Power Snatch: Learning How To Finish Your Pull And Catch The Bar Where it Lands
Many lifters make the mistake when first learning to snatch and clean of having NO grey area. What do I mean by that? They catch every lift either straight-legged or at rock-bottom! They treat each lift as if it was way too light, or super heavy. It’s time that you learned how to be a middle-man.
Middle-men (and women!) get a bad wrap. But, don’t let that dissuade you from becoming one in weightlifting. The bad tendency of catching all lifts at either the very top or the very bottom is a sign (to me) that you are doing a few things wrong, and that you are approaching weightlifting with the wrong mindset.
Getting a good rack on a front squat took me an entire month when I first started weightlifting. I’m not alone, many many dudes (ladies usually get it right the first time they try it!) have a problem with wrist flexibility.
But, beyond flexibility issues, if you don’t actually place the bar correctly across your shoulders then you’ll never progress to lifting heavy weights on either the front squat or the clean.
Some Basics that I go over in the video:
- Don’t GRIP the bar, let it “roll back” onto your fingers. (You DON’T have to pop your pinky out like I do, but it helps, and makes you look more sophisticated.)
- The bar should be on the shoulders, not in the hands.
- Elbow UP and IN.
- Choke yourself, then dial it back a bit.
I’m going to be doing more videos on Front Squat form since it is such an important exercise in weightlifting. But, don’t get too caught up in overthinking everything!
K.I.S.S – Keep It Simple Stupid
Racking a front squat is not rocket science. Work your flexibilty. Work the correct Elbows up and in position, and you’ll figure it out pretty fast.
See Episode 1 on the my favorite Snatch Drill.
What are some other Front Squat questions that you have? Leave your comment below:
Zen Quote of the Day
“They can because they think they can” – Virgil
This Month in the World of Weightlifting
USA Weightlifting announces that we’ll have 5 female and 6 male lifters representing America at the Pan Am Games being held in Guadalajara, Mexico. Oct. 23-27.
WOMEN: Sarah Robles, Chioma Amaechi, Kelly Rexroad-Williams, Hilary Katzenmeier, Danica Rue (who is replacing Erin Wallace who is injured) with alternates Amanda Sandoval and Aimee Anaya Everett.
MEN: Kendrick Ferris, Chad Vaughn, Pat Mendes, Donny Shankle, Jared Fleming, Jon North, with alternates Zach Schluender and Zach Krych.
It’s gonna be a hell of a show!
USA Weightlifting announces that the Olympic Trials for London 2012 will be held at the Arnold in Columbus, Ohio. Our club is planning to bring a few lifters to the Arnold this year … if for no other reason than to watch this!
Muscle Driver Grand Prix! The first of its kind in the US. With up to $10,000 in prize money at EACH event, top Olympic Weightlifters in this country now have the opportunity to earn some money to offset their training expenses during the year.
Here’s the breakdown of prize money (winners for both Women and Men determined by Sinclair):
- 1st Place – $2000
- 2nd Place – $1200
- 3rd Place – $800
- 4th Place – $600
- 5th Place – $400
The fact is, most lifters in this country aren’t being funded in any way. There are a handful who are – those at the Olympic training center or at Cal Strength. But, many other lifters who are equally as talented are getting NO money at all. That makes training for upwards of 30 hours a week (not including all the recovery time) nearly impossible if they have to hold down a 40+ hour a week job on top of it. I really respect what Glenn Pendlay and Muscle Driver are trying to do for our athletes.
Speaking of …
This is the second part of a two-part series on Zen Weightlifting, Yin vs Yang, and Becoming a Samurai on the Platform. Read the first part about your inner Yin, here.
Most of the time on this blog I emphasize the need for you to develop a calm and tranquil mind. Given the stress levels and workload most of us are living under, finding ways to promote a sense of well-being and settledness (not sure that’s a word!) is imperative. For instance, my articles on managing depression, or the art of happiness are totally focused on what we might call the Yin side of the line. Life is full of enough Yang!
That said …
Today, we’re gonna shift gears and breath a little fire on your snatch!
