Donny Shankle weightlifting seminar

     Let's start with a list of Donny's coaches he's had in his career: Zygmunt Smalcerz, Ivan Abadjiev, Mike Burgener, and Glenn Pendlay.  It makes you realize very quickly that Donny is a WEALTH of info and experience.  (And his stories were awesome.)

     One of the most important things I took away from the seminar:  THE DARK AGES- This is where time can pass without any PR's off the floor and it can last a LONG time sometimes, but it is building your strength still and with consistency you will break through.  He discusses being stuck at 170 kilos on his C&J for (I thought he said) years!!!!  And then he broke through and picked up 10-15 kilos in the coming months!  It makes me see that misses, that plateaus, are all part of the building process and they are not spinning your wheels but are adding to your ultimate progress.

     He had 12 keys:

1. Vertical strong back-He called this "the golden rule".  Everything seemed to come back to this.

2. Hips low-this he tied deeply into mobility

3. Use your hips (violently) to move the bar.  Bar contact was VERY important to him.

4. Move your feet quickly

5. Eyes forward (helps tighten up back) "And there's nothing down there that's going to help you"

6. Bar close to body

7. Relax-do not fight the bar

8. Fast under

9. Be aggressive-key to everything else 

10. Stay off your toes-or bar is controlling you

11. Gear.  When he asked Coach Abadjiev, "Uncle, what about wraps and sleeves and all that gear people wear?".  His reply, "Donny....if it make you lift more...use"

12. Warmup (peaks and valleys was a cool lower back warmup he did that is like an inchworm push up and then a back extension stretch), aside from that he did a pretty standard warmup

SNATCH positions plus (cues)

From hip-Bar stays on hip as knees bend, chest up and shldrs back just behind the bar.  Most people drop the chest as soon as the knees bend, don't (coordination & speed)

Above knee-keep knees bent as you take a bow, keep knees bent as u come back up, slide & drag (power).  He talks a lot about the slide and drag.  He really wants to hear the bar slide and drag on your thighs as it moves to the pocket.

Below knee-trigger of hamstring tension at midpatella causes hips to drop (center of gravity)

Floor- begin how you intend to finish.  This was good because he said that your set up position should look like your finish position except your arms are overhead with a bar in it.  Line up youbar over 1st shoe eyelet.  (All rise)

JERK

5 points of bar contact (throat clavicles shoulders)

Control dip & not forward, wt back

coordinating bar oscillaton is key on this

Think back knee down and that will cue you to really drop under.  Too many people keep the back knee too straight.
He did agree that the back foot should make contact 1st but said he tries not to cue that.

Feet should land about 3 steps of spacing apart.  Chalk the floor and see where you land

CLEAN

Front squat- 1st make sure you have a good front squat

from the Hip-bar contact is high on thighs with a knee bend wherever the bar falls when you are holding at the hip

from above knee-keep the knee bend and take a bow, slide and drag again
from below knee-hips drop

from Floor-pull in to shins, back tight, patient just like snatch, again beginning how you intend to end

SUBORDINATE exercises.

Variation on the lifts-powers, hangs (these get the back strong), blocks (only after mastering hang-these work power-no point in block work if you haven't mastered positions), no hook no feet (works speed), muscle (keeps bar close), On the minute work x 20 min (works consistency), pushpress (trains the dip-this was interesting to me because he made us see the multi rep pushpress as an exercise done exclusively to get better at receiving a heavy bar and re-loading in a perfect dip for the jerk ), power jerk (trains the drive because you better drive the shit out of the bar if you aren't splitting), negatives and breaking or pausing on the way off the floor (creates a stronger back)

Posterior chain-GHD hip extensions, back extensions, glute ham raises, etc....rows, chins

Additional-plyometrics, complexes, things that you like to do to make it fun

PRINCIPLES

Always train speed, make pr's, make lifts.  These were his big 3.  He wants PR's at EVERY session to keep you motivated.  If you aren't PR'ing your snatch, then PR your hang triple, PR your front squat double, etc...find something to succeed at every session.

Train footwork 1 day a week.  This would be considered a light day.  These days were still Oly lifting but the weights were light enough that you focused on your footwork.

If u can get better w singles then just do singles.  Only train other schemes (doubles triples) to improve the single.  He said that if you are improving and making lifts hitting heavy ass singles then don't mess with it.  Only change when the single isn't being made. 

Training template on his blog-he passed these out and they were pretty cool

Monthly need a minimum weight that u know u can always hit.  This was a handout also that took into account the minimum snatch, C&J, and front squat you were hitting in sessions compared to your PR's that month.  He wanted you to be within 5 kilos with your minimum and PR's to know you were ready for a competition.

Weekly u r pushing maximum weights.  Period.

Vertical jump and grip tell recovery.  This was interesting and came from his European coaches to know if you needed more recovery.  They would log your vertical jump and if it started to go to shit you needed an extra recovery day.  He also said that Uncle Ivan could tell just by asking you to squeeze his hand each day as hard as you could. 

Competition plan-squats, hangs, blocks, floor.  You want to compete, then do things in this order/progression and don't move on till you have it right.  He talked about keeping one of his lifters at the hang for a year one time.....

He trains 3 weeks hard and then has a deload week.

Adaptation trumps everything.  He went back to the video screen over and over to show beautiful lifts and lifts that were technically very inefficient that people were making because they've adapted to that style of lifting.

He had a continuum that on one end was beautifully efficient and on the other end was inefficient.  If you are going to lift inefficient you better be damn strong.

COMMANDS-virtues.  This piece was all about the mindset of a champion weightlifter.  Which is probably why it didn't 100% resonate with me and my mind of a kitten.

1. Make ready-acceptance.  This is that place you address the bar with your head down and are loose.

2. Set-fearlessness.  This is when you get tight and eyes are up, ready to lift. 

3. Break-patient (bar in hips).  This is the point that you are in the pocket.

4. Finish-pride.  And this is the way you finish the lift.

Favorite quote: "Some coaches out there might disagree with some of what I say....but FUCK them!  I'm out here competing while there coaching, they're talking while I'm doing".

There was soooo much more but these are the things that stood out to me.  He wanted everyone to PR and I was bummed because he also won't let you miss much at all before he pulls the plug on you.  I snatched 165 then missed 170 but knew I could get it (my PR is 178) and he waled over and said plainly, "Clean and Jerk".  I'm thinking, "I only missed it once....give me another shot here".  But I listened and moved on.....