Programming And Coaching For Weightlifting Performance - Shaun Joffe The Progress Theory podcast

Hello and welcome to The Progress Theory where we discuss how to implement scientific principles to optimise human performance. In this episode, we have S&C and weightlifting coach, and University lecturer and researcher, Shaun Joffe.

Shaun is without a doubt one of the most knowledgeable coaches on weightlifting in the country. His research has provided substance and direction to his coaching and programming decisions, and because of this, he has an amazing approach to weightlifting, which he shares in this episode. If you’re a fan of programming to lift heavy barbells fast, this is the episode for you.

In this episode, we discuss:

2:30 - Shaun’s Background and where his passion for weightlifting came from
6:18 - Shaun’s S&C experience
10:54 - How a wide variety of experiences can help develop you as a coach
15:52 - An introduction to weightlifting as a sport
19:44 - Determinants of weightlifting performance
25:17 - Weightlifting programming
32:30 - Weightlifting programme philosophy
37:05 - Technical differences between weightlifters and coaching weightlifting
48:31 - How to get involved with Weightlifting and Woking weightlifting club

Final Thoughts

Thank you Shaun for coming onto The Progress Theory and talking about his research and his ideas on weightlifting performance. What a great episode. It really showed how coaches can use research to guide programming decisions, and how overall philosophy is one of the clearest of any weightlifting coach I’ve ever heard.

I just wanted to provide some final thoughts on key areas which really stood out to me.

Firstly, I enjoyed hearing how Shaun uses clear objectives to influence when he is developing certain qualities in his weightlifting programming. For example, he talks about how max strength is a key determining factor for weightlifting performance, so he wants his lifters to hit certain strength targets before progressing on to focus programming on other qualities. This makes complete sense. Why move onto a new training block with a new focus if you haven’t reached certain targets?

And secondly, I love how he tailor his coaching deliberately to allow the athlete to find the appropriate weightlifting technique for themselves. Yes, there are key positions you want to hit, but how every lifter will achieve them will be different due to varying anthropometric and physical qualities. Forcing a certain technical weightlifting style onto someone could hinder their progression. Guide the athlete, don’t tell them what to do all the time.

Anyways I hope you enjoyed this episode and it gave you plenty of information and ideas on how to improve your weightlifting programming. It would be awesome if you could also leave us a review and share this episode on your insta story to help the show grow. We’ll see you in the next one.

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Explore these Resources or Items Mentioned in the Show

Woking weightlifting club

British weightlifting

School of champions - weightlifting documentary

Education and experience

Shaun’s research

St Mary’s University

Buckinghamshire new university

Mentioned in this episode:

The Science of Hybrid Training

It was originally thought that you could not effectively train for both strength and endurance at the same time because they required different adaptations which were not compatible with each other. It was claimed that ‘an interference effect’, blunted the adaptations for strength if you simultaneously trained for endurance. However, recent developments in sports which require both strength and endurance have really challenged this idea, with hybrid athletes producing impressive performances in both strength and endurance sports together. This had led scientists, coaches, and athletes to rethink what is humanly possible and suggests the interference effect is not as influential as originally thought. But what is a hybrid athlete? What is the ‘interference effect’? And how can we maximize our training to improve at the same time our strength and endurance performance? In this book, Dr Phil Price provides insight into the misconceptions surrounding strength and endurance training by distilling the past 50 years of research and drawing on the conversations he had with great scientists, coaches, and athletes on The Progress Theory podcast. This book is essential reading for hybrid athletes and coaches who are looking to understand the key training variables and their effect on the simultaneous development of strength and endurance performance.

Book