Topic: speed under the bar

[Jack]

Thanks for putting it up Shaun! I won't comment too much, I'm a novice.

I do notice excellent high elbow position, and little bar "drop" in recieving, and very close bar/chest relation in descending, great stuff.

It seems there is little bar/thigh brush, too early shrugging making the bar go forward at that point, for less efficient  pull giving trouble when the load reaches a certain point? There seems to me nothing wrong with your speed going under in itself.

Hope you don't mind the comments from a novice, Shaun.

Sjaak

[Shaun Le Conte]

Thanks for the comments Sjaak. I was surprised to see the early arm bend in that video and I hadn't considered that I was shrugging early. I've had a difficult time with successfully "shrugging myself down" A la Tommy Kono's book and Bud Charniga's advice and I think I've fallen into old habits.

[ryankyle]

Shaun,
     Looks good going down just don't worry so much about the whole "shrugging" bit.  Personally I think it has gone beyond overrated.  Stand up, Jump down - simple.  Besides that you are still pretty quick.  I'm not sure how heavy that was for you (percentage of best) but if you get up to 90, 95 or 100% and have issues going under the bar excessive shrugging is most likely your problem.  The idea of actively shrugging the shoulders only aids in slowing you down.  If you jump down and rotate your elbows around to the recieving position your shoulders will naturally rise because your body is going down as the bar is rising and since your hands are attached to it, ect..  It's kind of hard to explain but if you think about it you'll see what I mean.   

[Jim Hooper]

Shaun, I think Ryan's advice is great.  Don't overthink that shrug business or dissect it to the point of distraction.  Your technique is plenty good enough that your mental picture should usually be just one continuous smooth movement.  You got good speed (nice!!!) and pretty darn good timing.  Whipping your elbows forward in the descent -- a little more aggresively than you already do -- will automatically help propel you down, plus it will guide you to "meet the bar" a the right altitude and tighten up the racking action.   I'd like to see you racking it tight a little closer to the deadpoint (apex of the bar path) but that's minimal and will come with practice.  I suggest just thinking of whipping the elbows on your first few workup sets and see what happens.  You shouldn't be obsessing over that or the shrug or anything else during your heavier lifts -- you know what to do, just move smooth and fast.   I think this one fell onto you a bit because it was pulled fairly high and you dropped probably a bit deeper because you were intent on going low, fast. Great job, stay at it.

[Bob Takano]

Shaun
Try using blocks set at a height such that the bar is resting at your power position to begin the movement.  Focus on performing the triple extension and shrug and dropping under and racking almost as a single movement.  Try to do each rep as rapidly as possible while including all of the technical components.  Use a weight that will allow a single or double. 
Furthermore you can train the movement by pre-fatiguing the muscles by performing two or three clean extensions from the floor before doing your final repetition as a full clean.  You can get the benefit of doing an 80% weight which feels like a 95% weight.  I would designate this as Clean Extension & Clean (80%/3+1)4. 
Good luck to you!
Bob

[Tom Weary]

Shaun,

I agree with Bob - work with blocks.  I would focus on snatches and come back to the clean later.  My coach is Polish, and I think his approach is basically Bulgarian - all singles, near max all the time, only the Olympic lifts, one exercise per training session.  Here are three more snatch exercises that might help:

1) Pull to your hips almost cradling the bar in your lap.  Drive your hips forward 3 times and on the third drive it hard and high enough to jump underneath.  90% of PR snatch.

2) Pull bar to waist, lower down to just below your knee, full snatch from below knee.  90% of PR.

3) Snatch drops to get used to heavy weight.  Take bar out of rack behind neck.  Give a little jerk thrust and then drop as fast as you can to the bottom position.  Try not to press it at all, just drop as fast as you can and "catch" the bar as you hit your bottom position.  105% of PR.

Once you really feel the speed you should be able to translate it to your cleans.

Tom

[Shaun Le Conte]

Thanks you two. I've been doing just the basic lifts quite a bit and I am now seeing the value of additional assistance exercises for correcting or improving technique and speed-strength. I am making a bit of progress on fat loss too - down to 69.6 kg so far at 157 cm tall. A reduction in my belly should help some.