Taught about 35 UG students to Clean and Snatch from hip this week - pretty much all no training history. Within 30-40min about 75% of the group were pretty competent and confident in BOTH movements. Lots also used a decent load for a first attempt! ⬇️My coaching process⬇️
They had been taught (most of them) to front squat and OH squat already. If an athlete hasn’t learned those and aren’t confident with them, stop teaching them the Oly lifts. Do that first.
📌 1) I get them to identify their own perceived power position (PP). I usually ask for a jump and stick and to feel athletic/strong on landing
📌 2) I ask them to front squat/OH squat with a pause at the PP. Like a squat but a 1sec pause at about a 1/4squat point. This reinforces where they will receive the bar and finish the movement.
📌 3) I then ask them to do the same with a hinge. Hold the bar at thigh, drop into the PP and hinge, coming back to the PP on the concentric phase. This reinforces the start positions (These first three stages can go into a warm up)
📌 4) They now know where to start and where to try and finish. A clear beginning and a clear goal/end point. I then simply say get the bar from the start position to the finish position and let them crack on. Give lots of reps with +ve feedback and few instructions.
4) They will learn loads from plenty of reps with a clear outcome goal just using their own intrinsic feedback.
📌 Key Details: A) Load is your friend. They need the right resistance. Too light and it makes it harder to produce the desired technique. Get a load that is challenging and you’ll get less arm pull and more triple extension IME. More task representation for better learning
📌 A) If you are worried about load, they haven’t become good/confident enough with a front/OH squat yet. Probably go back to that.
📌 B) Ensure they know they need to receive the bar in the PP but in front rack/OH. The same body position as the PP for 2nd Pull. So start and finish are identical apart from the bar location.
📌 C) once they have had a load of reps encourage them to synchronise the timing between their feet finding stability on the floor and the bar finding stability in the catch position.
📌 D) Encourage them to move the bar faster. As above, more speed helps more triple extension and also builds their confidence.
📌 E) IME the more instruction you give the worse they get. If you aren’t aware of your language, volume of info and how you pitch the ex, they can easily get confused, loose self-efficacy, confidence, become internally focussed, and loose autonomy. link.springer.com/article/10.375…
📌 E) A lot of early barriers are either confidence (make it sound easy/ simple with +ve feedback) or feeling uncomfortable/unfamiliar with the catch. If they don’t know or like where they need to finish, nothing will work effectively. Try to remove those barriers
📌 These key details get layered on top of each other in varying orders dependant on the individual. But I’ve found the process pretty effective with very positive outcomes (technically and psychologically) vs a multi-stage progression model of jump shrug, high pull etc.
Lots of different ways to do it, but I’ve not seen too many people coach it this way and hopefully someone may find this useful 👊. Experiment and find what you think works underpinned by sound theory!
If anyone find this from a physio/rehab point of view and is interested, but Oly lifts stretches the context boundaries, check out @ClinicSTRCoach - coaching pedagogy and S&C for rehab/physio settings
Also, for anyone new: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/res…
