Topic: Let me get some coaching advice please

[Andy Dick]

Finally, I got this video up and running and a great deal of stress and headache.  Please, by all means tear my technique apart so I know what to work on.  As far as what I see, aside from my aparent inability to finish most jerks, is I seem to lead with my hips some in the pull and I press out I think the second jerk I got.  For the third snatch where I step forward I was on my toes some so that is the cause of that.  I also hit 70kg off camera as a well lets just try it to see how it goes, too bad I wasnt taping but I think the form was better cause I was not on my toes on that attempt.

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

[Matt Erdman]

You aren't making the jerks because you aren't getting under them. You need to split much longer and lower to get under the weight. You have bumpers, so don't be afraid get deep in the jerks.

Static overhead lunges may help. Do both legs.

For snatches, I found drop snatches and high hang snatches to be very effective at learning to get under the bar in the squat position.

[Andy Dick]

I realize that for snatches I need to get lower, I have snatch balance already started to work into my program.  I have only been doing power snatches because I am trying to battle back from a hip injury and snatches seem to aggrivate it more so I havent been doing low catches.

[Paul LaDuke]

Andy,

Good stuff.  Thanks for posting the video.

In both the snatch and the clean pulls you lose "tight".  Your shoulders slump forward or round just at the beginning of your 2nd pull.  You are tight at the beginning of the lift but you lose it slightly.  This little adjustment will probably make a huge difference. 

It seems your snatch arcs a bit away from you.  Can you post a slo-mo version (about 25% speed) so we can study that?  If indeed the bar is arcing away from you, think of pulling your elbows to the ceiling to keep the bar close.

Your jerk is definitely holding you back.  As Matt said, your split is not long enough.  The jerk is really an acquired skill that takes a lot of repetition at light weights to master the form.  You can muscle a clean, you need to finesse the jerk.  First, get the split distance longer and probably wider.  I can't tell if you "tightrope" the jerk, but your feet width should be roughly the same width as your squat stance width with the difference of being split front to back.  Second, your back foot turns out.  It should be in a parallel plane to your body's midline and you should be on the ball of your foot with very little bend in your back knee.  Third, your front foot should land heel first with the shin perpendicular to the floor.   Fourth, you drop your elbows just a bit on the drive on 2 of your jerks (failed).  Dropping the elbows right at the transition from the dip to the drive skews the drive path of the barbell towards the front and you want it to go behind your head.  Automatic miss at heavy weights.  Keep your chest big, shoulder's tight, get your weight on the heels and drive straight up.  Lastly, punch your head through as your arms extend.  Punching your head through locks the shoulder blades in a very tight, very stable postition creating much less work for your shoulders as they stabilize that heavy weight overhead.  Of course, punching through can only happen if your drive angle is right and you have generated enough power.

Sorry this was lengthy, but I know it will help you out.  Keep working and post more videos as you progress. 

[Andy Dick]

Here are the videos at 50%

I have put back rows in my programs to strengthen up my back in order to correct my shoulders from pulling apart (i think it is due to back strength relative to weight).

I also experimented with split jerking and power jerking lower today and power felt better because split felt all unbalanced.  When choosing 1 or the other what is usually the deciding factor?

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

[Matt Erdman]

You can't really choose until you become skilled in the split jerk. I power jerked for a year, and I recently returned to the split jerk. My split is much better now, so I can split jerk more than I was power jerking. I switched before because I thought I was more stable in the power jerk. The truth was that I just hadn't learned to do the split well enough.

I have longer limbs like you, and I can tell you that you will have great difficulty achieving a good depth in the power jerk.

[Andy Dick]

Cool, I will put more work on the split, I guess I just got to get that motor learning down.

[Andy Dick]

I worked on form work on jerks today, I can really feel the difference trying to get lower and split wider.  Although this compounds my tight hips because being in that wider position I really feel tight in so I gotta hit more stretching I guess.  Its gonna be a battle too cause I also noticed today that as I get tired I tend to revert back to my old way of split jerking.  I will try to get a video of my practice sets to make sure I am doing them right.