Thread: Question on a product.

Any opinions on Ian King's Guide to the Olympic Lifts Series?

Thanks for any input.

Originally Posted by DOMS

The only negative feedback that I read about it on Amazon was that it was too detailed. Personally, I can live with a flaw like that in a book about oly lifting.

I'm going to purchase it this Thursday.

Thanks again!

it is very detailed but just read what you need to read. Like, the first whole chapter is history of the sport. You know, Artie was holds the American Record in the Clean and Press (before the press was taken out of lifting) for his weight class. He has been an active coach with the USAW or a very long time and really loves the sport so he is all about promoting it. So he believes in history. If you don't want to read it then don't. The next chapter is about physiology and how they work into olympic lifting and power, etc....Most people already know that stuff so you can skim that. then he gets into the lifts, breaks them down into 7 phases! then he talks about training the lifts and how to teach them. But, he goes further then that and explains the Russain method of teaching, the Bulgarian method of teaching, the American method of teaching...etc...showing what is good and bad about each style of coaching the lifts, etc....then he talks training and again goes through the different countries.

He really gets in depth. It is more then a "how to" book. It is really an encyclodpedia. Encyclopedia's are extremely detailed. That was his intension of the book. Everything about the sport, the lifts, learning them, motor learning as it applies to the lifts, physiology as it applies to the lifts, teaching the lifts, organizing the lifts in training, etc...is answered in that book. it is simpley the best book on olympic weightlifitng ever written. And to go a step further I have never seen an article written (since this book has been out) that does not site or reference the book at least once. It is that much a staple.