Written by Team Juggernaut
Last weekend, Max Aita, Head Coach at JuggernautHQ, took a few top CrossFit and Weightlifting athletes through a training session at JuggernautHQ. Jamie Hagiya, 5th in SoCal in the Open; Jason Carroll, 7th in SoCal in the Open; Andrew Kong, 18th in SoCal in the Open; Vanessa Reyes, 58kg A Session lifter at Nationals and James Townsend, NPGL athlete all came to train with Max.
Several athletes had their own planned programming coming into the training session so Max offered some queuing and corrections as they went through their training programs. With the athletes that had nothing planned for the day Max took them through the paces and watched how their technique unfolded with bigger weights.
Some key points about each lifter
Andrew Kong worked through some Hang Power snatches working up to a 5rm. Andrew made some minor technical errors when lowering the barbell after each rep mainly that he let the bar drift out away from his body too much. In order for him to compensate for the center of mass shifting forward he had to start with his torso more upright and subsequently had a less than ideal explosion phase at the top.
Jamie Hagiya had a light workout planned for the day but ended up working up to what was about 99% of her maximum result in the Snatch. Her technique was getting better and better as she worked up throughout the medium intensity weights so we kept going with it. The main things we did were to adjust her start position so that the barbell started in the proper position. This fixed a lot of other things that were previously happening.
Vanessa Reyes had a planned workout including working up to a maximum double in the snatch. She was planning on hitting 75kg/165lbs and made it up to that with ease. Her situation is a good example of not getting too carried away as a coach and trying to change someones technique in a single training session. The only adjustments that were suggested were to address her rhythm in the receiving and squat under phases of the lift and some suggestions about keeping her hands in contact with the bar the entire time during these phases.
James Townsend worked up and did some strong power snatch + snatch complexes. His power and explosiveness is impressive. The biggest change that James worked on was slowing down the initial phases of the pull from the floor. This was done in order to help him concentrate his power at the right time in the pull. A note is that James wasn’t using a hook grip. In his case it wasn’t causing him much of an issue but in some cases it can hinder the explosion phase of the lifts dramatically.
The important things to remember when coaching someone you haven’t worked with before are to keep the queuing basic and easy to understand, yet still effective. Although a lifter may be making an error that merits a much lengthier explanation and set of corrections it can be detrimental to try and change these things with lifters that as a coach you have not worked with enough before.
Are you interested in learning how to improve your lifts from Max? Contact us at [email protected]
JuggernautHQ
28062 Forbes Rd
Laguna Niguel, CA 92677
