Tommy Kono Weightlifting Technique Lectures

Here are two lectures / presentations by Olympic weightlifting coach Tommy Kono talking about weightlifting technique from his 60 years of coaching experience.

This is Tommy Kono at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne

The first talk was held 7 March 2009 in Columbus, Ohio.

• Introduction
• Coaching in different countries
• Importance of hip for power production

• pulling speed, difference Olympic weightlifting and power lifting
• Posture

• “Don’t pinch your shoulder blades together.”
• low hip vs high hip starting position

• Back arch
• Bar path
• Hip position
• “You are not trying to lift the barbell up, you are trying to push the whole platform down”
• shoulder / bar relation
• extension

• common errors
• importance of close bar path
• elbow bending
• learning the jerk

• using the bounce
• examples

Here is a short presentation he did at the 2005 Arnold Classics instructing the snatch and emphasizing the importance of staying over the bar.

And finally here is Tommy Kono in action, winning the 1958 World Weightlifting Championships in the middleweight.