Giles Greenwood has an exercise to help you keep the bar close.
This exercise makes a nice warm up for snatching, I like to do 3 sets of 10 reps, and it n needn’t impact on the rest of your workout so can be added into your training at any time.
The idea is to pull the bar nice and fast to the fully extended receiving position. This isn’t the same as a muscle snatch and isn’t an exercise to load up with weight. Empty bar is all you need.
The idea is to keep pulling the bar throughout the movement and the receive position sees you stopping the bar from being thrown in the air rather than being a press out.
If you’re swinging the bar around too much you’ll have to step forward (as I do on the 9th rep in the clip) or you’ll flop back on your heels (reps 1, 4, 7 and 8 for me in the set on the video) so you know when you’re not quite right.
Update: To all special experts: I wonder what your comments would have looked like if Lu Xiaojun was doing this exercise… I would first give it a try before commenting with stupidity like “Looks like a normal crossfit snatch.” Ask yourself this: Would you dare to say the same thing to his face? Ridicule a coach who wants to help his lifters? Sad!
Chances are you might want to listen to someone who snatched 180kg and coached hundreds of lifters.
Update 2: Giles took the time to comment on the exercise.
What I think this drill did for me was give me a good practical understanding of the relationship between various parts of the pull and where the bar ends up above my head.
As such it’s more of a proprioception exercise than a pure technique exercise but it should be done as a snatch pull so it does resemble the classical lift. I thought it helped me a lot when I learned it and seemed to translate to better technique as
I became more aware of the importance of my position at various parts of the pull and better at adjusting them to get the desired result. I thought that these skills translated to my lifting, particularly to finishing with a strong leg drive instead of just swinging at the bar with a big hip extension but also how all the positions from the start up contribute to this. It also does it in a simple way without complicated instructions – snatch pull to arms length and don’t step back or forwards when you catch the bar, simple. I’ve found it very good for people who bounce the bar on their thighs and go straight under without finishing the pull first.
I wouldn’t try to weight the movement as it’s not a strength exercise, empty bar is plenty, broom handle would do. It is important that the weight is pulled right up to the high receiving position and not pressed or caught with bent legs, it is quite easy to do wrong.
Really it’s purely a high pull with the weight so light that it goes right to arms length – the receiving position, on your toes, hips in, just tells you if the bar is traveling horizontally too much as you stagger around if it is.
As a fun warm-up / technical drill I think it’s a nice way to start a session.
I get a sense of achievement when the bar hits the top position hard but I don’t lose balance. It’s has helped me and others who I’ve trained to control excessive bouncing / swinging of the bar. Like most of these things – not the be-all-and-end-all but hopefully another useful tool for the kit bag.
Hope I’ve explained myself a bit better.
Looks like a normal crossfit snatch.
This is a good idea, I shall try them tomorrow
Looks like a good way to ingrain poor motor pathways…
Surely, this is just ingraining a suboptimal finish? I mean, why would you wan to promote just an upright finish with the weight thru the balls of the feet? I’m all for keeping the bar close but this doesn’t seem like the best option for doing so. Very strange…
What I think this drill did for me was give me a good practical understanding of the relationship between various parts of the pull and where the bar ends up above my head. As such it’s more of a proprioception exercise than a pure technique exercise but it should be done as a snatch pull so it does resemble the classical lift. I thought it helped me a lot when I learned it and seemed to translate to better technique as I became more aware of the importance of my position at various parts of the pull and better at adjusting them to get the desired result. I thought that these skills translated to my lifting, particularly to finishing with a strong leg drive instead of just swinging at the bar with a big hip extension but also how all the positions from the start up contribute to this. It also does it in a simple way without complicated instructions – snatch pull to arms length and don’t step back or forwards when you catch the bar, simple. I’ve found it very good for people who bounce the bar on their thighs and go straight under without finishing the pull first.
I wouldn’t try to weight the movement as it’s not a strength exercise, empty bar is plenty, broom handle would do. It is important that the weight is pulled right up to the high receiving position and not pressed or caught with bent legs, it is quite easy to do wrong. Really it’s purely a high pull with the weight so light that it goes right to arms length – the receiving position, on your toes, hips in, just tells you if the bar is traveling horizontally too much as you stagger around if it is.
As a fun warm-up / technical drill I think it’s a nice way to start a session. I get a sense of achievement when the bar hits the top position hard but I don’t lose balance. It’s has helped me and others who I’ve trained to control excessive bouncing / swinging of the bar. Like most of these things – not the be-all-and-end-all but hopefully another useful tool for the kit bag.
Hope I’ve explained myself a bit better.
Thanks for taking the time Giles.
105 snatch at athletic evolution vs 180 British Record?….
Questioning everything allows us to grow and develop. What I am not doing is questioning or comparing what Giles has accomplished (I can only dream of such success) – he is a fantastic coach and lifter. I’m purely questioning the drills use, given that most people struggle to keep the bar close and/or lose the bar forward. Giles has been kind enough to PM me about it. From what I can tell use of this drill, as with many others, will be massively dependant on the faults in the pull of the lifter.
Cheers
I’ve literally seen lu xiaojun doing this exercise. can’t find the video, but all of you who are jumping to the crossfit conclusion can pipe down now