Starting Strength

they are stretchy. Mid-thigh stretchy shorts or simple gray sweats are the best pants for training. And make sure your pants are pulled up; if the crotch hangs down in the middle of your thighs, this will interfere with your knee position. Clothing should not affect your movement in any way and should never, ever make it harder for you to do a thing that is hard already – squat correctly.

    Figure 2-63. Training clothes should fit in a way that does not hinder the performance of the lifts or the ability of a coach to observe your technique. Baggy pants and shirts may be fashionable, but they are not terribly useful in the weight room. T-shirts are preferred over tank tops, and shorts and sweats should be chosen for function, not appearance. But clever logos are always good.

    Mirrors
     
    Squatting in front of a mirror is a really bad idea. Many weight rooms have mirrors on the walls and have conveniently placed the squat racks near the walls, too, making it impossible to squat without a mirror in front of you. A mirror is a bad tool because it provides information about only one plane of the three: the frontal, the one that gives you the least information about your position and your balance. Forward and backward movement is extremely difficult to detect when you’re looking straight forward into a mirror. Depth is also very difficult to judge from this direction; some obliqueness of angle is required to see the relationship between the patella and the hip, but a mirror set at an oblique angle would require that the neck be twisted a little under the load to see it. Cervical rotation under a heavy bar is as bad an idea as cervical overextension under a heavy bar.
    A mirror can also be distracting because it shows any movements occurring in what should be your invisible, uncluttered background when you’re looking down. The human brain being quite sensitive to visual movement, this is not useful when you’re trying to concentrate on squatting a heavy weight and some Bozo looking at his massive biceps walks behind you during the set.
    The most important reason to squat without a mirror in front of you is that you should be developing your kinesthetic sense while you squat. When you pay attention to all of the proprioceptive input provided by focusing on your balance point on the floor in front of you, the pressure on your feet, the feel of your back angle, the bar in your hands and against your back, and your general sense of the balance of the movement, your sensory input is much richer than that provided visually by the mirror image. Learn to feel the correct position, not to merely see it.
     
    Coaching Cues
     
    One more thought: Throughout this book, the term “cue” will be used. A cue is a movement signal, and it is an important concept in sports pedagogy. Cues are used both by coaches with the athletes they are handling and by athletes for themselves.
    For a coach, a cue is a signal that causess the athlete to correct some part of the movement he is about to do, as previously discussed with the coach. It has been built into the athlete's understanding of the movement during the process of learning it with the coach. The cue focuses the athlete’s attention on the thing he should be thinking about at that time, instead of all the other things he is probably thinking about. A cue is not a long, detailed explanation that introduces a brand new concept just before the lifter performs a PR (personal record) attempt. Rather, a cue is a word or two, maybe three, seldom four, that reminds but does not explain. A cue should not have to be processed much by the mind that receives it; it should be heard by the ear and sent on down to the place that was waiting for it to trigger the action to which it refers.
    An example of a cue is “chest up.” In contrast, “lift the chest so that your back gets flat” is not a cue. The former can be used after the lifter has assumed the starting position, right before he starts the pull. The latter must be used well before he assumes the starting position, when he can give some thought to what he is about to do.
    Cues are worked out between the athlete and the coach during training. Cues evolve naturally as the two people communicate with each other about the movement. A coach will develop his favorite ways of explaining key concepts to his athletes over his coaching career. He will tailor these explanations to fit the needs of the individuals he is working with, and cues