I was about to disagree when I saw that he did address the alternative of using dumbbells.
Personally, I'm not training for the Olympic lifting....uhh....Olympics, so I don't need to spend hours upon hours upon hours to learn the barbell components. Conversely, I picked up the dumbbell variations MUCH faster and was able to effectively incorporate them into my training MUCH more quickly than the barbell lifts.
Just like he said, I was killing my wrists trying to do the barbell stuff and just wasn't performing them effectively enough. Using the dumbbells (with admittedly smaller amounts of overall weight), I was able to train the movements in an easier fashion and use them more effectively.
Before you guys kill me, I'm not slamming the traditional o-lifts by any means.....I'm just saying that they're not what I train for, so I don't need to have the level of expertise as say, an Olympian when doing them.
If you were just going pick one variation of the olympic lifts (and make it an easier variation) I can see how that could work. That's effectively what high school coaches around the country do with the power clean.
Dumbell cleans are a garbage exercise. There's no real way to 'rack' a heavy dumbbell. It's a great opportunity to fuck your shoulders up. High pulls are better option.
The article is kinda lame. Power cleans and snatches with a barbell are not rocket science.
The westside/elitefitness guys are so stuck on repping their own system, it can be tiresome. Some variation of westside is the solution to every problem.
They deserve credit for popularizing the use of bands/chains, but otherwise the Westside isn't any better for non-PL athletes than other heavy strength programs.
I agree Harry, with everything you wrote.
The Powerclean isn't particularly difficult to teach and the average person will be able to do it in reasonable form after a few 10-15min sessions at the beginning of their workout.
The Snatch is a whole other matter.