Originally Posted by
MKuznetsov
Talked further to my coach and apparently I'm getting behind the bar too quickly and not using enough leg drive. My back and shoulders are coming into play too early. The fact that the bar goes around the knees during the first pull is also cause for concern. On top of that I'm not extending fully either. I've been told to do clean pulls without any arm bend at the top in order to conceptualize the first phase of the pull. There's also a passage in a book by Tommy Kono that sums up what I'm doing wrong. It reads as follows:
"Lifters are often taught to keep their hips low to start the pull, but in many instances they start with their hips too low. If the hips are too low there is a tendency of the bar going around the knees, or, as I term it, the bar "bubble out" as the pull off the floor starts. "Bubbling out" causes the back and shoulders to come into play early and the leg drive is not used efficiently.
By altering the start position so the hips are higher (but still lower than the shoulders), the shoulders will be well over the bar, and you place yourself in a better position to get the knees out of the path of the bar instead of the bar having to go around the knees."
- Kono, Weightlifting Olympic Style, page 169