quoted from Bulgarian coach Spassov
Strength in Sports
The main kinds of strength are: maximal strength, explosive strength, velocity (or speed strength), and strength for endurance. It's very difficult to have examples from different sports when normally one sport needs more than one kind of strength. We know which car is the most powerful, what ship is the most powerful, and what muscles are more powerful. But which athlete is the most powerful? Coaches have debated who is the most powerful, the fastest, etcetera, for a long time. Some of the top contenders are boxers, wrestlers, judo or karate athletes, and weightlifters.
However, I believe the most powerful athletes are the shot putters. Why? Let's look at measurements. The universal measurement of athletic power tends to be in horsepower. The last world record in shot put was 23 meters - a little more than 9 horsepower. In weightlifting, the most powerful effort is a world record in snatch (not in clean and jerk). This power is not pure strength. Power is a mix of strength and velocity. So, the closest world record in snatch is about 6.6 horsepower - quite a bit less than the shot put. From this point, we can begin to understand the mix of different kinds of strength.
This article focuses on the development of maximal strength. I will use as examples weightlifting and weightlifters in Bulgaria or the Soviet Union because that sport is typical of representing that kind of strength. It's very easy to measure maximal strength and other results in weightlifting because you're measuring concrete concepts - the number of kilograms; the hike; movement of the bar; and so on.
The maximal speed of the movement of the bar is during the snatch and during the jerk from the chest. This maximal speed is not more than 2.8 to 3 meters per second. In this case, the effort from the lifter is 165 percent of the weight of the bar. So, if you are lifting 100 kilograms, your efforts are roughly 165 kilograms. It's during the second pull that this is the most powerful effort, from slightly over the knees to the point of jerking the bar from the chest.
The tendency over the last few years, when the results of the lifters improved so much, was not to increase the speed of the movement of the bar, but to increase the speed of dropping the body under the bar. You can hurt somebody when you say "faster from the knees." This is not correct advice. He can drop his body under the bar faster, but to move the bar faster is impossible. The weightlifting world championships show speeds of the bar in the snatch at 2.8 for one athlete and 0.8 for another. But the results are the same - world records. So, speed of the movement of the bar is not important. Dropping the lifter under the bar is another question. So, most of the high-level results in weightlifting depend on the maximal strength of the lifter. For that reason, we will use examples from weightlifting.
Many coaches, especially coaches from other events such as basketball, will ask "why should I make a full squat during my training with weights, when I never make a full squat during the game?" The answer is that in any sport, athletes need to develop a maximal strength level, the optimal level, which is what that kind of sport needs. But, let us say that the basketball player improves their full back squat. With the same body weight, it's absolutely certain that after some time in this kind of work, with mixing of other exercises, they can be in a better position, they can jump higher than before, and so on. But, they say, "half squat is enough for me." The weakest point of this opinion is that they think that full squats are a bigger danger for them, possibly causing injury to the knee joints or some other part of the legs or body. This is not true. In a full squat, the soft muscles of the legs slow the speed of the bar down, and help the joints recover. In the half squat you have to stop for a very short time when the bar is going down - and at the same time, shift the bar in the upward direction. That moment is a very sharp stop, it's like a knife, especially over the knee joints. So the danger of injury during the half squat is much greater than during the full squat.
In 1963, Valeriy Brumel from the Soviet Union held the high jump record at 228 centimeters. This is still a good result, although at that time it was an extraordinary jump. His coach said all jumpers in the world who want to reach high-level results must be able to make a full back squat with twice their body weight. Brumel weighed about 80 kilos, and made a full back squat with 175 kilos. Since they changed the style of the jumping it is not so necessary to have such strong legs. In Bulgaria, we have a female athlete who holds a world record in high jump of 209 centimeters. She is able, at 180 cm tall and 60 kilos body weight, to make a full squat with 100 kilos. This is a good performance. We have three girls taller than 6'6" who are making something around that squat. A girl in our institute high-jumped at 173 as a junior. After two years of training she jumped maximal 170, then stopped, because many coaches said, "she cannot improve more." I started to train her with weights. At 58 kilos of body weight when she was 28 years old (quite old for the sport), she made a full back squat at 120 and jumped at 188. So, she improved by 15 centimeters. I am not a high jump coach, but the girl already possessed technical knowledge in high jump. Only now the power of the leg was much greater and the jumps were higher.