Tall/unbalanced athletes

[aileenthemachine]

Hi Coach Bob,

Thanks for having me on the forum. Question about working with athletes of other sports and about tall athetes, in terms of strength and conditioning... What kind of exercises would you implement when trying to work with atheltes of unbalanced sports such as tennis and baseball/softball? Also, I've heard that when working with very tall athletes, such as NBA players, to break up the lifts - like doing the high pull separate from getting under the bar. Does that produce the same effect as doing the full lift? How often would you have these athletes doing the lifts?

[bobtakano]

Breaking the lifts up into segments is fine for learning, but as soon as technique is mastered, the full lifts (snatch, power snatch, clean, power clean) should be incorporated to make the training more efficient timewise.
For the bilaterally asymmetrical, the lifts need to be taught so that technique is as close to optimal as possible. Some exercises to increase range of motion in the off side or the on side may be necessary before proper technique can be learned. Hope this helps.