Losing the snatches is a coordination problem. youse gots lots o stren’. Keep working at it and maybe hold the bottom position for a few ticks before rising and I bet it settles down solid.
[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:
Kevin, Joe, UN42 and James - Thanks for taking the time to comment guys and thanks for saying nice things.
Carl - Thanks. What specific areas (apart from the flexibility and dropping quicker, which I’m aware of and am working hard on) are the major ones I need to work on? Any glaringly obvious flaws? I’d appreciate the early “heads up” so I don’t form bad habits.
26/04/2011
Bike ride - To top of mountain and back - 6.5 miles in 39 minutes.
A really slow time today because it was very windy on the way up. At one point I was slowed to below 5 mph. I could have gotten off and walked quicker than that. Still, it was nice seeing the foals of the mountain ponies at the top.[/quote]
On most of your lifts, the weight ends up too far forward. I know you are working on shoulder flexibility, and as that improves, you will feel more comfortable getting the weight back where it needs to be. But when the weight gets heavier, the need to keep it closer increases. The further back towards you the bar goes at the bottom of the lift, the closer to you it stays at the top. So my recommendation would be to work on bar path, get the weight moving backwards from the start, push it back towards you and get your weight shifting towards your heels. Keep your heels down solidly on the platform as long as possible.
Keep up the good work. You have good speed extending and immediately retracting you hips in the second pull. This is much of where speed under the bar comes from.
[quote]bulldog9899 wrote:
Off subject question. How big of a actual deal is the coming royal wedding over there. Over here the National media is treating it as if where still part of the British crown.[/quote]
Personally I’m sick to death of hearing about the Royal wedding. Every single person I’ve spoken to about it doesn’t give a ‘flying f###’ but the media are completely obsessed with it. Every news programme, every advert is banging on about it, 1 hour long specials everynight. I can’t wait for it to be over.
The worse thing is that no-one actually knows what the dress will look like, but that doesn’t stop these morons spending 30 minutes of air time ‘speculating’ on what they think it will look like. Aaaahhhhhh!!!
We’re travelling to see family today who coincidentally live in the village next to where Kate Middleton comes from (Buckleberry). God knows how beseiged that place will be!
Still at least we get a Bank Holiday (day off) out of it.
[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:
[quote]bulldog9899 wrote:
Off subject question. How big of a actual deal is the coming royal wedding over there. Over here the National media is treating it as if where still part of the British crown.[/quote]
Personally I’m sick to death of hearing about the Royal wedding. Every single person I’ve spoken to about it doesn’t give a ‘flying f###’ but the media are completely obsessed with it. Every news programme, every advert is banging on about it, 1 hour long specials everynight. I can’t wait for it to be over.
The worse thing is that no-one actually knows what the dress will look like, but that doesn’t stop these morons spending 30 minutes of air time ‘speculating’ on what they think it will look like. Aaaahhhhhh!!!
We’re travelling to see family today who coincidentally live in the village next to where Kate Middleton comes from (Buckleberry). God knows how beseiged that place will be!
Still at least we get a Bank Holiday (day off) out of it.[/quote]
yes its a strange country we live in,
an unelected Head of State who has the power to refuse to accept the elected candidate for Prime Minister
an unelected 2nd house of Parliament, mostly made up of people who are literally Lords. The title of Lord can be passed from Father to Son for ever more
the Head of State is also the head of the National Religion
the Head of State cannot by law be Catholic!!!
a State funded national broadcasting service (therefore cant be considered to be impartial)
a current Government which is a coalition which nobody voted for
you would think I was talking about North Korea, but sadly no.
and no, couldnt care less about the wedding and I genuinely dont know anyone who could.
sorry for the rant
getting a lot of media coverage about the wedding in Aussie, too, but we don’t get a holiday 
congrats on the PB!!
Brasil, if you think Scotland is weird, check out the situation here. In addition to the wedding, the other hot item which is keeping the media buzzing is . . . . the President’s birth certificate. I kid you not.
Cool PB Brett, I started back with Snatching right from the git, it will be interesting to see what kind of progress can be had in say a year or so. I will have to get some bumper plates and build a platform.
[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:
[quote]bulldog9899 wrote:
Off subject question. How big of a actual deal is the coming royal wedding over there. Over here the National media is treating it as if where still part of the British crown.[/quote]
Personally I’m sick to death of hearing about the Royal wedding. Every single person I’ve spoken to about it doesn’t give a ‘flying f###’ but the media are completely obsessed with it. Every news programme, every advert is banging on about it, 1 hour long specials everynight. I can’t wait for it to be over.
The worse thing is that no-one actually knows what the dress will look like, but that doesn’t stop these morons spending 30 minutes of air time ‘speculating’ on what they think it will look like. Aaaahhhhhh!!!
We’re travelling to see family today who coincidentally live in the village next to where Kate Middleton comes from (Buckleberry). God knows how beseiged that place will be!
Still at least we get a Bank Holiday (day off) out of it.[/quote]
Im guessing that you wont be enthralled during the telecast of the event.
C_K - I once got up at “stupid o’clock” to watch the British coxless four row in the Sydney olympics, but I certainly wouldn’t lose sleep to watch a Royal wedding. She’s nuts! (no offence of course)
DCA - Thanks, I’ll try that slight pause in the hole thing tonight.
Carl - Thanks for the tips. I’ll film my snatches directly from the side tonight so I can analyse and try and improve my bar path.
Bluebrasil - I had a sneaky feeling you weren’t going to be a Royalist! LOL
Alexus - Thanks for the congrats. Shoes are ordered. Let’s hope they make a difference.
