EDITOR‘S NOTE: These workouts are written by Ursula Garza Papandrea, who has been nicknamed the Queen of Olympic Weightlifting. Ursula’s Olympic weightlifting career started in 1987, and since then she has won several titles, including master’s national champion and best lifter (Grand Master) in 2009 and national champion again in 2010. You can find Ursula on Facebook.
Most coaches have devised their own method for teaching the snatch and clean to their athletes and thusly, so have I. Although in more recent decades the top-down approach to teaching the Olympic lifts has prevailed, I believe there is still merit to using the bottom-up approach and have therefore incorporated it into my method, which I call the “Pause Method.” I have used this approach to train beginners, as well as veteran athletes, with great success.
Over the next four weeks, I will be sharing an example of a Pause Method program I have used for teaching the lifts. The goal is to ingrain the proper positions, encourage the athlete to slow down in this initial learning phase, and teach the athlete how to time the receiving of the weight to avoid losing the bar in space.
The workouts will be posted twice a week, on Mondays and Wednesdays. To learn more about the Pause Method and how to use it, you can read the explanation I have provided here.
Week 1, Day 2
Teach hang snatch and hang clean
Then:
- Drop snatch/snatch balance – descending heights, ¼ squat + ½ squat + full squat 3x(2+2+2)
- Hip/power position (PP) power snatch – receiving and pausing in ¼ or ½ squat then following into overhead squat (OHS) 3×3
- Hip/PP snatch 2×3
- Hang power snatch from above the knee with pause at hip/PP, and pause in ¼ or ½ squat then following into OHS 2×3
- Hang squat snatch from above the knee with pause at hip/pp 3×3
- Hang squat snatch from above the knee 4×3
- Upper thigh hang/power position muscle clean + front squat 2x(5+5)
- Upper thigh hang/power position power clean pausing in ¼ squat then following into front squat 3×3
- Hang power clean from above the knee pausing at upper thigh hang/power position, and receiving and pausing at ¼ squat then following into front squat 3×3
- Hang squat clean from above the knee pausing at upper thigh hang/power position 3×3
- Snatch pull to power position with 3 pauses, pausing below the knee + above the knee + hip/power position 3×5
