Get a Better Clean Rack Position | Olympic Weightlifting
/If your wrists and elbows despise you when you clean, you need to stop using your hands to rack your cleans. The shoulders catch the clean - not the hands - and we explain and demonstrate how to get this done.
(This is a Blast from the Past video originally published on 01/03/22.)
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The Jerk: Landing Positions
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Jonny performs a power jerk.
(This is a Blast from the Past article originally posted on 07/02/21.)
We’ve covered the three landing positions for both the snatch and the clean in past articles, and not surprisingly, there are also three landing positions for the jerk. Again, each has its own advantages, so let’s briefly cover them:
POWER JERK
Landing Position: Partial squat
Advantage: The power jerk is the simplest to learn as your feet do not travel far from their original position. Your feet don’t move very much as they barely leave the ground and then immediately land in a squat-width stance. You receive the bar overhead with your hips and legs in a partial-depth squat position. Due to its simplicity, the power jerk often serves as an intermediate step on the way to learning either the squat jerk or the split jerk.
Note: If your feet never leave the ground during this movement, many coaches will call this a push jerk to distinguish it from a power jerk (but some coaches use the terms interchangeably).
Jonny performs a squat jerk.
SQUAT JERK
Landing Position: Squat (i.e., full-depth squat)
Advantage: Of the three landing positions, the squat jerk allows lifters to drop the farthest under the bar, which means the bar doesn’t have to be lifted as high before locking it out overhead. With this in mind, there is great potential with the squat jerk, but this potential is tempered by two drawbacks - first, the lifter needs excellent flexibility to achieve what is essentially a narrow-grip overhead squat position in the receiving position for this jerk, and second, the lifter has relatively little stability from front-to-back due to the lack of a split (see the split jerk below), so the squat jerk is extremely unforgiving of jerks that are slightly forward or backward.
Jonny performs a split jerk.
SPLIT JERK
Landing Position: Split stance
Advantage: The split jerk allows the lifter to drop further under the bar than the power jerk without requiring the ability to drop into the squat jerk position, and due to the front-to-back split, the split jerk is more stable. For this reason, the split jerk is - by far - the most commonly executed jerk in training and competition.
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How to Front Squat: Improve Your Front Rack Position by Doing This!
/If your front squat rack position is terrible, and your cleans and front squats are causing you pain and discomfort, try this.
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Easy Setup for Deadlift, Snatch, & Clean
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Whether you’re deadlifting, cleaning, or snatching, we’d like a setup process that is as simple, efficient, and consistent as possible. With that in mind, we’re going to take the 5-step deadlift setup process and quickly learn how to apply it - with very minor modifications - to the clean and the snatch.
DEADLIFT SETUP
Let’s briefly recap the 5-step deadlift process, and for a more detailed treatment, you can watch the included video.
Step 1: Stance
The stance is narrow (heels about hip width apart), your shins are one inch from the bar, which places the bar over the middle of your foot, and your toes are pointed out slightly (roughly 10-15 degrees).
Step 2: Grip
Bend over and take your grip on the bar. Your grip is relatively narrow - just outside the legs. Don’t let your shins touch the bar during this step, and DO NOT move the bar (i.e., don’t let the bar roll forward or backward at all).
tyler demonstrates the deadlift start position and is ready to pull.
Step 3: Shins
Bend your knees slightly until your shins touch the bar (this means your hips should drop, but only a bit). Also, shove your knees out slightly - your knees should touch the insides of your arms. Again, do not move the bar.
Step 4: Chest
Squeeze your chest up to set your back in rigid, flat extension. Your hips DO NOT drop during this step, and you still DO NOT move the bar.
Step 5: Pull
Pushing the floor away from you with your legs, drag the bar up your legs until you’ve locked out the bar at the top of the lift.
CLEAN SETUP
Moving on to the clean, there are two small changes. Step 1 (stance) is the same, and we then encounter the first change in Step 2 (grip): your grip for the clean is one hand-width wider than it was for the deadlift.
maddie demonstrates the start position for the clean.
Step 3 (shins) brings about the other small change. You still bring your shins to the bar by bending your knees slightly, but since your grip is a bit wider, you also shove your knees out a little more than you did in the deadlift so that the knees still touch the insides of your arms.
After this, you then move on to Step 4 (chest) and Step 5 (pull).
SNATCH SETUP
Moving on to the snatch, we have three changes. The first change shows up right away in Step 1 (stance): point your toes out wider than they were in the deadlift and clean - roughly 30 degrees (you’ll see the reason for this shortly).
The second change arrives in Step 2 (grip): your grip is significantly wider than it was in the deadlift or the clean. It should be wide enough that the bar hangs at the crease of your hips when you are holding the bar with straight arms in a completely upright (i.e., standing) position.
becky demonstrates the start position for the snatch.
The third and final change shows up in Step 3 (shins): once again, you still bend your knees to bring your shins to the bar, but since your grip is significantly wider than that of the deadlift or clean, you also shove your knees out significantly wider than you did with the other two lifts. This very noticeable “knees out” position is why you point your toes out quite a bit in Step 1 of the snatch setup.
After Step 3, you then move on to Step 4 (chest) and Step 5 (pull).
SUMMARY
To recap, the 5 steps are always as follows: stance, grip, shins, chest, and pull. However, the execution of certain steps changes due to the grip width of the clean and the snatch.
As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.
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The Clean: Landing Positions
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Maddie performs a power clean.
(This article is a Blast from the Past article originally posted on 06/04/21.)
A couple of weeks ago, we covered the three landing positions for the snatch. There are also three landing positions for the clean, and as with the snatch landing positions, each has its own advantages. Let’s briefly cover them here:
POWER CLEAN
Landing Position: Partial squat (i.e., partial-depth front squat)
Advantage: The power clean is the simplest to learn as your feet do not travel far from their original pulling position. It also doesn’t require learning how to perform a front squat as in the . . .
Maddie performs a clean.
CLEAN (AKA full clean or squat clean)
Landing Position: Front squat (i.e., full-depth front squat)
Advantage: Of the three landing positions, the full clean allows lifters to lift the heaviest weights as this lower receiving position means the bar doesn’t have to be lifted as high before racking it on the shoulders.
Maddie performs a split clean.