Throughout the month I will be showing you a high school athlete that I started working with a month and a half ago. This is his tenth meeting with me. During the first nine meetings I evaluated the range of motion of his joints, taught him how to prepare his torso for lifting weights, how to Back Squat, Press, Good Morning, Front Squat, Overhead Squat, RDL, and Push Press.
I spent twenty eight minutes teaching him how to perform the Hang Power Snatch! Don’t tell me learning the Olympic lifts take to long.
So why is it you are not using the Olympic lifts in your program. Don’t listen to functional training physical therapists acting like strength coaches when they tell you how to train an athlete.
Drop your big bouncy balls and pick up a barbell!
In part one of this article I will discuss the progression I use to teach the Olympic Lifts from the hang position.
In order to perform both Olympic Lifts correctly and efficiently, you must be able to perform six exercises with proper technique. These exercises are the foundation to learning the snatch and clean:
1. Standing Press ending with straight arms (front and back)
2. Good Morning (bending at least 45 degrees at the hip with a slight arch in the back and a slight bend at the knees)
3. Front Squat (hands on the bar)
4. Overhead Squat (at least to parallel)
5. RDL
6. Push Press
Performing these exercises correctly will ensure that your body is ready to handle the stress that the Olympic Lifts put on your body. These preparatory exercises are accomplishing three things:
1. Development of the range of motion you will need in order to prevent injury
2. Proper strength and stability development of the torso and posterior chain
3. Becoming familiar with the positions you will need to get in during the execution of the Olympic lifts
These exercises must be performed correctly in order to go on to the Olympic lifts. Think of the old sayings, “You have to learn to walk before you can run” or “A house is only as strong as its foundation”. I’m sure these sayings were phrased by an old Weightlifting coach.
I have coached hundreds of athletes and I have never come across one who couldn’t eventually perform the lifts with acceptable technique. I have seen athletes get it in a week while others take months. However, they all started with these six basic exercises. Once the six exercises were mastered, it took just a few more meetings to teach them the snatch and clean.
In this progression, one exercise is done at a time, until the skill is acquired, then you move on to the next one. Each exercise builds on the previous one.
The Starting position: (use the RDL as a reference) 1. Place your hands on the bar using your overhead squat grip.
2. Place your feet SLIGHTLY closer than you would if you were performing an Olympic squat.
3. Rotate elbows to the side and slightly curl the wrist under.
4. Lower the bar to the middle of the thigh. This bar position will vary depending on the length of your arms and torso. You do not want to go below the knee.
5. Shift your weight to the middle of your foot as you would if you were performing a vertical jump. Make sure your feet are flat on the ground
6. Make sure your shoulders are in front of the bar.
Jump Pull (use push press as reference) 1. Once you are in the starting position, jump straight up. Initiate the jump with leg and hip extension.
2. Make sure your arms remain straight throughout the drill.
3. Keep the bar close to the body at all times.
4. Make sure your legs and hips are fully extended at the finish and allow your shoulders to shrug.
5. You should be in a straight line at the finish.
6. If done correctly, you should feel the energy of the bar travel up thru your arms.
Olympic Row 1. The purpose of this drill is to teach proper elbow movement and bar path.
2. Use an empty bar or stick.
3. Rotate elbows out, while keeping your chest up.
4. Raise your elbows up and to the side keeping your elbows higher than your wrists and the bar close to the body. It doesn’t matter how high the bar goes, this is not a traditional upright row.
(Please note that while performing the Olympic lifts, you are not pulling the bar up with your arms; you are pulling your body under the bar.)
High Pull
1. This is a combination of the Jump Pull and Upright Row.
2. I use this drill to get people accustomed to moving the bar vertically by using leg and hip extension (as in a push press).
3. After the powerful leg and hip extension, allow the bar to rise.
4. Use the arms to guide the bar up along your body. Do not initiate bar movement with arm pull.
5. Keep the bar along the line of the body (as you did with the Olympic Row).
6. The body should be in a straight line at the finish.
Foot Work/Receiving Drill
1. This teaches how to quickly change direction and how to lower the center of gravity efficiently.
2. This teaches proper foot and hip action and concentrates on getting hips down and back as quickly as possible.
3. Your feet should pop out SLIGHTLY.
4. Your feet should end up in the same position in which you front squat.
5. The hip action corresponds with the action of pulling yourself under the bar.
The Finish (Hang Power Snatch)
Once you have extended, you must now immediately reverse your direction by using the footwork drill. In order to keep the bar along the line of the body as the bar rises and you go under, you must rotate your elbows around the bar, not the bar around the body (as in a reverse curl). This is the reason a bar designed for weightlifting will rotate smoothly.
Receive the bar at arms length with your palms facing the ceiling. Do not press the bar upwards. Remember that you are pushing yourself under the bar.
Your shoulders, elbows, wrist, and ears should be in a line.
Think about stretching the bar like a piece of rubber tubing.
I teach the Hang Power Snatch first for three reasons:
1. It requires a fuller extension of the legs and hips.
2. It eliminates the tendency to arm pull.
3. Most people do not have problems with the finish position in the snatch.
There are seven laws for the snatch and clean. These must be obeyed at all times or you will be banished from the weightroom:
1. In your starting position, your shoulders must be ahead of the bar and the bar slightly ahead or even with the knees.
2. Start with only a slight bend in the knee. You should feel a little stretch at the hamstring.
3. The bar must remain along the line of the body. These are vertical movements. There is no swinging in Weightlifting.
4. The bar must move quickly. These are POWER exercises. If you cannot move the bar quickly then lower the weight.
5. When you catch the bar, your feet should be at squat width. Thats OLYMPIC squat not SUMO squat.
6. You must never receive the bar with your hips forward.
7. If you do the Olympic Lifts at a fitness gym, at least three people will ask you “what muscle does that work”. Tell them arms, maybe then more people would be interested in learning how to do them.
I hope that this article brings you a clearer understanding of how to perform the Olympic lifts from the hang. Additionally, you now understand the preparation needed in order to achieve maximal results. Bottom line, don’t just go to the gym and start throwing a bar around. Take the time to prepare your body and to pay attention to doing things correctly.
In the next article I will discuss the progression I use to teach the Jerk
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