Snatch form check and a tight right hip

[m s]

Hi,

I've been working on my oly lifts using the two-factor model that is often discussed here. I only snatch and clean and jerk as for as weightlifting goes (and receive criticism and doubt for it at the club I train at.) I am not very flexible, but have noticed improvements as I continue to work on the lifts. My right hip is particularly tight, and it pulls my right knee in at the bottom of a snatch or clean. I think you can see it here, and it might be the reason I missed this snatch at 118kg:



How can I best approach fixing this? Do I just sit in an overhead squat each workout and push the knee out? Or should I maybe sit in a bodyweight squat and push the knee out with my arms?

How does the rest of the lift look?

Thank you.

[Mark Rippetoe]

I need to see more than a 4 second clip.

[m s]

Sure. Here is the last of 5 doubles at 102kg, with 2min rests, that I did the session before.

[Mark Rippetoe]

I don't see a twist in this double.

[m s]

If you look closely you can see my right knee gets pulled in slightly on both snatches as I go deeper. I feel it too. My questions are: Would you do anything other than snatch to become more flexible for the snatch? And do you see anything else that I need to do differently? Thanks for taking a look, Rip.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Looking carefully, I see your floor pull is the standard Olympic-coach low-hips version, which makes everything slower and harder. Flexibility is not an issue for anybody who can do a full-squat snatch. If something is wrong here, it's your floor pull and your strength training.

[m s]

Looking carefully, I see your floor pull is the standard Olympic coach low hips version, which makes everything slower and harder.

Since I do not see my hips shoot up, causing a back angle change, I'm guessing the problem is that my knees are too forward at the start of the pull and I need to sit back more. Is that right? Just like the clean where the common low-hips version causes an inefficient bar path and the bar to be too far forward?

If something is wrong here, it's your floor pull and your strength training.

My strength training is going pretty well, despite the objections of the coach at the club -- and I quote: "Doing heavy deadlifts will only make you slow. You are too strong and would benefit from doing clean pulls with 100kg less instead of deadlifting". Same shit I'm sure you've heard many times.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Since I do not see my hips shoot up, causing a back angle change, I'm guessing the problem is that my knees are too forward at the start of the pull and I need to sit back more. Is that right? Just like the clean where the common low-hips version causes an inefficient bar path and the bar to be too far forward?

Correct.

My strength training is going pretty well, despite the objections of the coach at the club -- and I quote: "Doing heavy deadlifts will only make you slow. You are too strong and would benefit from doing clean pulls with 100kg less instead of deadlifting". Same shit I'm sure you've heard many times.

Yes. "Too strong" is always such a problem.

[Steven Z]

Do you think if you caught the bar at full depth that that might make a difference? I'm no expert in proper snatch form but it looks like in your failed rep you come forward as you are continuing to descend after the catch. On your other sets it looks like you are catching the bar above parallel too. Maybe it's a non issue, but was just something I noticed.

[m s]

Been working on the proper start position. How is this?