Back Squat form help or suggestions

[Rene Renteria]

I posted this to the CF forum but am not getting many comments and would like to ask for some help here. If your form looked like this, what would you try to change?

Link to squat video (w/f s)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym185o4gub0

I’m looking for help with my form, particularly about that butt tuck I have at the bottom of the movement. Also whether my knees get too far forward, that sort of thing. I know that on the last couple of reps in the video I get a bit forward; I’m not very smooth in and out of the hole (no sniggering!). I'm also slow, both up and down.

I am wondering if my form is possibly or likely going to hurt my back. My pelvis tucks under at the bottom of my squat, which is only just below parallel. The tucking starts even before parallel. The depth in the video I’ve posted feels quite deep to me. (It’s not that deep, but that’s my perception when squatting.) In videos from the front, it seems that I do track my knees in line with my toes.

Should I be trying to increase the weight of my back squat even with these form issues? Would moving to front squats be better?

I have always been inflexible. I was doing CrossFit WODs somewhat to fairly regularly over the last couple of years and included OHS with PVC in most of my warmups, for example. But my squat ROM just does not seem to have improved. So if it’s not working, I need to change something, right?

I have been doing a Starting Strength program recently, after a period of getting detrained (yet again!), to get my base strength up and then plan to add metcon back in once I reach some weight goals. Right now, I’m still barely at the “Novice” level in the book--weights for 3 sets of 5 reps: squat 190, power clean 135, bench press 150, press 85 (ugh), deadlift 265 (1 set of 5). (I’m 5’9”+ and between 155 and 160 lbs.; yes, I’m pretty weak.)

I now am using dynamic flexibility drills (from “Magnificent Mobility”) as my warmup to see if that will help improve my ROM or at least make reaching my current ROM limits more easily. I need at least 95 lbs. on my back to force me down into the hole past parallel because of how tight I feel in the hips, hams, and ankles.

Any comments are much appreciated!

Best,
Rene’
PS--Those are the TDS safety stands from New York Barbell. You can see that they’re not very wide. I set up way to the back of them b/c I figure if I need to dump the bar, it’ll be forward, not back. I haven’t dumped yet.