatch from the ground. You might be able to do it from the blocks or from the hang.

Absolutely. And then once you solve the problem with the starting position, now we can start moving the snatch back to the floor you add range of motion yeah uh we're gonna have to wrap it up here unfortunately don't wrap it up do not wrap it up right now all right we gotta make it quick okay i want to ask you we were talking earlier about um knowing how to program is one thing but you're having you had an awesome story a little little coaching bit of wisdom about what

it takes for a crew of lifters to ascend to reach this magical level of performance. It's one thing to know what to do, but you were talking about the magic that occurs between a fierce group of athletes that makes a big difference. Yeah. In Sweden right now, the level of weightlifting is pretty low. It's more like the Turkish style and the Chinese. And it's changed. Thailand is coming like a rocket.

Thailand? Thailand. It's just in the world right now. They were going up. What are they doing? What we don't have in Sweden is the group, the community of lifters that just love to lift. And I think if you have a good group of people

in the community or the big community I think that's one of the most important key to succeed in weightlifting because when you love to be to lift together with people when you love to be in in the weight room then you always want to win that's a good a good group of people. It's like an eagle school instead of a duck school. It's a mindset. No, it's a mindset. Every single repetition...

But ducks taste way better. That's right. So I think that we are building up a lot of instructor crossfit boxes, weightlifting clubs, but there's no soul there's no feeling it and i don't think that the coach needs to be a good technician or a good power man or a good trainer i think he needs to be a good man human being a good man saying hi hi how are you feeling today right i'm picking you up tomorrow so we can go have some Chinese food. That's maybe a world record.

Right. But having one repetition more or less, I don't think, it's not going to matter. People get all wrapped up in the programming or what the coach might have said, but you're saying the most important part is the community.

Yeah. I think so a good coach is more than a coach yeah the coach is more than a coach and i think today coaching is more like knowing a lot about physiology it's not the knowing about of people that's where their focus is at but being a being a good coach means that you're good with people yeah but people are getting confused that being a good coach means that you're good with people. Yeah. But people are getting confused that being a good coach means that you understand, you know, physiology and kinesiology. That stuff is good to know. Yeah.

But only if you have that human connection first and then able to build that community. I think the best coaches have all. But I think we can create good communities without that knowledge. Right. Because we can lift. It's not even hard to do.'s fundamentals the fundamental we like Viggo Jansson 1896 he was lifting one one one arm lift 71 kilos 1896 yeah with no technique, no trainer. It's a pretty heavy bubble. It didn't spin that well, did it?

No. So yes, we can lift. We can lift. It's no problem. But we need to have a good community. That's beautifully said. Thank you for joining us. Really appreciate taking the time. And we are about to break.

After we break here, we're going to get to watch you coach Christmas Abbott and improve her snatch. Say what? We put it before. We changed our minds. Wow. Thanks a lot. That way when he's talking about Christmas,

the audience knows what the hell he's talking about. See what we did there, Michael? But it was a good idea. All right. Thank you for joining us. Cheers. Thank you. Bye.

This is Andrea Ager, and you're listening to Barbell Shrug. For the video version, go to barbellshrug.com. Barbell Shrug is brought to you by you. To learn more about how you can support the show, go to barbellshrug.com and sign up for the newsletter.