Secrets of Chinese weightlifters

Theresalwaysone wrote: »

Impressive.

These Chinese buckos, who are admittedly a great bunch of lads, just show that consistency is key imo.

But are all these Chinese lifters not the product of systematically picking out the genetically gifted? I mean how many million Chinese people have lifted throughout their childhood to the best of their ability and then told to fcuk off because they don't belong to a small pool of superior genes.

JJayoo wrote: »

But are all these Chinese lifters not the product of systematically picking out the genetically gifted? I mean how many million Chinese people have lifted throughout their childhood to the best of their ability and then told to fcuk off because they don't belong to a small pool of superior genes.

I don't think it's quite to the extent you're assuming but they do have a sports school model afaik. But yeah genetics, drugs and most importantly being a full-time athlete play a part. They can train with that level of intensity and frequency because of lots of factors that don't apply to your average lifter. Polish, Russian, Iranian, French, German and any other athletes in the A group are just as consistent as the Chinese though. And they're all essentially professional athletes.

As a weightlifter when I first read that post my immediate thought was that the Chinese were doing pretty much the same thing as every other country. Lots of snatches, lots of cleans, lots of jerks, squats and pulls. Same as everyone else. Nothing revolutionary imo.

I take all these secrets with a pinch of salt. I imagine a lot gets lost in translation.

He has nice pictures though.

Wait til you see the latest Kazakh training system.

Theresalwaysone wrote: »

I do like the idea of some chinese messer being plucked from obscurity and having admantium bonded to his skeleton because he showed a propensity for lifting buckets of water though.

Well it's good that you can entertain yourself with random racism, cus all those china men gotta get water to the paddy fields.

But in reality weightlifting like gymnastics is taught from a very young age in china, actually gymnastics is usually the first training most future weight lifters will get and it's explosive nature is a good marker. So no coaches don't go out looking for messers as they have literally hundreds of thousands of children from about 10 years up competing for a few places. Hard work and consistency is the norm not the exception.

Hanley wrote: »

Truth. So unfair considering all the other countries are drug free.

To be fair, I would expect most if not all of the MDUSA athletes are drug free.

Scuba Ste wrote: »

I don't think it's quite to the extent you're assuming but they do have a sports school model afaik. But yeah genetics, drugs and most importantly being a full-time athlete play a part. They can train with that level of intensity and frequency because of lots of factors that don't apply to your average lifter. Polish, Russian, Iranian, French, German and any other athletes in the A group are just as consistent as the Chinese though. And they're all essentially professional athletes.

I agree with what your saying, it's just I don't think any country can even come close to getting to "survey" such a massive amount of young kids for natural ability. But obviously there are all the other factors, even something as unquantifiable as luck would play apart when you consider how a minor injury could completely change a lifters career.

amazingemmet wrote: »

Every person you see stepping on stage at a senior international competion is more then likely on PEDs. Everyone has access to the same drugs and masking agents so its pretty much a level field.

If one person is tested ramdomly tested frequently and another isnt I dont agree that that is a level playing field however Im aware theyre all on for sure.

amazingemmet wrote: »

I can probably list ~300 compounds that would aid performance in weight lifting that are currently untestable for.

That said what has MDUSA done on an international level? So maybe they are clean

Discounting Pan Ams, nothing. Pendlay doesn't strike me as pro drug use in anything I've read or seen, and the likes of John North talked on numerous occassions about being subjected to consistent testing.

Now, you're generally not talking about the most elite athletes entering the sport there and they seem to be taking it up in their late teens but there does seem to be a different drug use culture (or lack thereof) in US weightlifting versus Russia / China / Iran / the rest. Mendes was putting up interesting numbers in training that he couldn't replicate in competition and then, boom!, gets done for using.

The point is, let's not pretend the Chinese are some wonderful hard working drug free athletes. Using is a pre requisite, a base requirement. Doesn't make their work ethic any less impressive however. And you can rest assured that national sporting bodies in Russia / Iran / China / other successful weightlifting countries are making it as easy as possible for their promising athletes to use in training for extended periods.

Theresalwaysone wrote: »

No one claimed they were drug free athletes?

The dude in the thread listed seemed to imply they were imo.

amazingemmet wrote: »

He has stated on reddit that he's not anti anything other then cheating and if PEDs were allowed he'd be loading the syringe 2 mins after the announcement.

Yeah, well, anti cheating (and meaning it!) is anti drug use in professional sport.

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Fair point. And maybe the MDUSA lads and US weightlifters in general are on as much as they can get away with and it really just is a talent / training / coaching / entry age gap and drugs has absolutely nothing to do with the difference.

I'm pretty sure the lifters in the States are clean. The testing program in the US makes it very hard for them to use anything. The numbers lifted in the recent nationals would support this.