There are a ton of stories in OLing of guys who decided to really concentrate on squatting, cut everything else way back, put 25-50kg on their squat, only to have their snatch and clean and jerk remain the same or even go down. In fact, Donny did this at one point. He was squatting about 250kg back squat, 230kg front squat, deadlifting about 250kg also, and had a 200kg clean. A bit after he got to California, he decided to really concentrate on strength, squatting and deadlifting, and cut back his practice on the Olympic lifts. He gained a bit of weight even... and got his back squat to 300kg, his front squat to 260kg, and his deadlift to 300kg. And he was still cleaning 200kg.
The point I think athletes should take from this is if over prioritizing the squat results in no progress or even regression for olympic weightlifters what's it going to result in for you as someone training for more general athletics?
http://www.pendlayforum.com/showthread.php?t=32Some more good but more weightlifting specific quotes from that thread:
Greg Everett
There is no controversy about this in the OL world. There are individuals, largely from PL backgrounds, who claim that Olers don't place enough emphasis on strength work, and spend too much time on the competition lifts.
Glenn
And on the subject of SS and Texas Method... Ben, where do you think the Texas Method came from???? Honestly now, Donny Shankle put 20kg on his squat on this program years before you or anyone else had ever heard of it... as did many other OLYMPIC WEIGHTLIFTERS... where do you think the program came from?
Some idiot
The experts pretty much agree that in the USA the lifters are simply not strong enough. Obviously what you are doing is not working... why not take the advice of someone reputable like Rippetoe or Simmons... what have you got to lose? Isn't doing the same old thing and expecting different results the definition of insanity?
Glenn
This was confirmed with the presence of Ivan Abajiev here at California strength. Abajiev came here to coach and to raise the performance of American lifters via his proven coaching ability demonstrated with all the Olympic and World champions he had produced in Bulgaria. Things did not work out quite as planned, and Ivan, who had originally came here expecting to teach American coaches his proven system and have the athletes respond with large increases in performance, found multiple American coaches already employing a system so close to what he was trying to "teach" them that he wondered aloud to at least one individual why he was here.
