I recently widened out my sumo stance significantly and would really appreciate some critique before I go any heavier with it. Thanks!
Age: 21
Height: 6’1"
Weight: 195-200 lbs
1RM: 445 lbs
I’m not an expert on sumo, but I think you might want to start with your hips a little higher, and your chest squeezed up a little more. On ever rep, you pull into a position where your hips are lower, then as you start the rep your hips immediately rise, your chest dips, and you end up a little bit forward of the bar. I think if you were to start with your hips in the position that they immediately pull into, you could get tighter as you start the rep, and keep your chest up/prevent the bar from drifting out of the groove. It would be one movement - BOOM - instead of hips rise, chest drops, and bar wants to sneak out in front. But maybe others will have more to say than I
Also, where you at in CT?
[quote]N.K. wrote:
I’m not an expert on sumo, but I think you might want to start with your hips a little higher, and your chest squeezed up a little more. On ever rep, you pull into a position where your hips are lower, then as you start the rep your hips immediately rise, your chest dips, and you end up a little bit forward of the bar. I think if you were to start with your hips in the position that they immediately pull into, you could get tighter as you start the rep, and keep your chest up/prevent the bar from drifting out of the groove. It would be one movement - BOOM - instead of hips rise, chest drops, and bar wants to sneak out in front. But maybe others will have more to say than I
Also, where you at in CT? [/quote]
Thanks for the comment. I’ve been actively working on my hips shooting up first, and have been told to start out more vertical to combat it (seems to have helped actually compared to my previous stance). Still, I guess I might have taken it too far? I’ve been modeling it off of Dan Green’s technique: Dan Green 356 kg x 2 sumo deadlift - YouTube
I see what you mean. Problem is, I think by starting with your hips lower, all you are doing is losing tightness. Yes, starting with your torso more vertical will help your sumo pull, but I think what you need to do is not squat down lower, bringing your hips lower. What you need to do is start with your hips a little higher, then just REALLY squeeze your chest up, so everything is tight. when you look at dan green, his hips don’t shoot at all. He gets in position, gets tight, then squeezes his chest up at the same time as his hips.
Again, I don’t know much about sumo haha and I hope someone else will chime in if they disagree with what I’m saying. But it seems to me like, by dropping your hips so low, you are just immediately shooting your hips and losing tightness. if you started with your hips a little higher, they wouldn’t shoot - you’d just get tight, and your hips and chest would rise at the same time, and the bar would be in a better position the whole time.
[quote]N.K. wrote:
I see what you mean. Problem is, I think by starting with your hips lower, all you are doing is losing tightness. Yes, starting with your torso more vertical will help your sumo pull, but I think what you need to do is not squat down lower, bringing your hips lower. What you need to do is start with your hips a little higher, then just REALLY squeeze your chest up, so everything is tight. when you look at dan green, his hips don’t shoot at all. He gets in position, gets tight, then squeezes his chest up at the same time as his hips.
Again, I don’t know much about sumo haha and I hope someone else will chime in if they disagree with what I’m saying. But it seems to me like, by dropping your hips so low, you are just immediately shooting your hips and losing tightness. if you started with your hips a little higher, they wouldn’t shoot - you’d just get tight, and your hips and chest would rise at the same time, and the bar would be in a better position the whole time. [/quote]
I think you make some solid points (my hips do this too and I am working on getting them under control).
Looks pretty damn good to me. 
Your hips do rise first, but the bar breaks as your hips do, so it’s not like you’re pulling yourself out of position; if this will continue to be the case as the weights advance I’m not sure, but you’re doing very well. Although, on a few reps your shoulders get forward of the bar as it approaches the knee, this probably makes your lats’ roll in keeping the bar close harder than it should be, so maybe focus on ‘falling backward’ a bit more. Again, very nice job!
[quote]Zelazo wrote:
[quote]N.K. wrote:
I’m not an expert on sumo, but I think you might want to start with your hips a little higher, and your chest squeezed up a little more. On ever rep, you pull into a position where your hips are lower, then as you start the rep your hips immediately rise, your chest dips, and you end up a little bit forward of the bar. I think if you were to start with your hips in the position that they immediately pull into, you could get tighter as you start the rep, and keep your chest up/prevent the bar from drifting out of the groove. It would be one movement - BOOM - instead of hips rise, chest drops, and bar wants to sneak out in front. But maybe others will have more to say than I
Also, where you at in CT? [/quote]
Thanks for the comment. I’ve been actively working on my hips shooting up first, and have been told to start out more vertical to combat it (seems to have helped actually compared to my previous stance). Still, I guess I might have taken it too far? I’ve been modeling it off of Dan Green’s technique: Dan Green 356 kg x 2 sumo deadlift - YouTube [/quote]
What “the hips shooting up” actually means is that hips rise faster than the shoulders and the back angle changes closer to horizontal, usually you end up stiff-legging the rest of the lift in this case. You don’t need to keep your back more vertical to combat this, because the same thing can still happen. Maintaining tightness is what prevents this.
As a side note by widening your stance your hips would already be closer to the bar during your set up, with a wider stance you should be able to get away with having hips higher.
In general, for any deadlift, tightness is the key to everything. Everybody’s ideal form will be different, some people pull with high hips, others with low hips, etc etc. The ideal form for you is the one that allows you to stay tightest, not the one that meets some arbitrary standard about where your hips should be