Squat Depth


Wanted to see what everyone thinks on this squat (mostly on depth, but all criticism is appreciated!)

From my understanding and the attached picture, I believe I just made depth, but probably wouldn’t pass in USAPL?

I believe in most feds you will be ok.

But depth for alot of feds is the hip joint below the top of the knee.


One thing to watch for is camera angle. I’ve drawn another line, perfectly horizontal, next to your safety that shows your camera angle gives the appearance of slightly greater depth than you actually had. Move your computer screen so that my red line is horizontal, and the white line from your hip crease to top of knee changes. Looks close to me, maybe right on the line.

Another thing to note with the camera angle, is that the side judge will not be lying on the floor (hopefully). Put the camera on a box or something so it is at the eye level of a person sitting in a chair. Some side judges like to lean in to get a look so maybe use a short box. In either case the still makes it look deeper than the video. Until they come up with judges who have x-ray vision and can see the hip joint on a lifter, you need to get the crease of the hip below the top of the knee and in the video it looks like you get stuck at just above that point. Again that is with video replay and in a meet (even USAPL meet) you could luck out with one of the side judges and get that lift passed if it looks good from the front.

Look at the Weird Squat Experiment thread for an example of a squat filmed from the right height where it is clear that the crease of the hip passes below the top of the knee. It’s much easier to tell than from an upwards angle like this one.

I’d call that a parallel squat but not a below parallel squat which is what is usually necessary to get white lights. Ditto on camera angle and placement. Good news is you look quite solid in the bottom position

Do you have any shots directly from the side. No upward/downward angle?

Finally remembered to get a better angle on my squat…of course I have sweats on and it still sucks haha, but its a better angle I hope.


Snip for reference. I’m definitely high, so I need to work on depth, but this was also the first time I had squated with flat shoes and a low bar position in a long time, forgot how much stronger i feel