Over time, I developed a strong affinity for some specific kettlebell drills. While many were falling in love with the swing, I couldn’t find anything better than the kettlebell snatch. Below I’ll discuss the utility of the snatch, and how to build a strong foundation for performing this movement.

The Kettlebell Snatch as a Movement Screen

Corrective exercise is a hot topic, and exercises like the kettlebell snatch provide a ton of feedback on your movement capability and where some of your needs lie. Novices may not necessarily jump right into kettlebell snatches; however, if you have been training for a while and want to know why certain movements and workouts aren’t working for you, the kettlebell snatch can be a useful tool. It can tell you a lot about these areas:

• Core Stability: At the beginning and the end of the kettlebell snatch are two important plank positions. People often forget this concept and lose control of their core. Properly establishing a good beginning and end are essentials in successfully performing the snatch.
• Overhead Mobility: People with poor thoracic mobility continue to try to knock out overhead movements, and then blame the exercises for bothering their shoulders. The overhead position of the kettlebell snatch is both an extended plank and shoulder mobility screen; you should be able to attain the position in the video below.
• Core Strength: Most times, we think of core strength as the ability to perform planks and resist forces forward and backward. But in the kettlebell snatch, we have forces trying to rotate us. The kettlebell snatch is a great 3-D core exercise and we have to not just watch movement forward and backwards, but side to side and in rotation as well.
• Hip Hinge: A well-executed kettlebell snatch looks effortless even though great power is being exerted. This is achieved from the proper execution of the hip hinge. The correct movement pattern allows you to use the glutes and hamstrings to create power, and avoid placing the emphasis on your quads, back, and arms.

The Swing vs. the Snatch

Swings and snatches have long been connected in the new kettlebell world; however, there are some distinct differences. Let’s examine how swings and snatches impact one another and if you should be using one to help the other. 

When learning how to do a proper snatch, many people are taught that “a snatch is a swing that ends up overhead.” While this sounds simple, becoming successful with snatches requires you to get you out of the idea of a swing. Even though both use a strong hip hinge to produce the movement, the swing has more of a horizontal component than vertical path of the snatch.

In the snatch, the weight must go up, rather than out. This mistake of letting the bell swing out causes issues such as the infamous smack on the wrist, or pulling the lifter backward as they try to catch the top of the snatch. Kettlebell expert Joe Chalakee discusses the difference:

“The swing is an arcing motion, the bell goes back between your legs with arms straight and, for simplicity, the bell swings to chest height. The path is an arc or curving motion. A snatch is what I refer to as a vertical pull. The bell is going as close to parallel to the body stopping with one’s arm locked out over head in one uninterrupted movement.”

Here are some points to remember when transitioning from the swing to the snatch:

• As in the swing, the movement starts by hiking the bell back between the legs.
• As it comes out, pull the bell up vertically with your arm close and parallel to the body. The pull is from the elbow, meaning you lead the bell up with the elbow.
• Finish with the arm locked out over head.
• To bring the bell down for the top, it’s not a toss and catch into a swing. It’s a fast pull down of the bell from the locked out position. The pull down starts with the elbow.
• Don’t worry about the bell, it will fall over on its own. Just lead it to the back swing. The bell will feel “lighter” than its actual weight and easy to control.

Build a Foundation for Snatching

Like any exercise program, you need to build a foundation. A strong base for kettlebell snatches requires both using other exercises to teach the qualities of a snatch, and introducing the kettlebell snatch wisely into your training so you don’t experience shoulder discomfort from overzealous training.

The best way to build your kettlebell snatch is not snatching over and over again. Instead, you can build skills and train by using exercises that teach components of the movement. Starting your training by snatching it is like a running a marathon before you jog a mile.

Kettlebell Clean and Press

Besides the snatch, the clean and press is my favorite kettlebell drill. The clean will teach you how to build an explosive hip hinge while moving the weight in an upward motion, which will translate to the snatch. The clean also teaches you how to graduate force. Instead of trying to snatch by using all of your might to lift the weight, the clean will help you find the right amount of force. The trick is to find a weight that will make you want to use your lower body to lift it, not your arms.