This is part 1, read Part 2 here.
Most lifters are one-sided. They are either aggressive, able to finish the pull hard, will go after anything, but throw the bar all over the place and miss the big weights because they can’t control the trajectory of the bar. Or, they are mellow, have nice (even flawless) technique with light weights, but won’t finish the pull strong enough on the big weights, and so they miss anything truly heavy.
The aggressive ones are like Dragons. The mellow ones are like Pearls. You don’t want to be either.
Or, more accurately, you want to be both.
You want to be a Samurai.
Let me explain …
The 20/20 Weightlifting Workout ala Joe Mills: 20 reps in 20 minutes, on the minute
“Perfect Practice make Perfect” – Joe Mills
Sometimes it’s good to shake things up. This week at PDX Weightlifting we’re doing exactly that. It’s the second of two loading weeks (read here for some idea on what that means), and we’re doing a variant of an old Joe Mills workout that has become known as the 20/20 workout.
The original version by Joe Mills had you do it this way:
- Do 5 singles at 70%
- Add 5k and do 5 more
- add 5k and do 5 more
- yet again, add 5k and do 5 more
Remember, this is one lift at the start of every minute.
We’ve done that one in the past, and another where you start at 75% and end at 90%. But, we’re doing something different now (explained below).
Ask and ye shall recieve!! Last week I asked my readers to lay down some of their biggest pressing questions about Olympic lifting and I got a TON of great stuff posted in the comments section, via email, twitter, etc.
If you were someone who posted a comment, thank you! If you haven’t asked me a question, OR, if you did but have another one, then add it to the comments section here, and I’ll make sure to make a video if I’ve got an answer.
Here’s the first video in the series!
Bunker Hunt, the billionaire oil man out of Texas, believed that success was simple and he had two rules to guarantee it. I agree with him – at least, success is conceptually simple.
Learning what the techniques are of a proper snatch isn’t too complicated. Putting in the hours upon hours of actual work it takes to get your body to do the snatch properly is.
Let’s go over Hunt’s two rules in detail and see how you can apply them to your weightlifting and to your life.
I get a lot of emails from readers asking me questions about how to do this or that in weightlifting. How do I rack a front squat? How do you stop from jumping forward during a clean/snatch? Why can’t I seem to lock out my arms? Etc.
So, I’ve decided to start a new video series called “Samurai Strength” which will answer any and all questions that you might have about your Snatch … or clean, jerk, squat, diet, routine, whatever. These do NOT have to be specifically Olympic Lifting questions. They can be general strength training questions, or whatever. But, the focus is certainly about technique and general “How To” questions.
There are NO stupid questions in this series! It is FOR beginners, Crossfitters, and anyone who is just starting out, or hasn’t been doing it long, and honestly doesn’t know what to do next.
You know that guy in the gym who has been showing up everyday for the last 5 years, works hard, and yet never seems to get anywhere? There’s a reason for that. The poor guy THINKS he’s doing everything right. He thinks this because he read it in a book or magazine at some seminal moment in his life, and he’s stuck to it ever sense regardless of the fact that he ain’t made progress in years!
The exercise world if full of junk and old wives tales masquerading as fact. Calling the information you’d find in the standard fitness magazine/book Helpful makes about as much sense as a porcupine in a balloon factory.
If you do what you are supposed to do, according to the info in the rags, you will spend YEARS spinning your wheels and have NO idea why.
(OK, there are more and more good books and magazines on fitness, strength, and exercise every year. But, the sad reality is that we are still living in an age where women are told that they need to stick to high reps or else they’ll look like men, and we’re all told that the key to health is more cardio … and more cardio … and more cardio …)
All this misinformation leads to a population of folks who are rabidly hungry for solid information that will actually help them sort through the crappolla (<—spelling?) that surrounds them.
And therein lies the problem. You are out there doing your best to eat up the right info, but what you’re eating is totally devoid of nutrients. The more you eat, the hungrier you get!
You become a Fitness Zombie!
We don’t want that. Neither did Kilgore, Hartman, or Lascek. So, they wrote a book to satiate your Zombie brain.
