WHY COLLEGE ATHLETES SHOULDN’T USE OLYMPIC LIFTS
First, Olympic lifts can be a great way to develop power. This isn’t a knock on the lifts as a group of exercises. They’re a tool with a time and a place. That time and place should not be the college weight room as the main way to train power for a sport.
Year after year I see high school athletes who’ve built solid weight-room competence move on to college. Their summer programs often include hang cleans, snatches, power cleans, and 6 AM lifts. A part of me feels conflicted, because coaching Olympic lifts properly requires supervision, and without it the lifts can take time away from sport-specific training.
When these athletes head to college and use Olympic lifts as their primary power work, nine times out of ten they return weaker or slower. I don’t claim the lifts alone cause this, but it’s a pattern I’ve observed for years.
Here’s why I believe these lifts shouldn’t be a core part of a college athlete’s program and can actually harm performance.
1. Competing Demands
Olympic lifts are highly technical. College athletes are often at or near their sport’s peak performance, so the demand for skill in their sport already takes up a lot of training time—and rightfully so. They aren’t Olympic weight lifters; they’re team sport athletes who should be treated as such. Mastering the Olympic lifts requires years of focused practice. Spending that time on technical lifts can steal motor-learning time and energy from their sport. There’s a limit to how much skill can be learned at once, and choosing a highly technical lift during college years can undermine progress in their sport.
2. They Won’t Be Good Enough For It To Be Effective
Olympic lifts effectively develop powerful triple extension, but peak power tends to appear around 80% of max in the lift. For most college athletes with little experience, hitting that level reliably can take years of practice. Ideally, beginners would start earlier, not at 18 with a busy college schedule. I’d rather use an exercise with a shorter learning curve, like the Trap Bar Jump, which can yield comparable peak power quickly. This lets athletes build strength, power, and speed while spending more time on their sport. Over four years, some would argue you can teach the lifts well enough to gain their benefits, but in my experience many coaches push max loads and key-performance indicators early, which isn’t ideal. Some coaches do a good job with responsible implementation, but teaching the lifts over four years still consumes valuable time and energy.
I’d recommend these instead:
– Trap Bar Jumps
– Trap Bar High Pulls
– Trap Bar Speed Pulls
– Sumo Speed Pulls
– Band-Resisted Speed Pulls
– Dynamic Effort Box Squats
3. Power Is Plane Specific
Team sports rarely use the same plane of motion as Olympic lifts. To transfer power to sport, it’s better to train in the same or similar planes and joint angles you’ll see in competition. Sprints, jumps, and throws are often more transferable than the lifts themselves. Examples that train speed and power with good sport transfer:
– 10-yard Sprints
– Max Velocity Sprints
– Partner Chase Drills
– Rotational Med Ball Toss
– Skater Variations
– Broad Jump Variations
– Overhead Med Ball Throws
– Box Jumps
4. Other Variations & Methods
There are powerful, practical options beyond Olympic lifts. Accommodating resistance with bands and chains can help you accelerate through a full range of motion, training power at all joint angles. Bands also add a unique stimulus by emphasizing the eccentric portion and the stretch-shortening cycle. Contrast training is another effective approach: pair a heavy lift like a squat or deadlift with an explosive movement such as a sprint, jump, or throw right afterward to peak speed and power. The heavy lift activates higher-threshold motor units that transfer to explosive movements. For example, a contrast set might pair a back squat with a box jump, or a banded Bulgarian split squat with a half-kneeling sprint.
About the author
Ricky Kompf runs Kompf Training Systems in Syracuse, New York. His facility offers semi-private training with individualized programming for predominantly high school and college athletes. You can find Ricky on Instagram.
