Thanks! I’ll check that out.
Just an updated video at the same weight 125lb. Hope I’m catching a bit lower this time.
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If you can catch it high, well, you’re not using enough weight. You need to keep ramping up to weights that necessitate speed under bar. The snatch drop (or snatch balance ) is a good movement to help but you needed almost zero knee bend to catch that one. When I started competing in my teens, the strength coach for the college I was going to took me under his wing. He said, "you have to start getting used to be uncomfortable ". What he meant was: if you have sound pulling technique, you need to start pulling weights that you CAN’T catch high. The movement under the bar is very dynamic and you’re actually pulling yourself downward (using a bar that is temporarily suspended by powerful momentum). That “slap” you here from the feet of someone who’s executed an explosive pull? It’s not deliberate (or shouldn’t be). That’s the sound of your body explosively reconnecting with the Earth after you’ve exploded downward.
A very eye opening moment was when I understood how the shrug at the end of the final pull isn’t to move the bar higher its to FIRE you downward into the hole.
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135 from today.
It’s been a couple weeks, don’t know if it’s looking better or not, but I’m spending a lot more time at this weight rather than just working up to it for 1-3 reps like I was before.
I also spent a lot of time sitting at the bottom of an overhead squat today, I noticed that I could do this with a narrow stance, yet I catch my snatches in a wide stance. Hmm. I think there’s a lesson there.
@sirdanoman I’m confident you’re right. I tend to get nervous about bringing something potentially over my head that I can’t control, I bet that’s a common problem, but it’s probably time I start pushing above 135.
You’re more than strong enough to pull heavier. Diving under a heavy weight is a psychology game. Its pretty common to jump feet out wide but in most cases that needs to be corrected early on so it doesn’t get reinforced and ingrained. I also like to see your pull becoming more of a smooth, continuous acceleration. Think of a rocket building thrust. This is also common if you learned to pull from the top down vs learning the correct pull from the platform up. Pretty common in the American system. I learned from the platform up. I actually suck at the power versions of the lifts because I knew that if could accelerate the bar to belly button level, I could clean it. I learned speed under bar early on (thankfully). You’ve got sound mechanics, you just gotta work on fearlessness and accelerate that bar hard, fast, and get under it! Honestly, I’d suggest you stop doing power cleans/snatches. Just my opinion, but its reinforcing bad habits.
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Ok hang on… i never INTENTIONALLY do power cleans or snatches.
But as you can see i inadvertently do them all the time haha!
So how do i ensure my next pull isn’t a power? Go lighter and force the movement, or go heavier and fail to recieve it unless i can drop faster?
Help me obi-wan, you’re my only hope!
Don’t go lighter. Even elite lifters have to “ride” the weight down on light snatches/cleans because, well, physics. You need enough weight on the bar to be able to literally pull yourself DOWN into the hole using a momentarily suspended bar (at the apex of the second pull).
Your feet are shooting out too far laterally as well. Mark where your feet are in a nice, deep squat. THAT’S exactly where your feet should displace to IF they start closer than that. IF! Hell, you don’t even need to move your feet AT ALL if you start the pull with your feet already in squat position.
Anyway. Mark that comfortable bottom position. If its the same as where you’d be squatting, practice drop snatches where you don’t move your feet, you just BOOM, drop under the bar. If your feet start closer and need to displace, practice the same but make your feet land where they should be not way out.
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Will do! Thanks.
Turns out these O-lifts are hard to learn on your own, despite lots of youtube help. Having someone actually watch my snatch video and give direct feedback has been very helpful. Thank you.
Agreed. I’d rather you NOT continue to reinforce suboptimal techniques. Work on pulls from the floor to knee for awhile with a focus on picking up speed as soon as the bar leaves the ground and try the drop snatch with minimal to no upwards bar movement. I did them heavy so I’d get a little upwards movement off the shoulders (like a very shallow dip and drive) but then think of firing my body downwards and locking my arms immediately which serves to force you down. If that makes sense…
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It does! Just gotta beat the psychological pressure.
It takes time. As long as your pull and catch mechanics are sound, you have to get comfortable with the fact you’ll be dumping the bar more often. Sure, we want good clean lifts to reinforce good technique but you also learn a lot from getting under a heavy load. It shows you areas you need to address that will be masked with light weights. Little different then say, powerlifts. Only time I missed a squat/bench/dead when I competed was on a PR attempt. Slower lifts give you time to minutely correct. The Olympic lifts must be blindingly fast.
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I would strongly advise getting a coach. I think you could snatch a decent weight. You might benefit from doing a lot of cleans too to get the feeling of getting under the bar. The Tall Snatxh recommendation is a great one - I use it in warm-ups, but you may just power snatch it.
Think: when it brushes your hips as the bar goes up you go down!
Here’s a C&J. Not super heavy about 75/80%, but I agree with others: heavy weights helps