CF Olympic Lifting Cert

This past weekend I attended a Crossfit Olympic lifting certification in Santa Cruz. This certification is conducted by Mike Burgener, and his staff. Coach Burgener has been coaching the Olympic lifts for decades, and he does a tremendous job of getting people interested and fired up about the sport. His methods break the lifts into simple exercises. The Olympic lifts are incredibly technical and they take a a great amount of time to master. A two day certification has a limited scope, and Coach Burgener is the first to tell you this, but the cert provides a good starting point for persons interested in Olympic lifting.

The Olympic lifts are position intensive. What I mean by this is the fact that you must move through a series of positions with consistency in order to progress in the sport. If you start in correctly you can't finish correctly. While everyone is anatomically different there are general guidelines that can be adapted to teach the Snatch and Clean and Jerk to anyone that can jump.

There are a thousand ways to skin the cat so to speak, but the effectiveness of a coach and their training program is measured by the quality of their athletes. Coach Burgener does a great job of getting people to feel the positions associated with the Olympic lifting. Flexibility is a key component of the Olympic lifts. In essence finding correct positions is stretching, or ingraining, the proper motor recruitment into your memory. Constantly working to move properly is essential for the Olympic lifts. This takes time. Two days of coaching will not get of athlete straightened out. Nonetheless, the simplistic nature of the course allows athletes to break it down to square one and develop with the due diligence the lifts deserve.

One important thing I have learned from this trip so far is the importance of good coaching. I have realized just how good of parents I have had. I have been lucky to find a gym with quality coaching. Mr. Everett is an excellent teacher, but even more than that he is an excellent student of the sport. Coach Burgener seems to be the same way. He learns from his athletes. While two days may be way to short of time frame to master the Olympic lifts, realistically you should multiple those days by about a thousand, two days of good coaching can get athletes even more passionate about the sport. Further, I find that when I learn a little it just makes me even more curious. So two days can lead into that 2000.