Thanks a lot for the replies. Next time I go in I’ll drop the weight on the 1st pulls, go slower, and focus more on keeping those hips down. Also I’ll get the snatch drops and bar work on video.
[quote]Sharp4850 wrote:
Thanks a lot for the replies. Next time I go in I’ll drop the weight on the 1st pulls, go slower, and focus more on keeping those hips down. Also I’ll get the snatch drops and bar work on video. [/quote]
Nice mate. Takes a bigger man to lift weight and put their ego aside. You will progress much faster listening to instruction then being stubborn and muscling it along. You would have stopped very abruptly and not gotten past 100kg…
But once you have it down consistently you can TEAR IT UP 
Keep it up!
Koing
[quote]Koing wrote:
[quote]Sharp4850 wrote:
[quote]Neospartan wrote:
Sharp… after the drop snatches, are you doing Snatch Grip deadlifts, or Snatch Pulls?[/quote]
I’m actually not too sure what the difference is, but I’ve been trying to work on the first pull of the snatch. So I guess snatch pulls? I guess I should be stopping the movement closer to my mid thigh than my hips. [/quote]
Sharp, your doing the Snatch grip 1st pulls. A Snatch pull would be the finishing the pull to the 2nd pull, your only doing it to mid thigh, the end of the first pull.
…
Koing[/quote]
that’s what I thought,
I suggest doing the the Snatch Pull properly… that is exploding at the 2nd pull, your 1st pull doesn’t need much work (the 2nd pull is what everyone works on)
[quote]Neospartan wrote:
[quote]Koing wrote:
[quote]Sharp4850 wrote:
[quote]Neospartan wrote:
Sharp… after the drop snatches, are you doing Snatch Grip deadlifts, or Snatch Pulls?[/quote]
I’m actually not too sure what the difference is, but I’ve been trying to work on the first pull of the snatch. So I guess snatch pulls? I guess I should be stopping the movement closer to my mid thigh than my hips. [/quote]
Sharp, your doing the Snatch grip 1st pulls. A Snatch pull would be the finishing the pull to the 2nd pull, your only doing it to mid thigh, the end of the first pull.
…
Koing[/quote]
that’s what I thought,
I suggest doing the the Snatch Pull properly… that is exploding at the 2nd pull, your 1st pull doesn’t need much work (the 2nd pull is what everyone works on)[/quote]
He needs to spend some more time on his first pull, get it really dialed in before moving on to doing proper pulls imo. He won’t be able to do a proper pull if he jacks the 1st pull…which most people will if the technique isn’t down, then they get down the slippery slope of doing bad first pulls as they haven’t gotten it dialed in enough before moving on to real pulls. Then he’s back at square one.
At 80-85% the 1st pull should be perfect. Anything less is not acceptable at this % imo.
Koing
I think the pulls went much better today. My traps and back were tired as shit after all the work I did before the snatches so I failed one and almost failed two others as a result of not being able to keep my chest up during the catch phase. But I’m pretty happy with the workout overall.
Put on some running shoes for today as they have an elevated heel also.
[video]1800[/video]
Looks good, focus on
-being stable under the bar and when you squat up. You shouldn’t be moving about on the way up or back.
-punch THE BAR UP, this will help you lift bigger weights and not lose weights because you didn’t lock out your arms properly
-pulls to mid thigh, lean over the bar more, you end up being too upright at the end of the movement, finish where your back is about 50 degrees or so
-looks a lot better brah! hips and shoulders are more in sync
-lifts look better, just a bit more finished
-your back is just fatigued as your not use to keeping your back this tight for this long and for the amount of exercises/ reps your doing, it’s an awesome work out, you’ll adapt to it quickly!
-do bent over rows from the bent over hang position (start of the 2nd pull) this will help your back be strong in this position. THIS IS CRITICAL, if your weak here you will lose a lot of power
-keep up the good work mate! Improving with each video 
Koing
[quote]Neospartan wrote:
back Tight BIG PULL!
no joke…
(keep the back tight so the bar stays close to you, and your chest stays up too)
(by big pull I mean both the big hip extension/jump/stand,up/whatever-you-wanna-call-it AND the shrug at the top)
btw… on the subject of coaches did u check here:
–even if they are far from where you live, there are always clubs not listed that the coaches know about. [/quote]
Sorry for jacking your thread.
Thanks for the link. I just realized that there is an olympic lifting gym 4 minutes from my house.
[quote]Koing wrote:
Looks good, focus on
-being stable under the bar and when you squat up. You shouldn’t be moving about on the way up or back.
-punch THE BAR UP, this will help you lift bigger weights and not lose weights because you didn’t lock out your arms properly
-pulls to mid thigh, lean over the bar more, you end up being too upright at the end of the movement, finish where your back is about 50 degrees or so
-looks a lot better brah! hips and shoulders are more in sync
-lifts look better, just a bit more finished
-your back is just fatigued as your not use to keeping your back this tight for this long and for the amount of exercises/ reps your doing, it’s an awesome work out, you’ll adapt to it quickly!
