Hang Clean form check

[strideknight]

Hey guys, I realized my power cleans are complete crap. I've been doing too much weight so I've been cheating and using my arms to get it up.

I don't trust myself anymore, so if you fine folks wouldn't mind taking a look at the hang cleans and see if they look good, I'll work my way back up slowly. Sorry it's not from the front quarter, just side.
Video: http://youtu.be/06EF5zts3DI?t=1m15s

Thanks all.

[John Petrizzo]

strideknight,

These don't look terrible. It is hard to tell from this angle, but your stance looks a little wide. I don't see a significant arm pull like you wrote about you doing with heavier weights. You need to be more aggressive with your rack and get your elbows around faster. Post a video of some power cleans so we can see what those look like.

JP

[Dastardly]

There are some cleans from the floor in that video aswell John.

Strideknight; It does not seem you have the flexibility/back strength to hold your back flat during your cleans. When you are able to do this the movement will be muc much more efficient and feel better too. It may be worth leaving the power clean till you have your deadlift right. Your cleaning ability will not suffer for this, once you have control of your back your clean will go up despite not training it.

In terms of arm pull, I think you are fine. You are clearly using your body/hips to provide the acceleration. This is very apparent when you run out of steam and fail a few times. Your hang cleans are on the right track, as john said your rack needs to be a little more agressive. The best way I have found to get this done is to actually drop lower into a deeper squat. You may also want to place the bar a little higher on your thighs for the start "jump" position.

[IlPrincipeBrutto]

Hello,

difficult to tell from the side angle, but I think you could widen your grip a tad. If you hold the bar with wider hands, your back will be a bit further forward when the bar is in the 'jump' position; this means it will sweep a bigger angle when you explode, giving you more acceleration. Also, you will be forced to keep your shoulders over the bar a little more, which is something that helps.
This is clearly not gospel, more like an idea you might want to experiment with.

IPB

[strideknight]

Thanks John, I'll try to jam my elbows out more and post a PC vid in the next couple days.

Dastardly, I noticed the rounding, and actually my wife pointed it out to me too, because normally my back is really good. I'm at 5x320 on my deads and I don't have a problem keeping tightness, so I'm not sure exactly why it was happening there. I think it's two things 1) I had been keeping my hips lower, instead I was trying to jam them up as far as I could go 2) Because of that, with the belly, I had to round my back, plus all the extra fat :/
That being said, I'm going to record my deads tomorrow anyways to make sure I'm not doing that bullshit.

So it shouldn't be a huge deal if I drop my hips a little then, should it? It's a way more comfortable starting position for me.