Topic: Flat Footed Vs. Toes Push Off

[Tran]

Every sport evolves as athletes strive to create new records.  The older method of snatching and/or cleaning involved a triple extension (hip, knee and ankle) with a vertical displacement in the explosive phase.  In older videos one could see these athletes clearly go up and push off their toes.  They go straight up and down into the catch.  Watching videos of current elite weightlifters, I notice more of a flatfooted push-off and a slight hop backwards instead of the triple extension.
 
Is this second method a more productive means of creating force or more of a personal preference?

What are the pros and cons of each method?

As someone new to the sport, I would like to learn more about each method.

[Markus Demeglio]

I agree with Dr. Siff commentary in this picture that its latter (i.e. its about preference and whats best for the lifter).

[Chris Betancourt]

I see it not as rising on the toes, but since in the extension your hips are moving forward, it shifts the whole center of gravity forward. You stop that momentum you apply the brakes by shifting your weight to your toes and push against the ground at an angle through your toes. Whether you get way on your tippie toes or stay relatively flat, you need to shift weight onto toes to push back against that forward momentum.

Here in this picture I'm trying to show the line of force to explain the above:

[Paul LaDuke]

Love the rays drawn on the Rob Macklem photo!  This perfectly illustrates to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. 

[Patrick Bateman]

IMO

The toe push off doesn't really contribute much to the pull. so having a lot of airtime isn't the most important thing, and may be detrimental.

It is just an artefact of a hard forceful hip extension, that results in rising up on to the toes and shrugging.

I think it does need to be there in order to maintain bar accleration, and the practical aspect of fot shifting.

[Tran]

A picture is really worth a thousand words.  Let me see if I get the idea, the focus is more on creating a powerful extension than pushing off with the feet?  When I extend back slowly with an empty bar, I can feel the my weight shift towards the balls of my feet.  I should focus on letting the weight shift on the feet as a natural result of the explosive extension of the hips and legs.

Thanks for the pictures.  The elite lifters are so fast, I didn't see the weight shifts towards the toes.

[Cloud Strife]

Hey Tran, don't ever think about the triple extension. There is a reason why elite weightlifters are that fast. When the weights get heavy, fully extending your body is not a very efficient way of lifting. The explosion has to be quick, and once you explode, you have to start descending to catch the bar right away. It is an instantaneous switching of directions.

It is much better to lift the bar just high enough and catch it, than it is to lift the bar as high as possible and squat down then up. You save time. I find some Chinese lifters lift very slow, especially in the clean, but they're damn strong.

You can read this article if you are interested. It discusses about why too many pulls can have a negative effect on technique. Explore around that site also. Very interesting reads.
http://www.dynamic-eleiko.com/sportivny/library/farticles008.html
Also, check out:
http://www.sportivnypress.com/English/frames.html

[Cloud Strife]

The textbox was scrolling like crazy so...

kaxi

pyrros dimas gold medal 1996

The second lifter really "explodes" up, while the first really switches directions extremely fast. I believe that the first lifter is much more efficient as it took much less time.

Just my observations, but remember, the goal in weightlifting is to lift as much as possible. So, in the end, you should do whatever works best for you.