Topic: Grip Width on the Snatch

[lillianreptilian]

Hi, I'm a female lifter and I've been doing OL for almost a year. I'm planning to lift in the 75 kg class next meet. My current PRs are 50S/65CJ.

I recently widened my clean and jerk grip and it's helped me a lot. I have fairly long arms and I think the narrower grip was holding me back. I was able to adapt to the new grip within just a few workouts.

My snatches have been going really well, but lately I've been brusing my pubic bone with the bar. It started to hurt enough that I wasn't completing my pulls. Clearly I need to fix something. I tried widening my grip to about 1" past the outer line, which helped a lot on the pulls (now the bar just brushes at the softer area above where it was crashing), but I keep failing on the catch. I can't seem to stay balanced in the squat.

There are two coaches at my gym. My main coach thought the grip I was doing previously (index finger against the outside of the ring) was better since I was snatching well with it, except for the bruising problem. The other coach (who is just FULL of opinions) had previously told me to widen my grip, but now he thinks I should grip the bar even narrower! Both of these guys are old enough that I'm not sure they even touch the bar to their body on the snatch.

Does anyone have any perspective on this? It could be that grip width isn't the issue--it's some kind of timing thing, but my coaches don't seem to think that's the problem. I'm afraid I don't have any current video, though.

[Shaun Le Conte]

I think we have all whacked our pubic bone before but for me I just kept the same grip, just keep at it and give the bone a rest for a workout or two. Hard to give grip recommendations without seeing you.

Avoid full-speed power snatches at this time - the impact is greater when the speed is high even if the bar is lighter. Maybe you can do hang snatch with minimal knee bend during this time.

It's probably a technique issue - bouncing the bar with your body, hitting the bar and causing it to swing out.

[Mark Cannella]

many lifters go thru this issue regarding the "pwock" area of the pubic bone.

Keeping your lats tight throughout the pull will minimize the distance from the bar to the body and thus, the amount of bang will lessen.

Take a few days off and let the area heal.  We have a lifter who has developed a hardened tape object to lessen the direct contact and it works pretty well. 

Good Luck,
Mark

[lillianreptilian]

Thanks for the suggestions! These are some ideas I haven't heard yet. Today I worked on snatches from the blocks with the wider grip to try to improve my stability. I'll try some of these suggestions next workout, especially the tight lats one. My coach has been ragging on me for that lately but it hasn't clicked for me yet.

Here's a video from a few months ago, but I think my form has changed a lot since then. I think I'm much faster under the bar and I have a more powerful 2nd pull now.

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

edit: I should also mention that this video is from before I started having the bruising. That's only been the past few weeks since I've been really working on speed.

[Judas]

I've had that pain issue now and then, occasionally a small hard bump forms that hurts to hit with the bar, but never enough to do more than ruin that particular workout. But recently i had a great snatch workout and smashed that area hard enough (didn't seem any harder than before...) to give myself internal bleeding... the ugliest nastiest blackest 'bruise' you ever saw... and enough swelling to make me wear different pants for four days. I'm already at the collars with my grip and cant move in, so i guess i'm in the same boat. Just gonna hope it heals and that i can actually work through it next time without the trauma.

Personally i like the wide grip in the snatch, with my long arms it seems to make the pull more powerful, or snappier at least. I'd move out further if the collars weren't in the way. As for balancing, i haven't had issues with that for a long time now, but when i did i just did a LOT ov overhead squats. Even did a rather retarded 'program' with 15-rep sets with them. Though i doubt most good coaches would recommend OHS as an assistance lift.

Also, i now tend to catch the bar and sit there till i'm damn solid in bottom position, and good and ready to squat it up. That helped a lot. I also (once stabilized) squat up at maximum speed, even throwing the bar at lockout sometimes. Now i probably would never recommend that, but i will say that it sure as hell built good stability strength in the pertinent muscles.