Topic: Help Me Fix My Jerk Before Provincials

[Zach Wheeler]

Jerk 125kg & 130kg - Kinovea

I've moved from a power jerk (a push press more less) to a split jerk about 3 months ago. The weight has been going up steadily since then, however, under heavier weight, my split shortens up considerably.

Provincial comp is one month away!

[Arden Cogar Jr.]

Zach,
  Complete novice here, so my commentary should be taken with a grain of salt.  The dip is great.  But each drive you are going onto your toes too soon and your drive is going forward.  That's the reason you're losing them forward and having to come forward to recover.

  A good friend, Dave Miller, an international coach for ECG, instructed me, when this happens, you need to really concentrate on tightening your glutes and lifting your toes before you dip.  The combination of the two will help lesson that toe centric split jerk.

  Great work.  Good luck.  Those weights are flying up.  Just need to find a way to get you under them strong and sure.

All the best,
 Arden

[AW]

I've been messing around with this same issue lately, and I could be completely wrong about it, but have you tried looking up at the ceiling in the dip and drive? I've beat to death every way to keep the drive in line, and simply looked up and it has prevented me leaning forward.

[Cloud Strife]

Hey Zach! I think the jerk is one of the hardest movements to learn, not only because it is hard to teach, but because it is also hard to learn. (IMO) Or maybe it is just never taught properly.

From what I see, I think the dip should be shorter.
A better way for you to jerk the bar would also be for you to "jump" down, instead of just splitting the feet after the dip. This is something I think may be hard to understand. Right now, I think you're trying to get the bar up by "jumping up". The feet don't split in an explosive fashion for this reason.

I'll try my best to explain it. When you dip, you already want to be thinking about employing your arms. It's really not legs ---> then arms. It's more like --> employ the arms, and then split.
1. When you dip, you're already thinking of pushing with the arms. Think the jerk as pushing (*NOTE: PUSH. It's basically a push) your body down towards the floor, and not as you pushing the bar up into the air.
2. Do the split.

Hmm... you know what... I think it's best to do thes two at the same time... You can't think that fast through the jerk. The most important idea is that, the arms are used MUCH sooner than you think.
The jerk is a fast movement. It may take some time to master... Here are a few examples of very good (extremely good actually) split jerks. Notice how explosive it is. I hope these videos help you. I really think it's a question of technique. Keep us up to date on your progress!

yufkin

Vartan Kukasyan - RUS - 211kg clean & jerk

[C.Ljungberg]

Try alittle shorter dip. The reason why your dropping the weights infront of you is that you put all weight on your front leg. If you look at the video with Vartan Kukasyan during the catch look how much he bends his back leg. Try to bend your back leg some more and focus on getting the center of gravity right above your hip insted of over your front leg.

English is not my first language so if there is something that you had problem understanding ill try to refrase myself. Keep us posted with your progress :)

[Mihail]

Also, after you jerk the weight you should FIRST bring your front foot back some before stepping forward with you back foot.
Look at either of two videos posted above and look at your first jerk for reference.

[Aussie]

Zac, like Arden, i'm also a rookie. So advice from me should be taken with a grain of salt.

From your video you could possibly be dipping too far (in order to drive the weight up). It's obviously a thin line between too shallow & too deep of a dip. You're a lot more experienced than i am. So you would know the right depth.

Also i notice that on your first jerk that you brought your back foot forward first. That's a habit i'm trying to break myself. Obviously i don't know if it's something you do on a somewhat regular basis. By bringing in your front foot forward, you'll allow more of the weight to be spread over your back (bent) leg. On another note, do you think your bending your back leg enough?

All the best mate. I'm a big fan of your work! How do you draw those lines on your video's? I"d love to be able to do that with mine!!

[Markus Demeglio]

Your dip is way too deep and you need to bend your back leg more. When you post it as youre doing, the back leg will end up pushing you fwd rather than absorb force.  The way some lifters get away with posting is by driving the front leg out farther, but this is inefficient and most people will just keep losing weights fwd.

So shorten your dip and make sure that back knee bends like a lunge.