After school, deep in the basement at RHS, the clangs of students lifting up and throwing down hundreds of pounds against the floor over and over again can be heard by the casual observer. However, those students, the ones that make up Rosemount High School’s Olympic weightlifting club, are doing amazing things, and it’s time to shine a light on their sport and accomplishments.
Olympic weightlifting is a sport focusing on building strength through the lifting of heavy weights. There are two types of lifts: the snatch and the clean and jerk.
The snatch is one swift and fluid motion to move the bar from the floor and push it above your head. The clean and jerk consists of two parts: pulling the bar up to your chest, stabilizing it on your collarbone (clean) and then dropping down and pushing it overhead (jerk). Both lifts must end over the lifter’s head and they must have fully extended, steady arms for it to count. In competitions, each lifter gets three attempts at each of the two lifts.
This oversimplified description doesn’t do justice to how impressive these lifts really are. Powerful and controlled, these lifters are able to put extremely heavy weights (hundreds of pounds for some more experienced lifters) over their heads and make it look easy.
This club not only helps students simply get stronger, it helps train the lifters for many different sports. One of the coaches of this club, Coach Sully (a level two certified coach for USA Weightlifting who has his doctorate in kinesiology) says that the strength, power and explosiveness that Olympic weightlifting trains is similar to that of the explosiveness a swimmer needs to get off the block, a football player needs to tackle, a gymnast need to flip, a basketball player needs to dunk, or a soccer player needs to shoot a goal. Weightlifting is extremely versatile and can potentially help train this explosiveness in the off season of your sport.
Range of motion is also an important skill trained during Olympic lifting practices. Just like explosiveness, many other sports require the full range of motion used in weightlifting. A few more examples include the range of motion a tennis player needs to hit the ball from all sorts of angles, a swimmer needs for their strokes, a figure skater needs for their graceful movements on the ice, and a hurdler in track needs to successfully clear the hurdles.
But, let’s talk more about life as part of the weightlifting club at RHS. Practices are held in the weightroom at Rosemount High School on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:45-4:30 pm and Saturday mornings from 7-8:30. Currently, there are 17 people on the team and while it’s recommended they all compete at meets, it’s not required, and you’re allowed to do what you feel comfortable with.
If you’re still on the fence about joining this club, let me leave you with this: for the brief amount of time I was observing their world, I immediately noticed the supportive nature of their group. The skill levels, as with any sport, are varied. In that room were previous state champions, those on their way to becoming state champions and people learning how to properly hold the bar for the first time. The team and coaches will meet you where you’re at and just want to help you get stronger and build confidence in your strength and ability.
To get more information about this club, feel free to contact Coach Sully at [email protected] with any questions. He’s happy to help!