The Snatch & Clean: Stay Over the Bar!

DON’T CLEAN LIKE THIS DOOFUS.

When learning to snatch and clean (sometimes even after we’ve learned!), a common error is that of pulling the barbell around the knees or - equivalently - making the back angle become more vertical too soon.

To fix this - cue yourself to “stay over the bar.” In other words, you need to keep your back relatively horizontal for longer than you think - in fact, roughly until after it passes your knees. Of course, the bar travels upward before this point, but it does so because of knee extension, i.e., you should be pushing the floor away from you like a leg press.

Here’s a mental picture: It’s raining, and you’ve decided to lift outside (not a good decision, mind you, but it’s too late now). Staying over the bar means that, from the start of the pull (i.e., your setup position) until just after it passes your knees, you want to stay leaned over so that your shoulders and upper back are keeping the middle of the bar from getting rained on (your shoulders will actually be slightly in front of the bar). If you raise your torso too soon, the bar gets wet, and that’s no good.

Eventually, your back angle will become more vertical as you reach what we call in the teaching progression the “jumping position,” but during the first part of the lift, stay over the bar. You’ll have a more vertical bar path (which means the bar doesn’t have to travel as far), and you’ll be able to accelerate the bar better as well.

We hope this helps you get stronger and live better!

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Fix Your Early Arm Bend on Your Cleans and Snatches!

Bent arms on a clean or snatch are a problem, so we’re going to try to solve this.

Figure 1: Becky reaches the top of the clean with straight arms, which is what we want.

In Figure 1, Becky demonstrates a clean with straight arms - which is what we want at this point in the lift.

In Figure 2, Becky demonstrates what we don’t want to see, which is a clean with an early arm pull (or “early arm bend”). In other words, we see her bend her arms before they are supposed to bend (for a real time view of this, watch the included video below).

Figure 2: Becky demonstrates an early arm pull (notice the bent elbows), which we don’t want.

The problem with bent arms is that they are deformable, i.e., they can change shape. If you’re Babe Ruth, and you want to hit a baseball, you want to do so with a bat - a rigid, non-deformable object. You don’t want to hit a baseball with a pool noodle because, no matter how strong or fast you are, you can’t effectively transfer that power into the baseball through a squishy pool noodle.

Likewise, during a clean (or snatch) you are trying to take all the power generated in your legs and hips and transfer it through your (hopefully) rigid spine and then down through your long, straight arms into the barbell. If your back isn’t rigid or if the arms aren’t straight, then those structures are deformable, which means they can absorb some of the power you’re trying to transmit to the bar. We don’t want this, so let’s cover some cues to solve this problem.

Cue #1: Long arms (or “straight arms”)
The first cue we’re going to use is the simplest approach. Just cue yourself “long arms” or “straight arms” (or even “straight elbows”). If this works, don’t make it any more complicated. The goal was long, straight arms, so we cued exactly that.

Cue #2: Flex your triceps (or “tight triceps”)
The job of the triceps is to extend (i.e., straighten) the elbow, so if you cue yourself to flex your triceps or tighten your triceps, then your elbows will be nice and straight, which is exactly what we’re looking for.

Cue #3: Shrug
If the first two cues don’t work, try cueing yourself to shrug at the top of the pull (i.e., the top part of the clean where your knees and hips are straight and you’re up on your toes - the top of the “jump”). A shrug is inherent to the movement anyway, but reminding yourself to aggressively shrug at the top of the clean will often solve a bent arm situation (very few people shrug with bent arms).

Cue #4: Leave it on the floor
This one requires some explanation before you actually try it out. The idea here is that you are endeavoring to have such long arms, straight arms that - even though you’re moving upward as you pull the bar off the floor - you are simultaneously trying to leave the bar on the floor. You’re trying to actively stretch your arms out so that, even while standing up, you’re trying to keep the bar down on the floor. It’s obviously an exaggerated mental picture - kind of a “go, go, Gadget-arms!” type of situation - but the cue itself shortens up to “leave it on the floor,” and it tends to work quite well.

