Articles
The Jerk Technique Nobody Talks About
March 30 2015
March 30 2015
This article is about the jerk, so let’s get right down to business.
Most of you probably understand the dip-drive phase of the jerk is the primary key to success in the movement. I’m talking about the time when the lifter has completed the clean, stands with the bar on the shoulders, and then bends the knees to initiate the downward dip and then upward drive with the legs. This is a deal-breaker phase of the lift. If you can’t get it right, you won’t be an effective jerker. People talk a lot about whether you should split, power jerk, or squat jerk, etc. These are important considerations, but they’re secondary to perfecting the dip-drive. If you can’t get the bar over your head with right level of force and accuracy, it’s not going to make a damn bit of difference what kind of technical style or foot positioning you use when you try to lock it out.
When I use the term “dip-drive,” it obviously implies a certain level of bend in the knees, followed by an aggressive upward push. Most elite weightlifters use a noticeable amount of dip. It’s hard to measure exactly how far they’re dipping, but you can easily see they’re getting at least a few inches of downward movement before they rebound and start the upward drive. If you’ve watched a lot of World Championship footage, you’re already familiar with what I’m talking about.
However, there are some lifters who use a dip-drive movement that’s very different from what I just described. Instead of dipping down and getting a powerful upward drive on the bar, these lifters use a very short, abrupt dip-drive that barely looks like they’re getting any push on the bar at all. They stand with the bar on their shoulders, and then there’s an extremely quick, shallow flex of the knees before they spring the bar over their heads. It almost looks more like a bounce.
For this article, we’re going to refer to this type of movement as a “flex jerk.” This is a phrase I heard from a coach many years ago when he was explaining it to me.
Why was he explaining it? Because I saw the best lifter in history doing it, and I couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on. I had always been taught dip-drive, dip-drive, dip-drive, exactly the kind of standard jerking movement I described above. Then I saw Naim Suleymanoglu of Turkey, the greatest lifter in the history of the sport, using this weird little BOING! movement when he jerked the bar. Just a short little flex with his knees and upward push, and the bar flew over his head. Using this technique, he clean and jerked 190 kg (418 lbs) at 60 kg bodyweight (132 lbs), which is the best pound-for-pound C&J ever performed.
If you want to see what I’m talking about, jump on YouTube and check out any of Naim’s videos. There’s a specific one called NAIM SULEYMANOGLU OLYMPICS ATLANTA 1996 WEIGHTLIFTING that gives a great wide-angle look at what he’s doing. Former World Champion Antonio Krastev used a flex jerk as well. Ilya Ilin’s jerk technique is a kinda-sorta flex jerk.
If you want to compare the flex jerk to standard dip-drive technique, look at Russia’s Tatiana Kashirina doing a C&J. Once again, get on YouTube and watch a video titled Tatiana Kashirina (75+) - 180kg Clean & Jerk. It’s a slow-motion video, and you can really see the amount of knee bend she gets before she drives the bar upwards. Catalyst Athletics lifters use great dip-drive technique, and they put up a buttload of videos, so check them out as well.
As I said, you don’t see a lot of flex jerks at the upper levels. It’s rare, but it does exist. One of the main ideas of the flex jerk is using the oscillation of the bar to drive the weight off your shoulders. Olympic weightlifting bars are built to have some flexibility to them. You’ve probably seen how much they bend when world champions catch cleans on their shoulders. Some lifters can actually use this bar flexibility as a kind of rebound “whip” where they bend their knees slightly, just enough to make the bar bend, and then the resulting upward spring of the bar drives it off their shoulders.
So… now that you know about the flex jerk, how does it apply to you? Let me throw out a few tips that should help:
- This kind of technique is uncommon for a good reason. It doesn’t work for most people.
- Sometimes, the difference between a flex jerk and a standard dip-drive jerk is very small. You need a keen eye to notice it. And some lifters have jerk technique that blurs the line between flex jerk and standard technique.
- Using oscillation to drive a jerk upwards is something that’s only possible when you’ve got extremely heavy weights on the bar. If your weights are too small to make the bar bend, oscillation doesn’t really figure into your weightlifting. In other words, this isn’t something you want to be thinking about when you’re in the beginner-intermediate phase. To learn (and teach) the jerk correctly, you need to focus on the dip-drive movement we initially talked about (the kind you see from Kashirina). You have to learn/teach fundamentals before moving on to advanced adaptations.
- Sometimes, if a lifter is extremely gifted and blessed with exceptional physical skills, it’s possible to adapt the standard technique of the Olympic lifts into a more personalized version of the movement. The flex jerk is an example of this. But you have to learn/teach fundamentals before moving on to advanced adaptations.
- Are there ever times when it’s appropriate to let beginners or intermediate lifters use the flex jerk? Occasionally there might be certain individuals who, through time and practice, develop the ability to use a flex jerk kind of movement. If they’re doing it correctly and they’re making progress, they might be on the right track. You should always teach them the standard dip-drive technique to start. If they grow into the flex jerk, and it WORKS, that’s just peachy.
In a nutshell, you have to learn standard basics before you can start to adapt anything. Most lifters go all the way through their careers using standard basics, and the most talented ones become champions. But sometimes, it is possible for an athlete to tailor the technique of the Olympic lifts to fit their personal specifications. How do you know if their adaptations are appropriate? If they win an Olympic gold medal, that’s a pretty solid clue.
All jerk dip/drives will utilize the stretch reflex. That is, no jerk dip is slow enough to avoid it, and there is never a pause in the bottom position that dissipates that elastic energy. But there is a big difference between a very shallow, abrupt dip and a longer (like 10% of height) dip at a more controlled speed. Power jerkers tend to be power jerkers because they have the innate ability to drive the bar very high, which usually means they're naturally pretty explosive, which would tend to make them gravitate toward a more elastic jerk dip, so yes I would probably agree with the idea that power jerkers are more likely to dip/drive this way... but power jerkers are a small fraction of the total number of lifters in the world, so this still represents a minority of lifters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR7vXD80M7I
Bar shouldn't be making "violent contact" with your shoulders because that means it's losing connection previously--the bar should remain in contact with the shoulders continuously through the dip and drive.
Greg Everett