GLENN PENDLAY Q&A

Training Bodybuilding
261

[quote]glenn pendlay wrote:

[quote]heavythrower wrote:
Glenn,

I watched your snatch progression video on calstrength, I am only 5’6", but to get the bar in the proper place as demonstrated, at the bend of the hips, I have to have my hands nearly all the way out to the collars of the bar, does that not seem strange for such a short guy, does that mean I have long arms relative to my torso?

btw fyi, i use one of your next gen 20kg bars. [/quote]

Any chance that you could post a pic of you with the bar at your waist and over your head.
[/quote]

sure…coming up!

thanks!

262

…[photo]30794[/photo]

[photo]30793[/photo]

263

[quote]glenn pendlay wrote:

[quote]PB Andy wrote:
Glenn - jumping back in the snatch or clean? I’ve seen numerous elite lifters do this, Marcin Dolega is one of them. What’s the deal?

Don McCauley has a way better thought out response to this than I do… I am gonna ask him to jump on here and answer yo…
[/quote]

Don’s got some videos up where he talks about this in depth. Here is the first of 4 parts. You can find the rest on YouTube. Not something I want to try to emulate, not because I necessarily think that the “catapult” is a bad idea but because I don’t want to try to relearn all of this technique stuff. At some point, you need to quit over-analyzing technique and just lift the damn bar.

264

Here are the remaining videos. I have noticed that keeping my butt lower on the first pull results in a better second pull. It’s probably because this allows me to get the bar in the proper position for the second pull. Perhaps I’m catapulting but don’t know it. I don’t jump backwards, however. I think that adds an additional moving part that doesn’t need to be there. I’m also a big believer in shrugging hard - it’s actually a cue I use to make sure I finish the pull. It also keeps me from pulling with the arms too soon.

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

265

[quote]glenn pendlay wrote:

[quote]PB Andy wrote:
Glenn - jumping back in the snatch or clean? I’ve seen numerous elite lifters do this, Marcin Dolega is one of them. What’s the deal?

Don McCauley has a way better thought out response to this than I do… I am gonna ask him to jump on here and answer yo…
[/quote]

Andy,

Thanks, Glenn for writing to me about this. Hi to everyone on this forum. Just looked at a few threads and like the conversation level here.

Andy, you know all about the “S” pull if you’ve been on this forum for very long. The jump back has to do a lot with leaning that S to the rear. The reason for doing that is to better keep the bar over the starting base of support(at Set)and “skinny” the S, and to help the lifter get to the catch position more quickly. The reason these things happen when using this pull is that lifters are continually driving the bar more towards them(and rearward), even during the slight forward bulge of the S in the 2nd pull than in a stright up and down S. If you’ve ever toppled and stumbled backwards, you’ll notice that the rear of the feet get down more quickly to prevent a fall and the posterior musculature is engaged more directly and quickly to stop the fall, rather than the quads. Those same things should happen when you go to a squat for the clean or snatch. It helps some lifters get to the proper flat-footed catch position more quickly and it certainly prevents the bar from being too far out in front at the catch. And, as you observed, it causes them to jump back a bit to catch the more rearward driven bar.

And, because the bar is accelerated upward by a combination of the knee and hip extension, when you tilt backward the hips are not only more likely to be fully extended but the direction of the extension will be more towards vertical(you’re pointing them upward as you tilt back), which happens to be the way we want the bar to go. Additionally, the lifter can more easily stay over the center of his base when driving the bar, which is also good.

Now that I’ve got you really confused, look at it this way. A normal S pull comes in towards the lifter (and further back into the original base of support),then out away in the 2nd pull and then back in during transition and catch. Tilting the S to the rear keeps the bar traveling more toward the lifter and in the center of the original base of support without any more work (maybe less) by the lifter because all he is doing is continuing the general bar trajectory that was started in the 1st pull(in towards him), if it was done correctly.

Another result of this seems to be(I haven’t got data, only observation) that the pull (drive) is faster! It seems like the drop-off of force at the double knee bend is less or the time to accomplish it is. I don’t know which. But, it is a fast pull(drive).

Some lifters (Dolega seems to be one) start this whole tilting thing off right from the floor. They seem to be contiually moving to the rear. Some seem to make a pronounced exagerated effort to the rear at the end of the double knee bend when they go to their forefeet, by driving back hard from that raised position, almost like a plyo jump back off the forefeet. Different methods of accomplishing the same thing.

