Hang Clean Feedback

[Corry McLaughlin]

Hey everyone, I still very new to olympic lifting so I was hoping I could get some feed back on my hang clean form. I've been working from the hang to keep things simple for both my clean and snatch, but I still feel like I am having the following problems:

1. No hip explosion.
2. Elbows are dropping below parallel.
3. Not getting under the bar fast enough. I think this is related to #1, but I'm also 6'9" so I've got a lot of ground to cover.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjTWz...&feature=g-upl

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. I've only been working on the lifts for about 2 months, so I'd like to correct anything now before bad habits get ingrained in my muscle memory and motor patterns.

Thanks

[Matt Morris]

Hey Corry, welcome to the forum!

First off, for a beginner, you're looking damn good! Watching your lift from the bottom up, and I think two things I would work on are...
1) you jump back a bit on your lift, try to land in the same spot (just moving your feet from a pulling stance to a squat stance).
2) keep the bar into your body as you bow and then explode. You should be pulling w/ your lats. One way to get the feel of this, is to have a buddy put a band around the bar and pull it out while you are standing with the bar, your lats should be pulling in (sort of like the pull of the breast stroke).

Don't worry about the elbows, that'll come with time and more front squats. The hip explosion will probably come after you feel more comfortable hitting the positions and you can unleash yourself more b/c you've got the positions/movements ingrained.

Keep it up!

[Caleb Chiu]

Cory, like Matt said, not too shabby for somebody just starting out, especially if you've been just coaching yourself. and it was a wise decision to start with the hang.

remember the most important thing for beginners is getting into the right positions. if you take a close look @ your clean, because of the fast countermovement @ the beginning of your clean, you are starting with your shoulders well behind the bar in the hang position. this will cause the bar to travel away from your body as you extend and will also cause your feet to land behind you as you pull your chest forward towards the bar. so what i suggest is to place yourself into the hang position correctly, shoulders over the bar, with no countermovement, and initiate the pull from a static position with your weight fully back on your heels. you might not be able to clean as much weight initially, but over time, initiating the second pull from that position will translate to lifting more weight.

for a better third pull (the pull under) you can start adding tall cleans/snatches and high-hang cleans/snatches. demo videos are elsewhere on this website.

[Corry McLaughlin]

Thanks for the responses, your advice is exactly what I was looking for.

Although I've only been at it a few months, I've already been able to attend a olympic lifting seminar at my gym, spent many hours going though Greg's "Complete Guide" and repeatedly watch many of the videos here on the site. I feel like the combination of all of this has helped immensely.

I actually live and work a near Catalyst, but unfortunately I'll be away on vacation during the upcoming beginners seminar. Hopefully there will be another one this fall or winter. A few friends of mine have gone in the past and say its worth every penny.

Thanks again,
Corry