-do bent over rows from the bent over hang position (start of the 2nd pull) this will help your back be strong in this position. THIS IS CRITICAL, if your weak here you will lose a lot of power
-keep up the good work mate! Improving with each video
Koing[/quote]
Thanks again for the continued critique.
Last session I noticed my arms giving out slightly during the catch phase, so I’ll be concentrating on punching that bar up as well. Drop snatches will likely be a good assistance exercise for that…
As far as the rows go, what should my grip width be like? Obviously not as wide as snatch grip, something in between that and clean grip maybe?
I’ll be going on tomorrow afternoon to snatch so I’ll get some video.
Not too much to say about today. Technique felt a little better. Lifted heavier and lower for the snatch pulls. Included some snatch drops at the end.
Edit: Also, as far as weight with the snatch drops go, should I be expecting to eventually move more than I can snatch, or less?
Coach Istvan Javorek once said talking about the snatch technique “once you bend your elbows the power is gone”
First it is rare to see someone with that much dedication to learn how to snatch. Two Thumbs up.
I noticed that you bend your elbows and try to muscle it up.
Try to simultanouesly shrug the bar just when it’s passing your knee , push your hips forward and rise on your toes.Hence, taking advantage of the triple extension(knees, hips, and ankles).
If you are not competing in OL you can almost get 90% of the benefits by just doing the Pull part of the OLs, since the catch phase is only a technical part of it.
Good Luck
I noticed a couple things form two seperate videos you posted;
First you need to get better with overhead squats( go as deep as you can)
Second, your hip flexors seems tight work on your flexibility.Shoulder health and flexibility is crucial too.
Third, Strengthen your glutes it will help you with the 3rd extension.
[quote]baro4153 wrote:
Coach Istvan Javorek once said talking about the snatch technique “once you bend your elbows the power is gone”
First it is rare to see someone with that much dedication to learn how to snatch. Two Thumbs up.
I noticed that you bend your elbows and try to muscle it up.
Try to simultanouesly shrug the bar just when it’s passing your knee , push your hips forward and rise on your toes.Hence, taking advantage of the triple extension(knees, hips, and ankles).
If you are not competing in OL you can almost get 90% of the benefits by just doing the Pull part of the OLs, since the catch phase is only a technical part of it.
Good Luck
[/quote]
Thanks for the reply.
I’ve been trying to get my hip drive into the 2nd pull. For some reason when I concentrate on actually pushing my hips all the way forward to extension it seems like I don’t have enough time before the bar is at it’s peak and coming back down. I’m assuming this is because too much power is coming from my arms pulling the bar up.
I’ll try to work on that more the next time I go in to snatch.
Try doing Snatch grip Jump shrugs and Overhead squats in one workout, then on the next workout do clean grip High pulls and snatch grip dead lifts in another.
Breaking down the snatch and building a foundation of strength/muscle memory is key, and it help bring the learning curve way up.
Keep in mind Flexibilty and mobility is as important as all of the above to excute a fluid powerfull snatch.
Good thread is good.
Christ, today was a rough session.
I was focusing very hard on driving my hips through during the 2nd pull, and also getting into a deeper position to catch the bar. I missed just about every single rep with a weight I normally make 85% of the time, each time out in front.
My theory is that 1. Using my hips to drive the bar up is newer to me so the bar isn’t getting as high, and 2. My shoulders lack the flexibility needed to hold the bar directly overhead when in a deeper squat position. As I go deeper, my arms go from vertical to leaning forward, and I lose the weight in front.
Then again, maybe it was just the new haircut.
[video]1806[/video]
You are looking much better over the progression of the videos you have posted. One tip would be to have the bar high enough on the second pull. Always was, and still is the hardest part for me.
See the video series here from Glenn Pendlay that talks about it.
I will see if I can post the videos too,
Here is the basic second pull video
Here is a little drill that can be done too in order to better understand the second pull
One concept I was taught for keeping the bar close to the body during the second pull was to imagine dragging my thumbs up along the sides of my rib cage to my armpits. Of course, you can’t do this while holding the bar, so just consider as a teaching aid. I defer to Koing and others for their good advice on this subject.
And, look at Zakarevich on Youtube.
Thanks for the posts guys.
Torelli, those videos were great. When I’ve been doing bar work in the past I’ve always been initiating the second pull bent over too far as demonstrated incorrectly in the first video. I’ll definitely be incorporating those drills into my training.
David, that sounds like a good mental cue to have, even if my thumbs are nowhere near my ribs when snatching! I was a swimmer in high school and thumbs-up-the-ribs was a drill used to get a similar effect.
Glad you liked them. I hope Glenn will be doing more of them as they are very helpful.
Long session today. After warming up, stretching, etc I did Glenn’s 2nd pull drill a couple times, worked on some 1st pulls, and then dove into 18 sets of the snatch. Made the first two, missed a few, made some more, missed a few, made a few more, missed the rest…
The drill definitely helped me get more height on the bar from the 2nd pull. I caught a few of the snatches in a power position without problem, but it still seems that I lose the weight occasionally in a deeper squat position. As I have no problem squatting ATG with the bar racked on my shoulders (front or back), I think it has a lot to do with my shoulder mobility. I’m going to start including dislocates into my daily routine for all workouts.
[video]1820[/video]