I have trained with some olympic movements for a few years now, however I’ve always caught the weight in the power position. I’m considering starting some competition and I want to be able to get as much weight up as possible, so I know catching in full squat position will allow me to do that.
I’ve been working on flexibility and full depth squats/front squats, but is there any good way to bridge the gap more efficiently in catching in the full squat position rather than defaulting to the power position? I know it has felt really awkward so far (past 2 weeks), should I work on catching in snatch at first (less training experience vs clean)? I know since the lifts are so technical, it is repetition, repetition, repetition, but are there any cues I should think of? Any other suggestions? Thanks in advance
Face
Plenty of bar work to start. A good drill progression I do at the beginning of every workout is as follows:
1: Start on your tip toes with your arms bent about 90 degress pointing outwards, so the bar is at nipple height. Then drop down into a full squat position
2: Same but with arms straight by your sides
3: Now with your arms straight in the hang position (forward body lean)
Then just go from the ground and work the weight up SLOWLY, if you start catching high drop the weight, just treat it like a separate exercise than power clean, as in if you catch high that’s a fail lift. I wouldn’t just do the snatch first, it’s the same thing you are trying to achieve, full hip extension followed immediately be contraction. So should compliment each other a bit
Thanks, I’ve been working with bar weight, and slowly progressing like you mentioned (fail lift) thanks for the reminder on that drill, I used to do that one, but it fell by the wayside at some point.
Basically what the ox man said. The problem with full cleans/snatches is that you probably will have many technique issues and might feel harder for you which will make you get back to powering it if it gets heavy. Don’t do that. Keep the weight low, until you are rather comfortable doing them properly. Try to increase the weight every week or so(until it gets rather heavy) and if you see yourself catching it high, do another week with the previous amount of weight then try again.
If you are doing 60kgs full clean rather easily, and with 65 you start doing half of them power cleans, reduce the weight. A general rule of thumb is that when working on technique you should be getting about 8/10 right. Your mind will tell your body to do what its used to doing.
If you do the correct technique 10/10 times with 60 kgs, it will be fine almost always and you can increase to 65 where your body will only need to do slight adjustments. if you are getting correct technique in say 3/10 times… your body will learn to do the movement the wrong way, or will learn very slowly how to do it correctly. Its almost counterproductive to increase weight too fast.
Thanks ls, it’s the mind-ego battle. I know I need to keep it light to groove the pattern and reset the connections. But my ego wants me to lift as much as possible. Thanks for the 8/10 suggestion too.