Power Clean - bar sitting in hands of olympians

Hi all,

From the blue book and SS YouTube videos its clear that the bar should not be sitting in the hands at the rack position. However I've noticed olympic lifters doing the exact opposite when racking, for both power cleans and cleans.

Olympian Oleksiy Torokhtiy in his power clean demo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O32-Ae8SNIc

Why hold the bar in the hands during the rack of a power clean if you aren't going to jerk? I would assume so that the rack position of a power clean is the same as the rack position of a clean and jerk regardless of wether you are clean and jerking or not. Torokhtiy is also catching/ racking the power clean quite low, compared to the SS model.

In our application of the power clean in the NLP there is obviously no jerk, so we just don't hold the bar in the hands which in turn allows the (novice) lifter to get the 'chest up and elbows forwards' easier?

Arm anthropometry (and flexibility) can make a huge difference in how people can grip the bar. As noted in the blue book we want the chest up, elbows pointed forward and the bar resting on the deltoids. For some people this will have the hand unable to grip the bar (and just their fingers on the bar). For others, this may enable them to still have a full grip on the bar. So the bar may look to be in the hands or not in the hands depending on the individual. But what everyone should be trying to avoid is a rack position where the elbows are down and **the weight of the bar** is on the arms and wrists instead of the shoulders. In the video you linked the bar is resting racked on the shoulders, but you could argue that his elbows are not up enough so more load than we would like is being transferred to the wrists and forearms.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Petar Velchev

From the blue book and SS YouTube videos its clear that the bar should not be sitting in the hands at the rack position.

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No. this is not correct. The bar is in the hands, but their positioning is such that the weight of the bar is not being held up only by the arms.

Your example video matches what we teach for the rack.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Petar Velchev

In our application of the power clean in the NLP there is obviously no jerk, so we just don't hold the bar in the hands which in turn allows the (novice) lifter to get the 'chest up and elbows forwards' easier?

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The bar is on the shoulder and in the hands both, with the weight of the bar on the body. Loosening the grip allows most people to rotate the bar faster for the catch, but this is not the same as not having the bar in the hands. Most people do this automatically, including most Olympic lifters. A minority will retain the hook grip through the clean and then release it before the jerk.

On occasion, there is someone who cannot keep his fingers under the bar when they first learn. Almost all of those people will be able to hold the bar in a better position over time. Some do not, including some weightlifters. You'll see them have to readjust their position between the clean and the jerk, adding a whole lot of extra work, time, and opportunity for error.

And it's a shitty power clean with a bad start position and a very low catch. But the music is cool.

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Originally Posted by stef

No. this is not correct. The bar is in the hands, but their positioning is such that the weight of the bar is not being held up only by the arms.

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Yes I meant that the weight is not being held only by the hands and arms. Not that 'not sitting in the hands' in the literal sense would mean there isn't any contact between the hands and bar. The way you describe it; loosening the grip, makes the most sense to me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mark Rippetoe

And it's a shitty power clean with a bad start position and a very low catch. But the music is cool.

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I don't need to defend him, but it's still a smooth looking 125kg pull though.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hayden-William Courtland

So the bar may look to be in the hands or not in the hands depending on the individual. But what everyone should be trying to avoid is a rack position where the elbows are down and **the weight of the bar** is on the arms and wrists instead of the shoulders.

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^ This is the main takeaway for me; we are trying to avoid the weight of the bar being carried in the hands. For every individual, as you said, the bar will look like its sitting differently in the hands. As Stef put it, the grip loosens. It's exactly the message from the blue book, just had to wrap my head around it.

Thanks

And he’s pulling with bent arms...