Does Anyone Else Suck at the Jerk?

I have been focusing more on olympic lifting lately, and realized that I really really suck at jerks. I can snatch 95,I can clean 130,and I can only jerk 105.
I have been so frustrated it’s driving me crazy. My best strict press is 92, I recently push pressed 105 for a triple, and I can barely jerk 105.

I will post a video so maybe one of you guys can find something that I can’t figure out.

Video would help, so that someone here who actually has an eye for technique (ie not me) can lend a hand.

And to answer your question, no I don’t suck at the jerk (relative to my clean, anyways). My best strict press is only around 80ish kilos, and I’ve clean and jerked 162.

So what is the problem exactly? Your technique isn’t very good? Don’t worry, just get stronger and the technique will come over time. The getting strong part is the hard part.

[quote]TheJonty wrote:
Video would help, so that someone here who actually has an eye for technique (ie not me) can lend a hand.

And to answer your question, no I don’t suck at the jerk (relative to my clean, anyways). My best strict press is only around 80ish kilos, and I’ve clean and jerked 162.[/quote]

Wow, how does the 162 feel on your arms and shoulders?

[quote]Wrah wrote:
So what is the problem exactly? Your technique isn’t very good? Don’t worry, just get stronger and the technique will come over time. The getting strong part is the hard part.

[quote]TheJonty wrote:
Video would help, so that someone here who actually has an eye for technique (ie not me) can lend a hand.

And to answer your question, no I don’t suck at the jerk (relative to my clean, anyways). My best strict press is only around 80ish kilos, and I’ve clean and jerked 162.[/quote]

Wow, how does the 162 feel on your arms and shoulders?[/quote]

Big weights in the jerk feel fine, it’s just that for whatever reason I am an absolute pussy when it comes to strict overhead pressing.

And I will second the getting strong part. Strength is becoming a limiting factor in my cleans and it is driving me up the wall.

If your saying you have push pressed (for a triple) a weight you cannot jerk, then it seems that you need to focus on improving your jerk technique. Push pressing a weight for 3 should indicate that the weight CAN easily be jerked (in terms of strength).

Jerk boxes?

And I do kind of suck at the jerk. In fact, when I lift heavier in the c&j, my clean is usually strong, but I lack the skill to then immediately transfer the strength into the jerk movement (my shoulders often feel weak - and I struggle to maintain sufficient focus). Again, I think this can only be fixed by jerking (lol). Alas, I have no access to jerk boxes. Though I might build some for the garage over xmas if I can produce the money for wood (which is not cheap)

[quote]yarni wrote:
If your saying you have push pressed (for a triple) a weight you cannot jerk, then it seems that you need to focus on improving your jerk technique. Push pressing a weight for 3 should indicate that the weight CAN easily be jerked (in terms of strength).

Jerk boxes?

And I do kind of suck at the jerk. In fact, when I lift heavier in the c&j, my clean is usually strong, but I lack the skill to then immediately transfer the strength into the jerk movement (my shoulders often feel weak - and I struggle to maintain sufficient focus). Again, I think this can only be fixed by jerking (lol). Alas, I have no access to jerk boxes. Though I might build some for the garage over xmas if I can produce the money for wood (which is not cheap)[/quote]

Not really imo.

The OP lacks speed, power and or technique. This is why he can’t jerk more then 105kg but he can push press 105kg for a triple.

MP: 85 @ 89
Push Press 112kg - only did this for about 7 weeks out of 11yrs of training and that was in March
Power Jerk 130
Split Jerk 147
failed 150 about 12x in competition?!

A video would really help us out to see where your failing.

Learning to Jerk is a skill movement with timing that needs work along with good technique for foot placement and dipping the right amount, moving the hips up and having them go forwards after your feet goe on to your toes.

If you kick your back leg out too much and your hips don’t go forwards the bar will be in front and it will just fall to the ground.

Koing

[quote]Koing wrote:

Not really imo.

The OP lacks speed, power and or technique. This is why he can’t jerk more then 105kg but he can push press 105kg for a triple.

Koing[/quote]

Got it. My point was that by concentrating on improving technique (speed/power/etc), the jerk max should match the pushpress max, and no doubt go on to surpass it considerably.

Thanks for the tips in the P.M Koing

[quote]yarni wrote:

[quote]Koing wrote:

Not really imo.

The OP lacks speed, power and or technique. This is why he can’t jerk more then 105kg but he can push press 105kg for a triple.

Koing[/quote]

Got it. My point was that by concentrating on improving technique (speed/power/etc), the jerk max should match the pushpress max, and no doubt go on to surpass it considerably.

Thanks for the tips in the P.M Koing[/quote]

Reading over my last post I didn’t explain it very well and I came across as a bit of a c*nt.

