A little added bump .. a better snatch balance

Tuesday May 12, 2009

Last night I ordered, downloaded and then read cover to cover the newly available Olympic lifting primer e-book, More Power, by Randy Hauer, RKC Team Leader . In a nutshell, it is superbly written and the $15 price makes it an exceptional value. I was extremely fortunate that Randy was my team leader at my RKC certification .. he is extremley knowledgable in all aspects kettlebell lifting and excels in communicating ideas clearly and precisely. In particular, I would have never passed my RKC cert without the assistance he provided in correcting the majority of my kettlebell lifting flaws (I'm still working on some these).

At the time I did not know about his background in Olympic Lifting (he is an accomplished masters level competitor, a USAW senior instructor and USAW sports performance coach). Not surprisingly, his gift for brevity and precision also applies to his teaching of the Olympic lifts. Tonight I was able to directly put to use one the ideas presented in the e-book as described later below:

Evening Olympic lifting session:

Z-Health Neural Warmup Level II Dynamic Joint Mobility

Snatch (kg):
20 x 2 x 5 Hang-snatch + Snatch-balance
32 x 2 x 5 Snatch + Snatch-balance
32 x 1 x 3 Snatch
40 x 1 x 4 Snatch
40 x 1 x 5 Snatch-balance
40 x 1 x 4 Snatch + Snatch-balance
45 x 2 x 3 Snatch
45 x 2 x 1 Snatch-balance (PR)
45 x 3 x 3 Snatch
50 x 2 x 2 Snatch
56 x 3 x 2 Snatch
60 x 1 x 2 Snatch
65 x 1 x 2 PSnatch + Snatch
65 x 1 x 1 miss

Front Squat (kg): 6x 3 @ 80%
70 x 1 x 5
82 x 1 x 3
82 x 1 x 2
82 x 4 x 3

With the exception of the 1st 65kg snatch which power-snatch with a too-wide of a stance, all snatches were full squat snatches. In particular the double with 60kg represented the first time I was able to squat snatch this weight. The last miss with 65kg was actually my best 65kg attemp as I was able too quickly drop under it .. but unfortunately I lost my balance and had to ditch it. Once I can repeat this with regularity my snatch numbers will go up.

One of the key snatch-balance points I got from Randy's e-book was to dip slightly and then jump up to move the bar off the traps prior to exploding downward into the full OHS bottom position. Only the slightest bump was required and as noted by Randy, this is how the change of direction is performed in a full snatch, namely the pull's extension upward followed by an explosive pushing under of the bar into the overhead squat bottom position. For the first time I was easily able to perform snatch-balances with 40kg and even a solid single with 45kg.

As for the Front Squats, these were the most difficult they have ever been with this weight. Prior to getting pneumonia I had worked up to 6x6 with this weight completing the volume phase of the Russian Strength Routine. My second set tonight with 82kg, I could only to a double as my clean rack was off. Fortunately, I was able to complete sets three through six of triples. On the other hand, I did perform a considerable number of squats with the snatches so I'm not too concerned about the difficulty I had with these.