Just in time for the Rio Olympics and USA Weightlifting!
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Why choose the USAW-L1 Certification by Coach Amer
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Olympic Weightlifting, or the sport of weightlifting has 181 participating countries as part of the International Weightlifting Federation. It is a sport that determines the placing of the competitors by adding the best of three snatch attempts to the best of three clean and jerk attempts in each weight class for the lifters. Many trainers and strength coaches include the exercises of snatch, clean, and jerk in their programs, but few coaches understand how to teach them. In this blog I will share how the USA weightlifting sports performance coach or USAW-L1 certification can establish a foundation to these technical lifts.
This is what is stated on the USA weightlifting website: “The purpose of this course is to take all participants through complete technical progressions of the Snatch, Clean & Jerk, and all associated movements including Power Snatch, Power Clean, Power Jerk, Squat variations, and pulling progressions.” Participants will gain base line knowledge about the programming of training and technical rules.” The course was exactly as described, and had hands on and theoretical sections as well. The exam at the end was not too difficult to pass, but definitely not an easy one if you don’t have prior experience in any of the movements. The hands on section showed a lot of class attendants how much mobility work and strength they need to gain before even attempting to teach or perform any of these lifts.
I started learning about the Olympic lifts in 2012 by doing them regularly and for the next two years gained confidence in them. By November 2014 I attended the base certification of USAW-L1 and it was eye opening to how expansive the world of weight lifting clubs is.
After receiving the certification for one year I started to work at Lifetime Athletic where I have many strong and amazing co-workers! The USAW-L1 gave me a great advantage over some of my coworkers as it makes more clients seek me out, as many of these clients wanted to specifically learn weightlifting.
Weightlifting is an Olympic sport vs body building, power-lifting, Crossfit, and so on. The reason weightlifting is an Olympic sport is because it is very technical and requires more than just brute strength; it needs mobility, dedication, proper planning, and training day in day out. Having a USAW-L1 helps me develop a base of mastery and distinction as a coach, and especially teaching the lifts. To become a better coach and stand out I’d recommend the course and materials in USAW-L1 as a great tool! It’s never too late to start coaching the three lifting movements and their derivatives because they help with all sports to improve performance and fitness.
Did you a comment about Olympic weightlifting? Are you planning on watching the competition in Rio? Our team of bloggers would like to know your thoughts! Stay tuned as we prepare for another exciting series this fall to be announced on Labor Day!
Amer Nahhas CSCS, NSCA-CPT, USAW-L1
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