We hope these cues help, and as always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better!

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Weightlifting Meets: Placing and Tiebreakers

A lifter’s place (i.e., 1st place, 2nd place, etc.) at a weightlifting meet is determined by the total, i.e., the sum of the lifter’s heaviest successful snatch and the lifter’s heaviest successful clean-and-jerk. Since two lifters can have the same total, let’s look at the IWF (International Weightlifting Federation) rules for determining place and - specifically - breaking any ties that may occur. Let’s look at the rules in order of application (the official IWF phrasing is given in bold) using our sample lifters Bob and Joe.

Rule #1: Best result - highest first: if identical, then:
This one is pretty simple - if Bob’s total is 170 kg and Joe’s total is 165 kg, then Bob wins because his total is higher. If they both total 170 kg, then we move on to Rule #2 . . .

Rule #2: Best Clean & Jerk result – lowest first; if identical, then:
Bob and Joe both total 170 kg in keeping with the example above. Bob’s best clean-and-jerk is 90 kg while Joe’s best clean-and-jerk is 100 kg. Bob’s clean-and-jerk is lower than Joe’s, so Bob wins.

This logic can seem a bit strange at first, and we’ll address it after going through the rest of the rules. However, if their best clean-and-jerks are both 90 kg, then we move on to Rule #3 . . .

Rule #3: Best Clean & Jerk result’s attempt number – least number of attempt first; if identical, then:
As stated above, Bob and Joe’s best clean-and-jerks are both 90 kg. Bob hit 90 kg on his 2nd attempt while Joe hit 90 kg on his 3rd attempt. Bob’s attempt number is lower than Joe’s (i.e., 2 is lower than 3), so Bob wins.

Again, if the logic seems strange, don’t worry - we’ll get to it in a moment. On the other hand, if they both clean-and-jerked 90 kg (i.e., their best) on their 2nd attempt, then we move on to Rule #4 . . .

Rule #4: Previous attempt(s) – least number of attempt first; if identical, then:
Now, it gets slightly more complicated. Again, in our example, Bob and Joe both clean-and-jerked 90 kg (i.e., their best) on their 2nd attempt. Bob attempted 85 kg on his first attempt while Joe opened at 86 kg. Since 85 is less than 86, Bob wins.

If they both hit 90 kg for their best clean-and-jerk on their second attempts, and they both opened at 85 kg, then we move on to Rule #5 . . .

Rule #5: Lot number – lowest first.
Last time - we promise. Bob and Joe both clean-and-jerk 90 kg (i.e., their best) on their 2nd attempt, and they both opened at 85 kg. Bob’s lot number is 15 while Joe’s lot number is 23. Bob’s lot number is lower than Joe’s, so Bob wins.

These rules can seem pretty convoluted, but if you’re actually watching the meet, it’s pretty simple. Rule #1 is fairly obvious - whoever lifts the most wins. After that, when it comes to the tiebreaker rules (i.e., Rules #2-5), the basic idea is that whoever hits that 170 kg total first - in time - wins. For example, if Bob establishes his 170 kg total at 1:30 p.m., and Joe establishes his 170 kg total at 1:40 p.m., Bob wins since he got to 170 kg earlier in the day than Joe did. Seriously - that’s it.

In the example for Rule #2, Bob’s total is cemented in place when he hits 90 kg for his last successful lift. That means his total is 170 kg before Joe ever steps on the platform to attempt 100 kg. In other words, Bob is rewarded for having staked his claim to 170 kg first - Joe could have gone for 101 kg to total 171 kg, but he instead went for the tie at 170 kg, and since Bob got there first, he wins.

All of the other rules that follow are simply worded to guarantee that this same concept applies in all situations, which can require some serious thought when considering how the order of lifting is determined in weightlifting (for more on that, read this article).

So simply remember this - in the case of a tie, if you hit the total first, you win.

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