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Baseball and the Olympic Lifts

By Zach Dechant, CSCS, USAW, SCCS, Professional Baseball Strengths and Conditioning , 04/04/19, 12:00PM PDT

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The lifts themselves require a great amount of technical work. This is good and bad when it comes to baseball athletes.

One of the most popular questions I get is about using the Olympic lifts with baseball athletes. First off, I came up through my athletic career as well as my early coaching career with the Olympic lifts as a staple.  I even trained as an Olympic lifter for an extended period of time on the Bulgarian, and Russian systems years ago. I loved the Olympic lifts. I have no hate at all for the lifts but I also believe they aren’t always right for my baseball athletes.

The clean, snatch, and its variations are just a tool among many, and not a necessary piece for any athlete.  All lifts in the weight room are general in nature. No lift is absolutely necessary or specific to any team sport. Many people believe the back squat is the king of the lower body and the only way to train.