lol, if you can't figure out how to fix your knees, as I mentioned in #5 above, then you can't drive your ass up hard out of the bottom, because you're lifting your chest, not your hips. This has been addressed so many times that it really gets tiresome to see it posted again. ASM is right about effort, but you're squatting in a way that limits your ability to drive the bar up hard -- you're doing the high-bar version. This is back-angle/hip-drive related, very fundamental stuff. Come to a seminar, and I can fix it in about 5 minutes.