So once again to recap and with less of the c*ntness.

Being able to Push Press something doesn’t mean you can Split Jerk anymore. Split Jerking is a learnt skill with variables (foot placemtn, hip driving properly, dipping at the correct depth and tempo for your skill set and for where you are lin lifting).

The OP needs to get a video so we can see why he is not able to split jerk more.

Koing

I suck cock at Jerking too. What I find is that if im diligent with the Glute squeeze and the snap up of the shoulders I go ok. I have only Jerked 140 in training but can Clean 150. So i need more speed and technique on the jerk. Im sure it will come in due time with more reps. The funny thing is that I can Mil press decently and push press about 125. So it’s about technique and not strength for me. Could be that im always delirious at the top of the clean.

-chris

[quote]Avocado wrote:
I suck cock at Jerking too. What I find is that if im diligent with the Glute squeeze and the snap up of the shoulders I go ok. I have only Jerked 140 in training but can Clean 150. So i need more speed and technique on the jerk. Im sure it will come in due time with more reps. The funny thing is that I can Mil press decently and push press about 125. So it’s about technique and not strength for me. Could be that im always delirious at the top of the clean.

-chris[/quote]

I’m no where near push pressing 125kg!!! What can you Power Jerk?

Koing

Here are a couple vids of my jerks. As you can see I consistantly press out at the top. I think this was only like 95 kilos. The worst part is I just hit a 97 kilo snatch (pr) last night and I miss the last attempt @ 95 on a clean and jerk.

Thoughts?


After watching the videos I think that it could be one of two thing (or both). First is simply timing. It appears that you are stomping your front foot out prior to having your arms fully extended. Don’t do that. Your foot lands a split second after your arms lock.

Now this second one might cause the first one. It will sound a bit weird, but it is a situation that I have experienced myself. You might have weak quads. I for the longest time had the weakest jerk. It looked in many ways similar to yours. I would have a good drive but would never get under it correctly. After years of lifting I finally figured out that my quads weren’t strong enough to get deep enough catch the weight at the proper height.

Which bring me to a kind of side bar. Tommy Kono has talked about proper squat technique for weight lifting. Make sure you are squatting correctly. This helped me a ton. I could squat alright, but I was back squatting and letting my butt go back and turning it into very deep narrow stance PL squat.

One last thing. Make sure that you understand the the lift. The jerk is not about throwing the bar high enough. It is about getting under fast. I have shortened my jerk drive and all I think about is getting deep and getting there fast.

Hope you find some of this useful.

.

.

I fucking love jerks. I’m good at jerking.

lolol weightlifting terminology so funny.

From the videos, it looks to me like you are gripping the bar too tightly and pushing too soon. Before your dip, readjust your grip so that the bar is in your palms, not on your fingers. Lower your elbows if you have to. Relax your arms. I like to keep my hands open at this point to ensure my arms are relaxed.

Delay pushing on the bar until its off your shoulders. Remember the push with your arms is only for getting you under the bar, not for pushing the bar higher. (although it will go higher by reaction.) Keep working hard.

I do suck some days i struggled to get under the bar with 90 kg and other days i made 105kg fly
my clean is 10kg above my jerk but i suck at both because is realively weak to my squat. (was)

The answer is:

Dips is FAR FAR TOO SHORT. Dip a bit deeper
Dip is TOO FAST, your not controlling it. Your not generating any power up
Need to GO UP ON TO YOUR TOES

Skip to 22seconds. Watch my bros dip. It’s controlled on the way down, not too deep, not too shallow, you will have to find the correct ‘balance for you’. See how fast he changes direction up?

NOTICE HIS FEET watch his feet go on to his toes for a fraction of a second and then his front foot goes forwards, this gives him a good length split.

He leans to one side, always has done so we are working on that. But either way C&J nearly 1.5x bw is not f0cking bad.

Can you lock your arms out over head? Get a bar and do some military presses with it but only moving at the top part to make sure you can lock out properly. NOW do this in the split position. Can you do this? I just want to eliminate flexibility issues.

It helps a lot with a video to see whats going on, cheers.

Koing

So I took some of you’r advise Koing. I started dipping lower at the begining of the jerk and I also widened my grip about 2 inches on each side (which feels really odd) but I ended up jerking 115 last night off of some boxes. I am really glad too, because I just got a pr in my snatch (100 kg) Finally snatched 100 kilos! - YouTube so my best clean and jerk would have only been 5 kg more than my snatch. Wait, I jerked off of boxes last night that means that my best c&j is still only 105! Guess I know what I’m doing today.

Looks pretty solid fattymcfatso. Your left elbow buckled a bit but you’d get that.

Congrats on the PB’s mate!

Are you lifting at a club? Are you being coached?

Koing