Power Clean Form Check

[Billy]

I have been training for a while but this is my first attempt at power cleans. I carefully followed the teaching progression in the book and then did my working sets at 50kg (I tried 60kg but found it too heavy to be able to rack every time).

Power Clean Form Check 50kg x 3 - YouTube

There are obviously a lot of problems with it, but I think the main one I need to work on first is that everything happens at the wrong time (my feet land, then the bar lands on my shoulders, then I finish raising my elbows).

Believe it or not, I am trying ridiculously hard to get my elbows up at the same time as the bar lands on my shoulders. I am trying to slam my elbows up and into the middle into an imaginary pair of hands like it says in the book and is shown in the videos. You can a perfect example of this in the second rep, where my elbows violently snap forwards where I am attempting to do this, but then they just stop before they are raised all the way. I have the flexibility to get into the rack position but I just can't make myself do it when I need to for some reason.

As for my feet not landing at the same time as racking the bar, the book says: “The simultaneity of the two events is fairly automatic, and not too many people will stomp out of phase with the rack because it just feels too weird.” While I agree it definitely feels weird/wrong, it doesn't happen automatically for me and I just can't seem to force it to happen at the same time, so I don't really know what to do about this either.

Two other issues I can see...

- Landing in a split stance. The book says this is often associated with racking issues so I think I should probably try and fix my rack before focusing on this.

- The weight shifting back onto my heels when I land.

Thank you for your time.

[Tom Campitelli]

Your main problems here are that you are moving very slowly and catching the bar in your hands. The reason your elbows go up slowly is that your first receive the bar in your hands, then lower it to your shoulders, and then raise the elbows. Receive the bar on the shoulders. This should solve the problem. Also, your jump needs to be faster. Touch the thigh and explode.

[Billy]

Your main problems here are that you are moving very slowly and catching the bar in your hands. The reason your elbows go up slowly is that your first receive the bar in your hands, then lower it to your shoulders, and then raise the elbows. Receive the bar on the shoulders. This should solve the problem. Also, your jump needs to be faster. Touch the thigh and explode.

Thanks Tom. I am currently doing the Texas Method with cleans on recovery day. Do you think it would be a good idea for me to practice my clean technique at the end of every workout with a light weight (just the bar plus technique plates)? As I think I will struggle to get the hang of it if doing cleans just once a week.

[Tom Campitelli]

Yeah, so long as you have time for it and it feels good, more practice will help.