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Thread: Eye Gaze and The Power Clean

  1. #1
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    Default Eye Gaze and The Power Clean

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    On pp. 191-192 of the book, you make it clear that an incorrect eye gaze can ruin a good Power Clean. And that the wrong eye gaze can cause the jump to happen when the bar is not mid-thigh.

    How does incorrect eyes gaze cause a poorly timed jump, specifically? I imagine it has to do with back angle.

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    It does. Keep going.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Scott Beall View Post
    On pp. 191-192 of the book, you make it clear that an incorrect eye gaze can ruin a good Power Clean. And that the wrong eye gaze can cause the jump to happen when the bar is not mid-thigh.

    How does incorrect eyes gaze cause a poorly timed jump, specifically? I imagine it has to do with back angle.
    If the eyes are too low, a more horizontal back angle is created, causing the bar to shift forward away from the shins at the start of the pull, moving the bar away from midfoot, leaving more leverage to be overcome on the way up. I imagine this situation has more to do with poor leverage than jumping at the right moment.

    If the eyes are too far upward, the back angle is excessively vertical, causing the knees to be shoved forward in the way of a vertical bar path. This situation will force the bar away from midfoot, leading again to unnecessary leverage to be overcome. In this case, it is likely that the jump will happen early with the bar at the knees rather than mid-thigh.

    In addition to poor leverage, the first situations facilitates a lack of good contact of the bar with the shins and thighs. And both situations do not create the proper back angle when the jump happens. The first instance has a back angle that is too horizontal at the jump, and the second with a back angle that is too vertical.

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    Good, Scott. Now, it's been my observation that the latter is more common, and it has more to do with an accentuated loop at the top of the pull caused by the exaggerated layback caused by the head following the eyes, but that's the way to think through it.

  5. #5
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    And of course with exaggerated layback, the force vector of the pull is directed in a horizontal fashion towards the lifter, wasting effort that could be better served on vertical force.

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