How to Fix Your Snatch

 

This is the first in a series of posts showing specific Olympic lifting issues and how to correct them.

Problem:

Here’s a 67.5 kg (148 lbs) Hang Snatch:

He does a great job of getting the bar up into the hips so that he can boost the weight overhead.

However, the bar floats upward from his hips to the overhead position.

How can he make that transition from the hips to overhead quicker (turnover rate)?

Solution:

He needs to attack the bar more as he boosts upwards from the hips. How do you do that?

Here’s one solution. Do each of the following exercises for 3 sets of 5 reps:

• Practice vertical jumps, focusing on violently exploding upwards with the hips

• Mid Hang Snatch Pulls, jumping at the top (to emphasize exploding with the hips)

• Mid Hang and Hang Snatches (keep the violent hip action)

• Tall Snatches to develop speed under the bar (turnover)

Here is our lifter (we’ll call him lifter A for clarity’s sake) for this round of analysis:

What does he need to fix?

Problem:

He is late extending his body into the bar, and as a result the bar loops forward.

This is a combination of a couple things:

• Shoulders late coming back behind the bar
• Hips late scooping forward

Both of these issues are connected; since lifter A is slow with the shoulders, the hips also come forward late, which contributes to the bar being pushed forward.

This is lifter A when the bar is approximately to the knees.

Lifter A actually doesn’t look too far off from frame 3 of the below series, but if you watch the video again, you’ll see that lifter A fails to continue bringing the shoulders back until right before the boost (end) of the pull. That shifting of the shoulders needs to happen more gradually, like you see below.

Wonderful sequence photo from Nat Arem of Tima Turieva, 2013 World Champion (63kg)

For video comparison, watch this video of Apti Aukhadov (silver medalist) snatching at the 2012 Olympic Games.

See how much earlier and more gradually Aukhadov gets to vertical?

Solution:

Hip Snatch - First, let’s limit the range of motion and work on a more vertical torso by doing hip snatches. Keep the shoulders back and the torso vertical while bending the knees enough to gain explosion driving upward.

Here is Kendrick Farris, 2-time Olympian, hip snatching with a vertical torso:

Snatch Pull from the Mid Hang – Next, work snatch pulls from the mid hang position. Notice how I start moving the shoulders back before anything else, soon followed by the hips scooping forward and up.

Snatch from the Mid Hang – Once the proper motion becomes engrained from the pulls above, start doing full snatches from the mid hang. Remember to bring the shoulders back so that you can properly hinge at the hips.

Hang Snatch – Now start increasing the range of motion by doing snatch hang pulls (demonstrated below by Jon North), and then full snatches from the hang.

Snatch with a Pause Below the Knee – After hang snatches, start moving with the bar from the ground. Often, the lifts start to unravel as the bar passes the knees. To combat this, throw in a pause for one second below the knee.

All of the above drills should help the lifter get in a more upright position as they drive the bar upwards.

If you are still having trouble, then consider doing the RNT drill I first saw done by Wil Fleming, a top online lifting coach. His suggestion is a bit unusual, so be careful. It involves using elastic bands that tug the bar forward just enough to teach the lifter how they need to pull back.

RNT Snatch Drill -

Do you have any other tips for how to fix looping the bar forward? Still not sure how to fix your lifts?