Split Snatch?

[Sam Crish]

Hi Rip,
I've been having knee pain problems with snatch and overhead squat recently. After reading your and Polynomial's posts in the pistol squat thread I am thinking that, due to shoulder inflexibility, I am losing my back arch in order to get depth, then hamstrings relax, knees hurt, etc.
I saw that you do split snatches and was wondering if you'd recommend them in this situation.
Cheers,
Sam

[Mark Rippetoe]

Again, a split may be easier, but changing form does not fix the problem unless you know for sure that the form problem is unfixable due to anatomical issues. If you want to split snatch, that's fine, but it's not fine to want to switch to the split because you don't want to have to address an addressable form problem with the squat snatch.

[Sam Crish]

Fair enough.
What would lead someone to choose one style over the other? For example, why do you split?

[Mark Rippetoe]

I split because I am 53 and anatomically incapable of performing an overhead squat, in that when I try I spend the next 3 weeks rehabbing my thoracic spine.