Low Bar Carryover to High Bar Squats

[meetch]

Tom, I assume that's you at the 1:02 mark? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjUQ0j5ipZE

Congratulations to you and your athletes. They are some good-looking, strong girls.

During one recent Cal Strength video, I saw the coach sitting on the blocks looking at his phone while an athlete was making a max attempting in one of the quick lifts. Purely from a coaching methodology perspective, I was disgusted. Put the fucking phone away.

[Tom DiStasio]

What I was asking was for people who want to get that higher number on the squat clean, but are not the most naturally coordinated, and may not be able to easily separate the two movements. I've met a few people like this, and they seem to keep better form on the catch (not lose it forward) if they practice primarily high-bar, even if they don't have quite as good of results in the raw strength department.

The clean, snatch, and jerk are learned skills. This is something that needs to be understood. THEY ARE SKILLS! They need to be practiced, and practiced often. The olympic lifts benefit from learning these skills to a higher degree (with more practice) and some people are just more coordinated/skilled than others (better athletes). No matter who you are, how skilled you are, or how athletic you are, getting stronger benefits the olympic lifts. Strength is always the driver for all of these movements and being stronger allows for the lifter to practice the skill that is the olympic lift at a higher level.

[steven-miller]

Hello Tom,

congratulations on the excellent work with your athletes. Did you make changes to their snatch and clean techniques towards an SS style pull also?

[Tom DiStasio]

meetch that's me in the video. steven-miller since then (about a year ago) I have made some technical changes to their pull. cecily began her lifting with another coach and started with low hips, but she is getting much more consistent with the higher hip position, mary is pretty good with a high hip position. both of them are taught to pull in a straight line with the bar over the mid-foot. Everything I coach is pretty consistent with the starting strength model.