Science for practice

Preliminary Assessment of Weightlifters' Promise from Competition Data

P. A. Poletaev, USSR State Sports Committee

English summary of Tyazhelaya Atletika. Ezhegodnik 1986 (Moscow: Fizkultura i Sport, 1986), pp. 17–22: the text is paraphrased, not translated; data tables are given in full with English labels.

Judging an athlete's promise from a survey of competitive performance (SCP) is the main task of the preliminary stage in selecting reserves for the national team. The problem has been touched on by A. S. Medvedev, R. A. Roman, A. V. Chernyak, D. Gyurkov and others. At a major competition most pedagogical, biomedical and psychological methods, above all instrumental and contact ones, cannot be used, since they interfere with the performance. An SCP can therefore give only a provisional verdict, identifying the athletes who should go on to in-depth comprehensive examinations (ICE) at training camps or in laboratories.

The article describes a method of preliminary selection tested on the participants of the 1st All-Union Youth Sports Games, held in Minsk on 17–21 July 1985. Its aims were to find selection criteria available from an SCP, to build a system of pedagogical ratings for them, and to combine the ratings into an overall assessment. From 174 competitors, 50 were chosen on the advice of leading coaches. Observation of their performances was supplemented by questionnaires, interviews, the literature, the judges' records, statistical processing and video recordings.

Physical development

Three indicators of physical development bear directly on results and are available in an SCP: age, height and body weight, all routinely entered in the judges' records. As norms we used Chernyak's data (1978), which sort lifters of each class into low, medium and tall. Comparison with the averages for young lifters (L. S. Dvorkin, 1982) and with our own findings showed that boys of 16–18 in the light classes, especially 48–56 kg, were taller than the norm, while in heavier classes they matched it. To find the class in which a lifter of a given height can do best, we used the optimal height limits proposed by A. Akrabov, which correspond to today's strongest lifters; height outside the optimum is known to hinder high results.

Growth normally stops at 18–19 (A. P. Laptev, A. A. Minkh, 1979). Of those examined, 27 were 18, 15 were 17, 5 were 16, 2 were 15 and 1 was 14, so development was incomplete and height and weight did not yet meet the requirements for highly qualified lifters. As they mature they will move up to heavier classes, above all those far taller than the optimum for their class; these athletes should not cut weight before competitions, which holds back progress. A large weight gain does not always help either, and the move must come at the right time: among lifters of 52–60 kg no correlation was found between weight gain and better results.

Height was first described as very tall (VT), tall (T), medium (M) or low (L), then converted into a two-valued scheme: positive (+) for medium or tall for the class, negative (–) for low or very tall. Younger athletes are normally preferred, yet the share of older ones rose among those chosen: boys of 17–18 were 77% of all participants but 84% of those examined, because performance level was considered before age or anthropometry.

Level and dynamics of performance

Norms suited to judging promise, allowing for age, weight, height and years of training, have still not been set. Qualification categories are too uninformative, useful only at the first stage, and placing is not revealing because it ignores many factors. Results in different classes can be compared only after conversion into equivalent values, for which M. V. Starodubtsev's table (1981) is used successfully. In these units the winners in the 48–60 kg classes and at 90 kg were at equal levels, those from 67.5 to 82.5 kg higher and the heavyweights lower.

Comparable ratings can serve to develop selection norms, provided age and years of training are considered, since together they show the dynamics of results and allow forecasting. As norms we used group-average comparable ratings from the long-term progress of highly qualified lifters, including model profiles of USSR and world record-holders. A lifter rated positive if his results matched the model values, neutral if they were below the model but not below average, and negative if below average.

Effectiveness and reliability

Comparing the result at a competition with the athlete's best shows how effective the performance was. At Minsk the results on average equalled earlier ones. There were three groups: those who exceeded their best (+), repeated it (=) or fell short (–). According to Medvedev, outstanding lifters fall into the first group (82%) or the second (18%). Among the Games' participants 22.4% were in the first, 10.3% in the second and 67.3% in the third, so most did not show their potential. Among prizewinners 36.7% and 23.3% were in the first two groups and 12 (40%) in the third, since leaders are less affected by a competition's rank. Of the 50 chosen, 19 (38%) were in the first group, 9 (18%) in the second and 22 (44%) in the third, almost as well as the prizewinners. A lifter who does not improve over a series of competitions has low effectiveness, and there can be no question of promise.

Reliability, also closely tied to psychology, is measured by the percentage of attempts realised (PAR), which Starodubtsev, Medvedev and Yu. A. Sandalov (1980) single out, stressing the first attempt. Reliability was rated positive if a lifter made more than 50% of his attempts (4 to 6), average if at 50% the first attempts succeeded or failed only through obvious overestimation of the declared weight (tactical errors), and negative otherwise. Weight cutting also lowers it. Because PAR depends on the declared weights, which the coach often decides, his mistakes affect it, so we adjusted the criterion accordingly.

Physical and technical preparedness

Physical preparedness is judged from height, weight and results in individual exercises. In the strongest lifters the snatch is 75–82% of the clean and jerk (77.5% on average), a ratio indicating whether speed-strength (snatch) and strength (clean and jerk) qualities are proportionately developed (I. N. Abramovsky, 1968, 1972) and, roughly, technical preparedness (Chernyak, 1978). It has shifted towards the snatch: 70.8% in 1924, 75% in 1936, later 77.5%, and much higher in some world record-holders; Yu. Zakharevich (100 kg) has 83.3%. Since boys' speed-strength qualities usually outdo strength, we accepted 75–84% for young lifters. Nine lifters (18%) fell outside it, and their physical and technical preparedness was rated negative. An SCP cannot characterise fitness fully; general and special fitness can be tested during an ICE, though athletes' training results can be obtained by questioning.

Technical preparedness is also tied to reliability. PAR averaged 66%, only four of six attempts, and was far higher in the snatch (78%) than in the clean and jerk (55%), where lifters made many errors, especially in the jerk from the chest. Expert scoring, with a coefficient of concordance, could make the rating more objective.

Overall assessment

The analysis produced six criteria: (1) height and weight with allowance for age; (2) level and dynamics of performance; (3) effectiveness; (4) reliability; (5) physical preparedness; (6) technical preparedness. An overall positive rating required no negative ratings, except that a lifter with only an average rating on criterion 2 did not qualify. An overall negative rating followed a negative on level and dynamics or a predominance of negatives; the rest were rated average, meaning repeated examinations (SCP and ICE). For the Games' participants, 12 lifters received a positive preliminary rating, 28 a neutral one and 10 a negative one. Examples are in the table.

These variants are certainly not the only possible ones. Research must still establish their effectiveness, the reliability and predictive value of the criteria and of the overall rating, the possibility of further criteria and the weight of each criterion, to reach a weighted rating. The method should be applied to as many SCPs as possible, and its preliminary ratings refined in later ICEs by a complex of pedagogical, biomedical and psychological methods.

Table. Examples of overall assessment of promise for 52 kg lifters, participants of the 1st All-Union Youth Sports Games, chosen by the screening committee

* Ratio of the snatch to the clean and jerk. Ratings: + positive, = average, – negative. Surnames are given as abbreviated in the source.