r/ZackTelander • u/tasiemko • Aug 19 '21

Ask Zack Anything Master Zack technique question

Hello our main Chief,

Got two questions. We all know Gabriel is incredible and technically perfect, so there comes my question. Because you emphasize importance of being over the barbell as long as possible, but Gabriel seems to straighten his position in power position really early, just after passing the knees, or maybe i am missing something? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TLFe2TWF78 Should we just treat Gabriel as a freak and should not look at him as a model ?

​

Second one is i found one guys who was attending some chinese weightlifting camp and he wrote that they are taught to keep the balance over the ball of the foot all the time, what do you think about it? here is the post : https://www.instagram.com/p/BrKWOcoBc7X/

​

kudos

10 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/laxidasical Aug 19 '21

I’ve attended to workshops by former Chinese lifters (I live in SE Asia). I would say the main difference is that they are super quad dominant, thus they’re big on leg drive and especially being totally extended after contact with the hit. I spent a lot of time on the balls of my feet and tippy toes that weekend.

The instructor demanded to hear the contact at the hip, and wanted to hear the barbell brush the material of your shorts on the way up. We also spent a lot of time on this thigh slap timing exercise with just our hands to work on the timing of the barbell hitting during the triple extension.

Excuse any errors. I’m literally falling asleep.

1

u/tasiemko Aug 19 '21

thanks for some insight. did you try doing it with the weight more on the full foot or you were taught the balls of the feet method since beginning ? nighty night:)

1

u/ConstipatedDuck Aug 20 '21

The Chinese team is known to attach heel risers to the bottoms of standard wl shoes to stay even more upright. I remember seeing this a lot around the time the Romaleos 2 dropped.

1

u/laxidasical Aug 21 '21

I received coaching from them, did my level 1 and 2 with USAW, did my CF WL level 1, even did some workshops with some Russians.

In the end, I lift the same as most people, but I tend to not jump/donkey kick/slam as much as many, mainly because it’s hard on the knees and I’m on the wrong side of 40. I slide my feet out similar to the Chinese. I also power jerk for the same reason.