Short Answer? These lifters are integrated. They know how to Snatch, Clean & Jerk, Squat, and Pull. All these movement patterns are a knowing for them.
Well explained, less cocky, less nerdy, more humane answer? Read on ...
Chinese weightlifters' lifting is poetry in motion.
This is a thought that has stayed with me for years, ever since I started paying attention to weightlifters from China. And wondering why for the heck of it, I could not move as they do.
No, I am not from China nor I am Chinese. But tech has brought the world closer than most people realize (thank you Hookgrip, All Things Gym, and others). It has given us the ability to see, to question popular "beliefs" and "rules" and in the process gain a deeper understanding.
Unfortunately, it seems like I am the only person who has the unquenchable thirst to demystify the magic that is Chinese way of Olympic weightlifting.
(Note that I am not stressing too much on the numbers that these guys are lifting as much as the way they do it. Or as most of you would say, their "technique".)
Hint: It is not about technique or cues.
Like all seekers usually do, I first went for the low hanging fruits first. I dedicated every living moment of my days to devouring all the latest and greatest available "information" on this topic. Which meant ...
Read every single forum on this topic on what other folks have thought and learned ...
Religiously followed all websites on this topic. Read every single post ...
Watched countless "How to" videos ...
Read blog post and articles by folks who went as far as visited China and attended "seminars" and "teaching events" ...
I then watched how these guys were moving.
I thought, after all, they have lived and breathed Chinese air, ate what the athletes ate, coached by the same folks who shout badass cues to athletes when they lift the world.
And guess what, even they were not moving like the Chinese do!
Not. One. Bit! No semblance whatsoever!
So I decided to shut the world on myself.
After spending years isolating myself from the prevalent dogma on fitness, weightlifting and "functional training" ...
After spending years learning the truth about what harm following "cues" and "technique" has done to my innate ability to lift world records ...
After realizing what damage ignorance has done to my body and its hidden powers of being able to move with magic ...
After spending countless hours unlearning every single cue known to the lifting world today ...
I started to see things how they really are.
All these people were looking at what these lifters were doing.
All these self-touted coaches cared about was form and how things looked.
And thought to themselves "Hey, If I did those things, ...
"If I followed the cues of 'keeping the bar close', 'moving it fast', 'catching low' and 'staying balanced' ...
The universe will magically bless me with the ability to create the majestic poetry with weights that the likes of Lu Xiaojun or Liao Hui routinely do.
They thought if they or their athletes trained twice a day, got a massage every day, did hypertrophy work for 8-10 reps after their training sessions ...
Practiced the "technique" that the seminars and books were teaching them, they will look and move like the Chinese weightlifting gods.
But alas they missed it ...
What did they miss?
No one bothered to learn what is causing them to not be able to move like the Chinese weightlifters.
No one bothered to care about what these magicians of the barbell know.
No one cared to learn how it should feel doing a perfect snatch. It matters not if it is a 150kg snatch or an empty bar snatch.
No one bothered to learn why the Chinese lift off of their ball of the foot.
(They probably laughed it off, how the heck can you balance on the balls of the foot with 200 kg?)
No one bothered to learn what connected the dots. What made it whole.
It is all about the knowing folks.
They know something that you do not. Yet.
Even if you asked these guys about what they know and if they could tell you that ...
It will not help you. The sort of knowing I am talking about is individual in nature.
A knowing that can only surface when you stop relying on "cues" or "technique"
When you finally see the forest for the trees.
Your real talent.
(The talent you've been taught to ignore)
Update: this article now has a part 2 (sort of).