Are You Over The Bar?
You know you’re supposed to stay over the bar in the pull, and you know what it’s supposed to look like, but you can’t feel if you are—how can you tell?
Easy! The arms and shoulder create a pendulum—the weight wants to hang directly below the shoulders.
If the shoulders are in front of the bar, the bar wants to move forward away from the body; if the shoulders are behind the bar, it wants to move backward into the body.
Assuming you’re balanced over the feet, if you feel the bar trying to pull away from you, you know your shoulders are in front of it—that is, you’re over the bar.
If you can relax and the bar doesn’t move away from you, you’re either directly above it or behind it. If you lift the bar away from your legs and it swings back into them, you know your shoulders are behind it.
Hold in a mid-thigh hang position and relax your arms and shoulders and see where the bar goes. If it doesn’t move away from you, adjust your position until it does—then without changing your body position, use the back and shoulders to push the bar back into the thighs. This is what you should be feeling in the pull of the snatch and clean until about this height in the pull.
Easy! The arms and shoulder create a pendulum—the weight wants to hang directly below the shoulders.
If the shoulders are in front of the bar, the bar wants to move forward away from the body; if the shoulders are behind the bar, it wants to move backward into the body.
Assuming you’re balanced over the feet, if you feel the bar trying to pull away from you, you know your shoulders are in front of it—that is, you’re over the bar.
If you can relax and the bar doesn’t move away from you, you’re either directly above it or behind it. If you lift the bar away from your legs and it swings back into them, you know your shoulders are behind it.
Hold in a mid-thigh hang position and relax your arms and shoulders and see where the bar goes. If it doesn’t move away from you, adjust your position until it does—then without changing your body position, use the back and shoulders to push the bar back into the thighs. This is what you should be feeling in the pull of the snatch and clean until about this height in the pull.