Dude - Yeah definitely get some bumpers. Snatches are great fun, they’ve overtaken squats as my favourite lift. I think you could make huge progress in a year. I’m not improving as quick as I’d like, but I worked out I’ve barely been doing them a month, talk about impatient!
Bulldog - Despite none of the family and friends really being interested, we all sat down and watched it like diligent little citizens. Actually we enjoyed it, but mainly because we did our own commentary.
Was reading some stuff prompted by the death of Henry Cooper and came across some quotes from Muhammad Ali, here’s a couple of my favourites,
I hated every minute of training, but I said, “Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.”
Muhammad Ali
Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.
Muhammad Ali
Think I’m gonna put those on my gym wall. Here’s a link to the rest. Some really profound stuff in there.
[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:
Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.
[/quote]
Pure awesome. What kind of farm, Brett? And was this what you’ve always done?
02/05/2011
Overhead squats
Bar x 8
88 lbs x 6
Full snatch
88 lbs x 1-1-1
132 lbs x 1-0-1-1-1-0-1-0-1
143 lbs x 1-1-1-1
Back squat w/u to daily max
220 lbs x 3
308 lbs x 2
396 lbs x 1 then 90% of max
357.5 lbs x 2-2
Leg curls @ 85 lbs x 12-8-8
CG U/H Pulldowns @ 187 lbs x 9-7
Pushdowns @ 121 lbs x 10-10
Face Pulls @ 88 lbs x 10-10-10
Felt a bit rusty on the snatches after nearly 5 days off. I need to start upping the weight sooner and not doing so many reps on the lower weights. Maybe from now on if I hit 3 in a row I’ll increase.
Squats were a struggle. I seem to be getting weaker on them, probably because of all the work preceeding them. Shoulder still too sore to do push presses.
Vid of last 4 snatches at 143, the first two were nearly powersnatches, caught quite high. Last rep slowed down to track bar path. I can see that I may be flinging the bar too far forward at the top. I don’t know.
I’m thinking of maybe doing the same number of snatches but splitting them over 5 days instead of 3. Opinions?
I hated every minute of training, but I said, “Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.”
Muhammad Ali
Nice one. I think ill use it .
I like that session - that is some solid work.
nice job.
I like the OH squats first- we spoke about this,
they seem to give me the best warm up
I cant comment on snatch frequency- haha.
C_K - Probably exaggerating to call it a farm, it’s really a smallholding of 5 acres with grazing rights on the adjoining mountain. We’ve sold all our animals now because we are selling up, but we’ve had sheep, goats, pigs, geese, ducks and chickens at various times, everything but cattle really. Our plan is to buy another smallholding in Portugal where the weather is better. Got another viewing on Thursday, so fingers crossed.
Kevin - Yep doing the overhead squats first is definitely paying off as far as hitting that full snatch catch position.
03/05/2011
Should have gone for a bike ride, but it’s been really windy here and the thought of cycling 3.5 miles up hill into a gale force wind did not appeal, so I wimped out.
Instead I went and filmed my snatch so I could track my bar path using a bit of free software I downloaded last night. Didn’t do a thorough stretch and warm up beforehand so probably wasn’t as flexible as I could have been, but it gave me a general idea. Even to my untrained eye I can see that my lack of shoulder flexibilty is causing me to finish the lift in front of where I started it instead of behind and I’m not leaning backward enough during the entire lift.
Here’s hoping my “MAGIC” shoes that were despatched today will miraculously cure all my technique “ills”.
All you O lifters feel free to critique it to shreds, I really wan’t to get it right.
Last nights session
04/02/2011
Overhead squats
Bar only x 10
88 lbs x 6
Full snatch
88 lbs x 1-1-1
132 lbs x 1-0-1-1
143 lbs x 1-1-1
154 lbs x 1-1 (equal PR)
165 lbs x 0-0-0
Front squats @ 220 lbs x 5-5-5 (performed as explosively as possible)
RDLs @ 220 lbs x 10-10
Overhead press
Bar only x 10
88 lbs x 10 (pathetic)
Used my new shoes today, they felt pretty comfortable and certainly kept my heels down a bit more than normal. Pleased to have got two in a row at my current PR. The three fails at 165 were pathetic, I guess I wasn’t really commited. I don’t know why I jumped 11 lbs instead of 5.5, might have managed that. I guess I’m just dumb.
I think I’m losing strength on the squats just doing 2 sets of 2, so I increased the reps and volume. I think I gain strength better doing slightly higher reps, so I’ll try fives for a while. Will try and build up to 5 x 5.
I can’t believe how weak my shoulders have become in the few weeks I haven’t trained them since I started having shoulder pain. 88 lbs was hard work!!! Jeez.
Went straight from lifting to the cinema to watch Thor in 3D. It’s the first 3D film I’ve seen. I spent the last hour in extreme discomfort, partly because the film was incredibly shit (take my word for it, save your pennies) but mainly because I had terrible cramp in my left leg which I couldn’t get rid of. Boy was I glad to get outside.
Two x 154 (=PR) then 3 pathetic misses at 165 followed by front squats 220 x 5
Outstanding front squats, just outstanding.
congrats on your PRs!!! your front squats are indeed looking amazing!!!
snatching has turned to shit for me… i don’t know anything anymore
Strong work Brett. I’m to old and inflexible to learn snatches and OH squats. Thanks for the review on Thor. I’ll wait to rent it. Disappointing because Thor’s such a cool superhero.
Portugal? Really? Heck, the idea of moving to a different state is stressful. But to another country?
Great work, Brett. No comment on the strange Olympic stuff. Great effort and progress, though. You are really getting after it.