Snatch Pulls and Clean Pulls

[Brian Lawyer]

Two questions:

1. What are the different Pull variations?
2. When coach Everett prescribes a pull in one of his strength cycles what pull variation is he referring to?

My understanding is there are at least these three variations. But please correct me if I am wrong.

1. With locked arms throughout the entire movement pull from floor explosively up into a shrug.
2. Same as 1 above except unlock arms when bar reaches approximately waist level so that the bar will elevate to a point higher, to stomach or higher.
3. Same as 2 above except now you purposely use arms to pull the bar as high as possible like an upright row.

[Brian Lawyer]

I forgot to mention. With the third variation noted above I think I have seen it done with a foot transtion from pulling to recieving. You basically go through the whole movement without pulling under the bar.

[Brian DeGennaro]

From what I understand, when you do pulls you focus on the 1st and 2nd pulls, and make sure you hit that 2nd pull as fast as you can with a normal snatch/clean. It doesn't matter how high you pull it as long as you're quick and aggressive, treating it like a full lift minus the receipt.

[Greg Everett]

You should NEVER lock your arms - whether snatching, cleaning or pulling. You're accelerating the bar upward - if the arms are stiff, the only place that bar's momentum can take it is forward - swinging out. The arms are not straight because the elbows are extended - they're straight because you're not bending them. This is a critical point. Let the weight of the bar STRETCH you arms out.

The difference between a pull and a high pull is the weight on the bar only. You can try all you want to high pull 100% of your best snatch, and it won't go very high (unless your snatch really sucks).

So - you want to pull the bar exactly as you would with a snatch or clean, but instead of changing directions at the top of the extension and using the arms to pull you down, you're pulling the bar up with the arms AFTER the legs have extended. Think of it less as pulling the bar up, and more as guiding it - that is, create a path up the body for the bar to travel by keeping the elbows moving out to the sides and up.

There is another pull variation that involves actively pulling the chest down to the bar - that is, the pull is performed like the above, but after full leg/hip extension, the athlete bends the arms to bring the chest down to the bar. This is a way to strengthen that pull of the arms without having to use lighter weights (i.e. those that could be high-pulled). Of course, this style also presents technical drawbacks because the actual 3rd pull will look nothing like this. It's a bit harder to learn and teach in my opinion as well - people will have the tendency to cut the extension short and muscle their way down to the bar rather than focusing on accelerating it up.

[Greg Everett]

And I forgot - the variation I prescribe (99% of the time) is the first of the two.

[Brian Lawyer]

Can you give me a general rule of thumb for how high the bar should travel say with 100% of Snatch? For example, should it be coming up to navel, Lower chest, etc.

On my snatch pull workout today the bar was maybe coming to my navel. I was using 100% of my snatch, so clearly I have elevated the bar much higher than this in the past when I set my PR. I assume I am either not pulling the same or fatigued from my Back squat work out before hand.

I think a target might help me so I can try to explode the bar to that point on each rep. Unless you have some other ingenious coaching ideas.

[Robert Callahan]

You might be over estimating how high you pull the bar when you are snatching. I am by no means an experienced weightlifter but if the bar is at your naval that should be enough room to pull under.

I would just try to rip it as high as you can.

[Timothy Scalise]

I was taught that snatch pulls your trying to pull the bar to mid chest, and clean pulls to belly button.