Form check request - olympic lifts

[Chebass88]

Hello Coaches,

I am working on teaching myself the olympic lifts, and would like to request a form check, please.

First up - the snatch.

My analysis: very slight early arm pull, and poor stability in the split (resulting in sideways step). I'm planning to continue working on the high pulls, and need to do more footwork (previous suggestion) to land the split solidly.

Second, the C&J.

My analysis: REALLY early arm pull, and a slight press-out with the jerk. My intention was to stick with power cleans for a while, to focus on accelerating the bar, and not having to worry about getting low to catch it. I need to work on being more violent with my jerk, to avoid the small press-out at the top.

What do you think? Thank you very much for your time and analysis.

ian
(Chebass88)

P.S. Yes - it would be great to have bumper plates. Unfortunately, there is a very long list of things I need to spend money on before more plates, so steel plates will have to do for now.

[Michael Wolf]

Hey Ian -

It's cool that you're split snatching. I may be wrong, but I believe this is the first ever split snatch form check we've done in a year and a half of this coaches' forum. I also admire your gumption in doing the lifts with iron plates. Truly some old school awesomeness, all around. Now, the lifts:

Snatch
Hard to say for sure from this angle but looks like you start off a bit on your toes/too far over the bar; make sure your own weight is centered over mid-foot before pulling. If you're on your toes, rock back to mid-foot. Second, keep the bar in contact with your legs the whole way up, hitting (literally) your jumping position before actually jumping. The bar gets away from you a little here above the knee. Slight early arm-pull, as you mentioned.

Finally, the split. Your split is a bit too narrow, which is causing that instability you noticed. I can't remember where I heard it in reference to the split on the jerk, but think of the split happening on train tracks, not on a tightrope. Let your back knee bend and sink down a bit more, and turn your back foot a bit so your toes point slightly towards center, rather than straight ahead. When you stick the landing, you want the toes of both feet pointed slightly towards center, and the feet sufficiently wide enough apart to create a very stable landing. Footwork drills and lighter weighted reps will help you work on this.

D'Agostino may be the only national level lifter who split snatches, and he also happens to be on our staff, so I'll ask him to take a look as well, if he has time.

Clean & Jerk

Your own observations are correct here, too. I'll add a bit to those for you to work on.

First, same deal as the snatch with regards to keeping the bar close. Keep the bar on your legs until you hit the jumping position, then explode. Getting rid of that arm-pull will also help your rack, your elbows will be able to turn over faster when they don't have to disengage from yanking on the bar. In addition to the more aggressive jerk, I'd also like to see you jerk from a better position. This video from Kendrick Farris and Cara Heads Slaughter does a decent job of explaining the jerk positioning:



inb4 someone says something about linking to a video from Crossfit's youtube channel.

Finally, same deal with the split as on the snatch in terms of feet and width. And recover front leg first.

[Chebass88]

Mike,

Thank you very much for your time and thoughts. They are greatly appreciated.

ian

[Nick D'Agostino]

As usual Wolf is right on point here. There is nothing to add from the technical side of things for both lifts. Although I would suggest completely eliminating the high pull as an exercise if I read correctly that your doing them. The high pull is the arm bend enforcer, it teaches you to arm bend. I would also use the energy saved from eliminating high pulls to practice the lifts more. Keep up the good work man and post another check in a few weeks.

[Chebass88]

Thanks, Nick! I'll keep plugging away.