T Nation

Get Under the Bar on Snatch and C&J

Olympic Lifting
#1

My Olympic lifts are pathetic, I have no idea how to get under the bar. I’ve searched youtube and haven’t found a good video that teaches this. Any reference for beginners would be helpful as I know this is just one thing I’m not doing correctly. I’ve watched all the videos by Burgener, and while they are very informative, they’re not geared towards absolute beginners.

I do the Burgener warm-up, and force myself under - but put just an empty bar in my hands and it all goes away.

Any good links would be greatly appreciated!

#2

There is no secret. At first, you need to be comfortable in your receiving position.
Snatch= Overhead squat
Clean= Front squat

I like to follow my snatch and clean with a double of squat on some cycle when I need to increase my strenght in both of those lifts.

Example:

1 snatch + 2 overhead squat

Increase weight

1 Snatch+ 2 Overhead squat.

Same thing for clean, it’s something that really help me to be good in reception. I mean, there is no point to going under the bar if you are not strong of flexible enough to have a good reception.

#3

Another good tip is when trying to get under the bar is to go slower when going up. When I practiced the catching movement for the snatch, I figured out I would sometimes go too deep when getting under due to my quick pull from the ground, causing me to pull the bar down when I was trying to get into a nice low position.

Make sure you are not pulling the bar down when attempting to catch and instead catch the bar where it is.

#4

Ok, thanks for the tips

#5

Practice lots of lifts from the hip so you only have to think about going down and for the old gods and the new dont drop down, PULL yourself down. You should always be pulling against the bar, once you have extended your hips use tyour arms to pull yourself down. Coach dan bell is a fucking genious