Max Snatch and C&J critique

[Zach Reed]

Originally Posted by Greg Everett

Real quick for the snatch -

Flexibility all around - ankle, hip and upper back/shoulders. You need to be able to sit into that squat without your feel rolling in and do it comfortably. Spiderman lunges and russian baby makers all day long. And sit in a squat any chance you get. While down there, keeping your foot flat on the ground, lean both arms on one knee and close the ankle as much as possible. hold that stretch for a minute or so and do that as often as possible.

Shoulders are definitely a bit tight as well, although some of that will improve when you can sit in better in that squat and the weight isn't pulling you forward from being off balance during the lift (this is true for the squat as well like Matt said). All manner of pec stretches, hang from bar and push your chest through, snatch press, etc.

As far as the lift itself goes - the main problem is that you're shifting forward into the bar as it passes your knees. Stay back on your heels and stay over the bar until it's up in your hips. Always think of pushing the bar back into your hips rather than moving your hips to the bar (even though the hips do move forward as they extend).

You do a good job of getting under it, keeping it pretty close, etc., but your weight is off balance before then, so you are going to keep getting pulled forward like that and be unstable in the bottom until you correct the balance issue during the pull. Try halting snatch deadlifts or segment deadlifts/pulls, and then combine those w snatches in a complex. I have seen a lot of success making lifters do a segment pull or two followed by a snatch. Pull to the knee, pause 2 sec, pull to the hip, pause 2 sec, finish pull, return to floor, snatch. You can add a pause 1" off the floor as well if you want and eventually reduce it down to a pause at the hip only.

Congrats on the PR.

Ps. What are these russian baby makers you speak of?

[Greg Everett]

slightly wider than normal squat stance, hands on the tops of your feet, get your elbows inside your thighs as deep toward your pelvis as possible and then sit the hips down into a squat, sitting on the elbows and pushing out. the idea is to push the proximal ends of the femurs out rather than the distal ends, i.e. spread the legs at the pelvis rather than the knees. you should feel it in the adductor/hamstring origins.

[Zach Reed]

Originally Posted by Greg Everett

slightly wider than normal squat stance, hands on the tops of your feet, get your elbows inside your thighs as deep toward your pelvis as possible and then sit the hips down into a squat, sitting on the elbows and pushing out. the idea is to push the proximal ends of the femurs out rather than the distal ends, i.e. spread the legs at the pelvis rather than the knees. you should feel it in the adductor/hamstring origins.

This sounds awful but I'm sure it'll help with my tight adductors. Will incorporate daily. Thanks again.

[Tyson Wright]

Does anyone have a video/description showing the "russian baby makers"? Google not being friendly on this.

[Greg Everett]

Tyson-

There's a description above. You won't find anything else on it because it's my name for the stretch. Might be my stretch too but I'm sure someone else has done it somewhere.

I have a blog post on it planned that will have a photo or a video to illustrate better.