Relearning to Pull

Sunday May 31, 2009

The lifting session today went very well. At the end we worked on snatch pulls both from the hang and floor. It turns out that this important skill has to be totally mastered in order to properly handle heavier weights. Although I have made some progress, I have to work harder on:

• Using my legs to get my hips moving first .. I use my arms too much
• Stay on heels as long as possible while fully extending .. I get off my heels onto my toes before extending too early.
• The extension should be completely vertical .. most of the time the bar is out in front or I am leaning back pulling with my arms.
  

The last few sets Coach Fuller had me hold onto the bar after the pull instead of just dropping it. It idea was to get a feel of extending completely vertically. If I was pulling either forward or backward, holding onto the bar exaggerated it. When I did it correctly for a rep or two the bar just hung directly downward after the pull. Its still a hit or miss .. we agreed to focus on this the next few sessions.

Early afternoon Olympic lifting session:

Z-Health Neural Warmup Level II Dynamic Joint Mobility

Snatch (kg):
20 x 2 x 5 hang-snatch, snatch-balance
40 x 3 x 2
40 x 1 x 5 snatch + 3 snatch-balance
45 x 1 x 2
50 x 1 x 2
55 x 1 x 2
60 x 1 x 2
65 x 1 x 2 1 miss
65 x 1 x 1 miss
60 x 1 x 1 miss

Cleans (kg):
60 x 1 x 3
65 x 1 x 3
70 x 1 x 3
75 x 6 x 3

Snatch Pulls:
60 x 5 x 3
65 x 3 x 3

The cleans felt very heavy. When I finished my first set of triples with 75kg, it didn't seem possible I would be able to complete five more sets but I did. The key was a more powerful pull and quicker whipping of my elbows. Coach Fuller had me focus on recovering from the clean as quickly as possible. Also instead of immediately ditching the bar, I repositioned my feet and got set as if I was going to jerk it. Then I dropped the bar. The idea hear is get used to the feel of the bar after after the clean recovery.