Why bother with quick lifts?

As it turns out, the ability to produce force against a weight is dependent on the speed at which the movement is trained. What this means is that if heavy weights are lifted at a slow speed, the lifter gets good at lifting them at THAT speed. He does not get good at lifting them at a faster speed. So slow deadlift training will not make the clean go faster. And if a lifter gets good at pulling a weight fast, as in a power clean, he gets good at generating force at that faster rate of speed. The rate of speed that is trained is the rate of speed to which we adapt. But this rule only works well in one direction: strength developed at a slow rate of speed can only be effectively used slowly, but strength developed at a high rate of speed can be used at that high speed AND AT SPEEDS SLOWER THAN THAT. It is incredibly important to understand this.

HIGH SPEED TRAINING, WITH ENOUGH WEIGHT TO MAKE HIGH POWER PRODUCTION NECESSARY, MAKES FOR USEABLE STRENGTH AT A WIDE RANGE OF SPEEDS FROM FAST WITH MODERATE LOADS WHERE THE TRAINING TAKES PLACE TO SLOW WITH HEAVIER LOADS, WHERE THE CONTEST SQUAT, BENCH AND DEADLIFT ARE DONE

Starting Strength, first edition, MArk Rippetoe with Lon Kilgore p158 - 159

Great post James.
Ive always liked Power cleans, I think they can maintainand and even improve the deadlift even when your not working on that lift ,certainly did with me . I remember reading that Bill Starr with no deadlift training demolished the 198-pound American Deadlift Record with a 666-pound pull back in 1968. Starr said he did the following exercises :power cleans, heavy shrugs, hi-pulls and good mornings. Thats 3 explosive type movements shrugs,Hi Pulls and Power cleans .Joe defranco and I think Louie simmons have said olympic assistance moves are overated as the only exercises to improve speed and power they do however have dynamic effort days with speed deadlifts etc done with bands.

Simmons et al train 'speed' but we all know that when we've ever seen a bench, etc done very heavy the bar does not move fast. The key, if you like, is in spite of the huge weight you must feel like you are trying to accelerate the weight. With lighter weights this can be done in such a way that we can all see it.

So I get under 60-kilos and a 100-kilos and do relatively fast reps with them. Sets of 8 (60kg) and 6 (100kg) reps take maybe 30-40 seconds. My next jump is 140-kilos and I'll bench this faster than my max weight but slower than any of the reps in the preceding sets. Not because I want to but because it's heavier. I am, however, still trying to move it quickly because this activates a higher percentage of the total amount of muscle fibres in the muscles used. The same applies to my next current max working set (6 x 1 with a planned 160-kilos next time). I'll lower under control, touch (maybe a tiny, tiny bounce) and then try and rush the rep up. The speed/muscle fibre percentage thing still applying but also you arrive at and push through the sticking point quicker. Had you done the rep slower you'd have arrived at and probably stopped at the sticking point.

The context of what Mark was illustrating is as important as the science. If he'd been talking muscle building over strength or power then the context changes completely. I'm all about a-b and any muscle etc I have is a very nice bonus.

I do agree with his comment - for power and strength - train fast.