The Colombian Program
by Risto Sports on Sep.04, 2010, under Uncategorized
In the last 15 – 20 years Colombia has become to be a very powerful and strong country in weightlifting. Winning a Gold medal in Sydney and Silver in Beijing in addition to have world medalists (Junior, Senior)and top ten finishers in any major competition.
How a country with so many problems due to drug traficking, a never ending guerrilla problem and taking hostages has become a profitable industry could have done it. In spite of all these problems the Olympic movement has grown a lot to a point it became a cultural thing. When visiting Colombia in March of this year for the south American games the taxi driver of the cab my family and I took told us that he was going home early because he was going to take his children to the weightlifting competition that afternoon and right after they were going to watch wrestling.
Our cab driver knew the names of most lifters from Colombia and their bios. The next days his schedule was to take his children to Fencing and Beach volley.
Now how can Colombian Weightlifting achieve this recognition from its people (in the USA common people as we know assume weightlifting is powerlifting). The government and it sports ministry has a lot to do with it. In March Colombia invested $ 140,000,000.00 (US Dollars) to benefit Olympic sports and due to its success a lot of it was directed to weightlifting. The central government and local governments along with municipalities have different systems of taxation to get the money i.e. in Bogota (capital of the country)every telephone line (land line or cellular) pays a tax to benefit sports.
They have hired Bulgarian coaches, Cuban coaches and also have a growing number of coaches who study 5 years to get a degree in Sports and/or weightlifting.
Weightlifting is coached in many public schools where kids train twice a day, if the do well they go to a local weightlifting school which is very well organized. They do get incetives: when they complete two weeks of training they are given a snack, after 1 or 2 months a little stipend to pay for their transportation, when they are ready to compete uniforms, shoes, etc. Keep in mind a lot of these athletes come from extreme poverty.
An under 15 year old lifter that does well and has competed internationally starts to get a monthly stipend of about $ 300.00 (US dollars) and it increases when the lifter improves. The national senior team is an all professional one. Its members make a living out of weightlifting.
They train 11 times a week and usually their loading is high.
Their system follows the following model (by age group):
Age 11-13 Basic instruction Gymnastics, track and field ,etc
Age 13-16 Instruction-Sports schools
Age 17-20 Construction I Junior Competitions
Age 21-22 Construction II National medals
Advance training South American, central American, Pan American
National team competition and medals.
Elite Olympic, world medals. *****
There has been cases where a junior lifter has achieve the Elite level i.e. leydi Soliz.
Planning and loading management;
Their macrocycle is divided in 3 periods:
1.- General preparation 4/6/10 reps
2.- Special preparation 2 x 2, 2 x 3 reps
3.- Competitive preparation 2 x 1 reps
10 reps -30kgs of best lift, 6 reps -25 kgs of best lift, 4 reps -20kgs of best lift, 2×3 – 15 kgs of best lift, 2 x 2 – 10 kgs of best lift, 2 x 1 best lift
Weekly program
Monday
AM
Clean & Push Jerk
Hang Snatch
Power Jerk behind neck
Front Squat
Snatch Pull
PM
Snatch
Hang clean
Jerk behind neck
Back Squat
Clean Pull
TUESDAY
AM
Power snatch
C & J
Push jerk behind neck
Front squat
Snatch Pull
PM
Snatch
Power Clean
Jerk behind neck
Back squat
Clean Pull
WEDNESDAY
Clean & Push jerk
Snatch
Push jerk behind neck
Front squat
Snatch pull
PM
C & J
Hang Snatch
Jerk Behind neck
Back Squat
Hang clean pull
THURSDAY
AM
Clean & push jerk
Hang power snatch
Jerk behind neck
Front squat
Snatch Pull
PM
C & J
Hang Snatch + Pull
Push Jerk
Back Squat
Clean Pull
FRIDAY
Power Jerk & Push Jerk
Hang Power Snatch
Jerk behind neck
Front squat
Snatch Pull
PM Max-out
Snatch
C & J
Push Jerk behind neck
Front squat
Clean Pull
SATURDAY
AM
Jerk from rack
Hang Snatch
Clean & Push Jerk
Back squat
Clean Pull
PM and Sunday rest
Now this is product of research, many interviews, translation of documents.
Ivan Rojas
September 7th, 2010 on 11:11 am
Hey Ivan,
I have a few questions about the program.
1) What is the difference between a push jerk and power jerk?
2) given the macrocycles you described, does it mean that 4/6/10 during the general phase each week for every movement? For example, looking at the first Monday workout, do they do 4 cleans+4push jerks, then 6 cleans+6 push jerks, 10 cleans +10 push jerks? Or is it 4 reps on week 1, 6 reps on week 2, 10 on week 3? Seems like a lot of volume to do a set of 10 cleans or a set of 10 hang snatches…
Thank you in advance.
November 3rd, 2012 on 12:44 am
Ooohhh man… there’s SO MUCH BULLSHIT in all this; I’m not attacking you, Mr. Rojas; whom I’m attacking is the poor, disorganized, lying, amoral people who told you, Mr. Rojas, about this supposed colombian methodology for the children and the youngsters. Truth is THERE IS NO METHODOLOGY OR ORGANIZATION AT ALL. There are disputes between coaches and leagues, INDERs don’t have no structuration when it comes to “ages groups”, there are no methodologists (and if they do, they are completely useless), no technical comitees, no “well directed training at schools”, no “incentives”. If the boys get something, is because their own coach takes out money from his own wallet. Yes, almost all of them (the young lifters) come from poverty. In some leagues, and under certain parameters (e.g. Bogotá’s League) they’re given food and money for transports. But in some others, they are handed with ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Many of the coaches are just lifters that retired, and they don’t have graduate careers in sports, so they don’t know shit about teaching, learning, motor skills, sensitive periods, physiology, nor anything. They don’t have any “Basic Instruction”; they’re just handed a broom stick, and then a bar, and then loads… tons of loads, tons of heavy c&j’s and snatches, and competition, and hard preparation. There’s no multilateral preparation, there’s no “Construction”, there’s just “Ok… you seem to have talent in this. So you say you are 10?Then go grab a bar. Train. Compete”. And that’s why there are lost talents, and that’s why we just have Salazar and Figueroa as olympians, but many junior and subjunior world champions. There is no integration between leagues. MONEY IS BEING STOLEN by dirty directives, presidents and politicians in many state/government organizations. There’s so much envy, idiocy, and CORRUPTION. There are so many uneducated coaches, hired by the leagues, because ignorance has deep roots in here (they think that a good retired athlete means a good coach -absolutely no professional studies in the field) and there’s so much “rosca” (favors being paid by politicians or directives to certain persons: corruption). There is no planing. Bulgarians or Colombians… that doesn’t matter anymore. There’s the talent, the future champions, but the leaders are lacking order, wisdom, intelligence, education, and INTEGRATION.
November 3rd, 2012 on 12:46 am
Ok, I missed something: Salazar and Figueroa are not the only olympians in weightlifing. I forgot to mention Mosquera and Urrutia.