If you have any questions, I’ll be posting here more often and will be glad to respond.

266

[quote]MikeTheBear wrote:
Here are the remaining videos. I have noticed that keeping my butt lower on the first pull results in a better second pull. It’s probably because this allows me to get the bar in the proper position for the second pull. Perhaps I’m catapulting but don’t know it. I don’t jump backwards, however. I think that adds an additional moving part that doesn’t need to be there. I’m also a big believer in shrugging hard - it’s actually a cue I use to make sure I finish the pull. It also keeps me from pulling with the arms too soon.

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Mike the Bear,

Haven’t seen these for a while. I’m no better looking, I notice. Ah well…

It is important to note that what I call the “catapult” is nothing new but only what I think is a more porper explanation of the pulling technique used by Europeans for many years. I do not like the interpretation of the pull, used by many, as a “jump and shrug”. I think that leads to many problems when humans try to marry lifting/jumping in their muscles and mind.

And, if I got one more guy to try things with his hips lower, I’m happy.

CoachMc

267

Thanks Don, for the reply and visiting this forum. That was a good explanation, and one that was pretty complicated… but along the same lines of why I thought some lifters tend to jump back. It seems that jumping back would happen more with lifters who tend to use the ‘catapult’ technique as you phrased it; I’ve noticed that with myself, as well, and I don’t think there is any problem with it if you feel stable in the hole of the squat snatch or squat clean. In fact now that I think of it, if I try to mimic ‘jumping up’, I find my lifts are lot less smoother/less comfortable than when trying to keep my heels down as much as possible during the 2nd pull.

A good video of technique that I’m trying to replicate in my training is this one which I just found.

268

Don, I find myself agreeing with you about the “jump and shrug” idea. When I first started learning the lifts on my own I found an article stating that Olympic lifting is like “jumping while holding a bar.” After getting a bit better with the lifts, and now that I’m working with a coach, I find myself thinking that the lifts kind of look like a jump but they’re really not. I agree with your statement that you don’t want a lot of air underneath your legs during the lifts - just enough to move your feet out to get a bigger base and allow your hips somewhere to go. Although I’m not a coach, I help out lifters where I can, and I’m a big preacher against the “donkey kick.” In fact, I think that the tall guy in your videos (the “ringer”) unnecessarily lifted his feet off of the floor - especially with that weight. It did nothing to help him get the weight up.

Thanks for stopping by, and please do so more often.

269

Thanks Glenn!

270

To Glenn or Don - I have a question concerning technique. During the 2nd pull, once the bar reaches the ‘pockets’ area during the scoop and one’s heels are still on the ground… what’s next? Once the bar reaches my pockets and I jam the bar into my hips (heels still on ground), do I immediately go down under the bar (this technique generally causes me to move backward). OR, once the bar is at pockets, do I do the ‘jump and catch’ portion that Glenn teaches in his snatch progression videos… I hope you understand what I mean. I’ve been playing around with this and I’m unsure if both are considered the ‘catapult technique’.

I’m not sure in the videos that I see with elite weightlifters (re: the Dolega video I posted) if they are doing ‘jump and catch’ on purpose, or if they go into triple extension BECAUSE of the catapult technique (i.e. they only go into triple extension because of the forceful hip and knee extension during the second pull while keeping heels down).

I hope you guys can help me with this because this question has been keeping me from a 115kg snatch. But for some reason, my clean is fine with this matter so I don’t know what the hell is going on or what I’m doing right during the 2nd pull of the clean.

271

1280×1024 105 KB

B/c I probably didn’t explain that well, here is a pic of what I think to be the catapult technique, no?

Essentially what I’m asking is, what comes next? Go down after this (even though the force moves you up), or extend those knees even further so their straight? Is this a moot question because the force will move you up anyways? Thanks…

272

[quote]PB Andy wrote:
Thanks Don, for the reply and visiting this forum. That was a good explanation, and one that was pretty complicated… but along the same lines of why I thought some lifters tend to jump back. It seems that jumping back would happen more with lifters who tend to use the ‘catapult’ technique as you phrased it; I’ve noticed that with myself, as well, and I don’t think there is any problem with it if you feel stable in the hole of the squat snatch or squat clean. In fact now that I think of it, if I try to mimic ‘jumping up’, I find my lifts are lot less smoother/less comfortable than when trying to keep my heels down as much as possible during the 2nd pull.

