Hip Drive in the deadlift?

[MikeD]

I competed in my first meet the weekend past (at 165lbs, I'm getting on that issue now...), and a couple people commented that I could drop my hips a bit lower and essentially use more hip extension to assist me off the floor. Never heard of it before, and the idea seems a bit abstract to me.

But I saw a few vids where the drive up of the hips occur at the same time as the bar breaking off the ground (NOT the lifter shifting forward and THEN the bar breaking, which you say is a fault in form by starting too far behind the bar).

Here's a vid from the meet, do you think my pulling optimal? Ever use the idea of "hip drive" in the bottom of the deadlift? Thanks for any responses.

450 DL:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJOAV...layer_embedded

[Mark Rippetoe]

It looks fine to me. These people want you to drop your hips lower so that you can "use more hip extension", but you are using exactly as much hip extension as is possible to use, because any hip extension that occurs before the bar moves doesn't actually contribute to lifting the bar. Look at Brad Gillingham deadlift and do it like he does. You basically are already.

[PVC]

If I'm not mistaken, at the beginning of a deadlift knee extension is what gets the bar from the floor up to your knees; the hip extensors simply maintain the back angle. Therefore it should be impossible to use "hip drive" in the deadlift in a way that is at all similar to how it is used in the squat.