I am losing the weight forward at the bottom of the catch every time I go over 265. Could this be a wrist flexibility problem? I cannot bend my wrists back far enough to really get my elbows up in the catch position.
Any ideas?
You could not be pulling enough after the initial pop in your hips causing the weight to be forward of your center of mass. Really emphasising the shrug and pull portion of the clean will allow you to get the weight in a better position. Wrist flexibility could also be a cause.
I don’t know if this will help since I just started doing cleans myself, but here are my thoughts:
Are you pulling the bar close enough to your body? If I keep the bar as close to my chest as possible on the way up, it seems to help put my body in a good position for the catch.
Are you starting your second pull too low? If you start your second pull too low, then the bar will shoot more forward than up, making it harder to get under the bar in the catch.
Wrist flexibility could be a problem, but really the bar is supported by your shoulders, so unless your wrists end up pushing the bar forward causing you to miss the catch, I don’t know if more flexible wrists will solve your problem.
[quote]shogunassassin wrote:
I am losing the weight forward at the bottom of the catch every time I go over 265. Could this be a wrist flexibility problem? I cannot bend my wrists back far enough to really get my elbows up in the catch position.
Any ideas?[/quote]
Without seeing a video of your lift, its a little hard to say for sure whether or not it’s a wrist inflexibility issue. When you catch it, do you try to hang onto the bar with a full grip or do you let it roll to your finger tips? This could help a lot if you don’t already do it.
When you normally front squat, do you hold onto the bar with an olympic grip or do you cross your arms? If not olympic, switch to that to work on flexibility and stability. You can also practice getting under a loaded bar in a rack and trying to pull your elbows up as high as possible to stretch.
However, it might not be wrist inflexibility. There might be an error in your pull somewhere that has the weight coming out forward or you going backward. As I said, its hard to tell without video, so if your flexibility improves in your wrists and you have the same problem, expect that it is an error in your pull somewhere.
Thanks for the tips, fellas.
I front squat with my arms crossed. I had intended to start doing it olympic style some time ago, but I sprained a finger climbing and haven’t been able to stretch it for two months.
Your not finishing properly. You probably are bashing the bar a bit too far out.
FINISH HIGH,
READ FOR THE SKY WITH YOUR HEAD. The higher your head goes the further you finish up 
Elbows POINTING OUT ALONG THE BAR = the bar runs up. When you pull make sure your elbows PULL UP and not BACKWARDS as this will have the bar ‘swing’ away from you = in front = bad!
If you bash the bar out you are jumping forwards to try and catch it and when it is heavy it’ll go that bit too far and you can’t ‘muscle’ it back towards you. This is my guess without having seen a video of you lift.
If you finish properly = the bar is close to your body at all times and the rack is easy.
The wrist flexibility will hamper you but it will not cause the bar to go away from you if you pull correctly. Your rack will just be painful!
Koing
Cool. I will check my form next time I’m in the gym. If I had a camera with me I’d film it, but I left mine in the states, which was idiotic, considering I’m traveling around Europe, haha.
[quote]shogunassassin wrote:
Cool. I will check my form next time I’m in the gym. If I had a camera with me I’d film it, but I left mine in the states, which was idiotic, considering I’m traveling around Europe, haha.[/quote]
Doh!
Are you passing through England? We could hook up and do some Oly sessions if your in England and around London
Koing