A good video of technique that I’m trying to replicate in my training is this one which I just found.

PB Andy,

Yeah, I probably got too wordy on my first post. I hope it was clear enough.

A big thing to remember is that lifting a heavy weight on a bar was not what we evolved to do.
Skills like jumping and running were born out of use and practice of our physical and mental attributes.

Tasks like olympic lifting have to be taught because they are not “natural” movements for humans. We have to learn how to do it and it is a task which forces us to use our muscles very much differently than do most sports movements. More natural movements like jumping, that work perfectly well for many sports tasks in front of us, fail miserably when being applied to moving a heavy weight towards and over us.

Catapulting (my view of the technique)is what has been done for many years in Europe. Only in the U.S. is it called jumping. And, the only big variations I’ve seen in the form used in most of the world is the lessening of the shrug as an upward movement and the tendency of many to lessen the time and height of plantar flexion.

Good lifters feel “odd” when they try to jump and shrug up. that is as it should be.

CoachMc

273

[quote]PB Andy wrote:
B/c I probably didn’t explain that well, here is a pic of what I think to be the catapult technique, no?

Essentially what I’m asking is, what comes next? Go down after this (even though the force moves you up), or extend those knees even further so their straight? Is this a moot question because the force will move you up anyways? Thanks…[/quote]

Andy,

The next thing that happens after this photo is that you finish full extension of your hips and ALMOST full extension at the knees which accelerates the bar upwards…and get the heck under the bar.

I think that the hip extension is your cue to go down. I don’t want people thinking to go up high on their toes and shrug as high as they can to complete the 2nd pull. That is a thought process that is “jump and shrug up” and it slows you down and puts the bar out front.

And, remember, full extension of your hips doesn’t mean that you try to hyper-extend them. Punch your hips,(while knees continue to extend)at the bar and quickly retract them to flexion, which allows them to travel to a lower catch position.

I tell my athletes to always think from the hips when lifting. I think that speeds up the process.

Hope this clears some things up for you.

CoachMc

274

Hi Glenn, thanks for replying to my previous question

I have another one. (anyone can answer) At the end of the 2nd pull, which would be about 0.1 seconds after the picture PB andy posted above, which is basically the transition from the 2nd pull to the getting under the bar part, is there any pelvic thrust(I think thats what it’s called) at the very end of the pull? What I’m talking about is something you can also see from people squatting for reps where at the end of getting back up from a rep, they will loosen their lower back and the hips will do a pelvic thrust/come forward(again sorry if I’m not telling this correctly; heck many times I’m not even sure what people are saying when they are talking about what the hips should be doing!)

I tend to see this as kind of relaxing the lower back. Now should this happen at the end of a pull, should it not or does it not really matter either way? I’m thinking that perhaps NOT doing it will keep the bar from going forward or starting the pull too fast and lastly that maybe keeping a tight back the whole time can possibly make you get under the bar faster/make the pull stronger. I have noticed though that that’s when its hardest to keep the back tight during olympic lifting… when you switch from the pull to getting under.

275

Christian and Glenn, do you recommend olympic weightlifting shoes for training. I’m 5’9, 200 pounds, want to do a bodybuilding show, am following the new HP Mass program, and have built myself up to some decent numbers IMHO. My max triple squat is 420 (430 single done in comp) and a 570 max deadlift (same contest). I wore wrestling shoes for the deadlift and my Nikes for the squat. Is it worth it to buy Olympiclifting shoes or not?

Thanks.

276

[quote]coachmccauley wrote:

[quote]PB Andy wrote:
B/c I probably didn’t explain that well, here is a pic of what I think to be the catapult technique, no?

Essentially what I’m asking is, what comes next? Go down after this (even though the force moves you up), or extend those knees even further so their straight? Is this a moot question because the force will move you up anyways? Thanks…[/quote]

Andy,

The next thing that happens after this photo is that you finish full extension of your hips and ALMOST full extension at the knees which accelerates the bar upwards…and get the heck under the bar.

I think that the hip extension is your cue to go down. I don’t want people thinking to go up high on their toes and shrug as high as they can to complete the 2nd pull. That is a thought process that is “jump and shrug up” and it slows you down and puts the bar out front.

And, remember, full extension of your hips doesn’t mean that you try to hyper-extend them. Punch your hips,(while knees continue to extend)at the bar and quickly retract them to flexion, which allows them to travel to a lower catch position.

