Power Leak in Cleans and Jerks

[sciomako]

Hi Rip,

This was originally brought up in SS's facebook group:

Shared album - John Yu - Google Photos - Lydia Valentin, 140kg Clean

Shared album - John Yu - Google Photos - Alexey Lovchev, 264kg Clean and Jerk World Record

Weren't there power leaks resulting in sub-optimal pulls?

If so, are there legitimate reasons why world-class elites do that?

Thanks
--
John

[Mark Rippetoe]

Their coaches haven't taught them how to pull correctly.

[Scaldrew]

Do you think bending the arm like this is compensation for the bar being forward of the midfoot in that it helps to have the bar higher up on the highs sooner or is it just poor coaching and no "bodily correction" (comparable to "hips shooting up" if the descent on the squat is too vertical)? I agree it's poor coaching, but I was wondering if maybe the body was correcting for another mistake is some way or another.

[Mark Rippetoe]

It's just an uncorrected bad habit.

[Smyth]

If I were their coach, I'd say "Don't do that thing where you bend your arms."

[Scaldrew]

It's just an uncorrected bad habit.

Cool, thanks.