I tell my athletes to always think from the hips when lifting. I think that speeds up the process.

Hope this clears some things up for you.

CoachMc[/quote]
It clears it up a bunch, thank you. So basically, think from the hips. As soon as you feel that your hips are fully extended, get the hell down.

I actually just tried this while standing up. I got into the pockets position that Scerbathis shows (with an imaginary bar, lol), and punched my hips through a little more (almost clenching my butt muscles together). I noticed that my knees follow this movement, and extend a tiny bit more, but NOT all the way. Sound right?

277

[quote]PB Andy wrote:

[quote]coachmccauley wrote:

[quote]PB Andy wrote:
B/c I probably didn’t explain that well, here is a pic of what I think to be the catapult technique, no?

Essentially what I’m asking is, what comes next? Go down after this (even though the force moves you up), or extend those knees even further so their straight? Is this a moot question because the force will move you up anyways? Thanks…[/quote]

Andy,

The next thing that happens after this photo is that you finish full extension of your hips and ALMOST full extension at the knees which accelerates the bar upwards…and get the heck under the bar.

I think that the hip extension is your cue to go down. I don’t want people thinking to go up high on their toes and shrug as high as they can to complete the 2nd pull. That is a thought process that is “jump and shrug up” and it slows you down and puts the bar out front.

And, remember, full extension of your hips doesn’t mean that you try to hyper-extend them. Punch your hips,(while knees continue to extend)at the bar and quickly retract them to flexion, which allows them to travel to a lower catch position.

I tell my athletes to always think from the hips when lifting. I think that speeds up the process.

Hope this clears some things up for you.

CoachMc[/quote]
It clears it up a bunch, thank you. So basically, think from the hips. As soon as you feel that your hips are fully extended, get the hell down.

I actually just tried this while standing up. I got into the pockets position that Scerbathis shows (with an imaginary bar, lol), and punched my hips through a little more (almost clenching my butt muscles together). I noticed that my knees follow this movement, and extend a tiny bit more, but NOT all the way. Sound right?[/quote]

Andy,

Sounds right but hard to tell without video. Deliver the hit from the hips and then, get those heels and hips down.

Good luck.

CoachMc

278

[quote]lordstorm88 wrote:
Hi Glenn, thanks for replying to my previous question

I have another one. (anyone can answer) At the end of the 2nd pull, which would be about 0.1 seconds after the picture PB andy posted above, which is basically the transition from the 2nd pull to the getting under the bar part, is there any pelvic thrust(I think thats what it’s called) at the very end of the pull? What I’m talking about is something you can also see from people squatting for reps where at the end of getting back up from a rep, they will loosen their lower back and the hips will do a pelvic thrust/come forward(again sorry if I’m not telling this correctly; heck many times I’m not even sure what people are saying when they are talking about what the hips should be doing!)

I tend to see this as kind of relaxing the lower back. Now should this happen at the end of a pull, should it not or does it not really matter either way? I’m thinking that perhaps NOT doing it will keep the bar from going forward or starting the pull too fast and lastly that maybe keeping a tight back the whole time can possibly make you get under the bar faster/make the pull stronger. I have noticed though that that’s when its hardest to keep the back tight during olympic lifting… when you switch from the pull to getting under.[/quote]

The lower back should NOT be relaxed… what happens is simply an extension of the hip joint, if I am not mistaken what you are describing/wondering about is a flexion of the spine? If I am correct about what you are describing, then no, it doesnt happen that way.

279

I just want to thank Don McCauley stopping by. He is an EXCELLENT coach with very well thought out ideas on technique. I am sure that we can all learn some things from him.

280

[quote]mwaltaccept wrote:
Christian and Glenn, do you recommend olympic weightlifting shoes for training. I’m 5’9, 200 pounds, want to do a bodybuilding show, am following the new HP Mass program, and have built myself up to some decent numbers IMHO. My max triple squat is 420 (430 single done in comp) and a 570 max deadlift (same contest). I wore wrestling shoes for the deadlift and my Nikes for the squat. Is it worth it to buy Olympiclifting shoes or not?

Thanks.[/quote]

I believe that you are better off with weightlifting shoes anytime you are doing any type of exercise where you are standing on your feet. Of course, as a bodybuilder its going to make less of a difference to you than to an Olympic lifter, but I think your still better off.