The snatch and the swing create long lever arms on the body, which can potentially cause problems in your low back and shoulder. Learning how to properly absorb force with a shorter lever arm, as in the clean, can provide a safer method to identify problems and teach better movement habits.

Need a kettlebell clean tutorial? 

How to Do the Perfect Kettlebell Clean

Understanding how to press a kettlebell overhead can go a long way in making the snatch more successful. Catching a big weight overhead can be intimidating, which often results in the loss of proper positioning and posture. Learning how feel confident and stable while holding weight overhead is of paramount importance. 

The overhead press also teaches two important concepts. First is idea that you aren’t trying to lift the weight with your arm, as much as apply force into the ground. When you master that concept, you tend to avoid “yanking” the weight. Second, you learn how to brace and use your upper back to absorb the force instead of the low back and shoulder. You shouldn’t feel your shoulder on a properly-executed snatch.

Body Saw and Tactical Lunge

The body saw teaches correct core bracing through the creation of tension and linkage through your extremities. This is a key skill to learn in performing ballistic kettlebell drills with maximal efficiency. The body saw also teaches you how to use your lats. This is a powerful tool for improving performance.

At first glance, the tactical lunge doesn’t seem very relevant to learning the snatch. But since the snatch is a hip hinge, you need hip mobility. Lunging of any kind can help you identify issues with hip mobility as well as improve it at the same time. Hip hinging also requires glute and hamstring activation, and the reverse lunge helps you quickly identify if you are using these muscles or lifting with your low back.

The fun part of the tactical lunge comes in when you start passing the kettlebell through your legs. Adding in the pass challenges your hip and core stability, as well as your power production and posture. This simple-looking drill will identify movement imbalances and an inability to create stability and power at the same time.

Kettlebell Snatch Skill Drills

The exercises above will help you develop the strength and stability foundation for snatching. But there are some very important skill specifics to consider as well.

In the video below, we show the problem with a snatch that is too much like a swing. Coach Chalakee then describes a great cue that teaches the proper motion and positioning of the kettlebell snatch. Finally, we show how you can use a high pull as an iterative step toward the full motion of the snatch.

A Simple Tool for Complex Benefits

The beauty of the kettlebell snatch is that it is attainable for anyone. As Pavel Tstsouline once wrote, “kettlebells are the working man’s Olympic lifting.” That doesn’t mean that it isn’t sophisticated or challenging, or doesn’t require proper technique. Rather, you don’t need to commit expensive equipment, tons of space, or decades of practice to experience the benefits.

Kettlebell snatches can provide far more than the conditioning tool that many relegate them to. Nailing the technique and building efficiency will allow you to take advantage of the unique attributes and advantages of the kettlebell snatch.

Ready to double the fun? Try some double kettlebell snatches:

Turbo Charged Kettlebells: High Pulls and Snatches

Headine photo credit: Towne Post Network on Flickr | CC BY 2.0

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Pavel Tsatsouline says in his book, The Russian Kettlebell Challenge: “The one-arm snatch is the Tsar of kettlebell lifts, fluid and vicious.” If you want to display power like a king and don’t already practice kettlebell snatches, now is the time to start.

Train to This Standard, But Don’t Stop There

Knowing how to properly snatch a kettlebell is another prerequisite for the strength and conditioning routine I am building for you. Last month, we worked on sledgehammer training. If you cannot snatch safely snatch a kettlebell, you will not be able to perform the program.

If you do not know how to properly snatch a kettlebell, it would be best to find an instructor. If you already know how to do it, work on improving your technique over the next few months. You should be able to snatch a kettlebell for at least 5 sets of 10 reps on both sides.

The minimum standard is 100 total reps with a 12kg (26lb) kettlebell for women, and a 16kg (35lb) kettlebell for men.

If you cannot do this, build your capacity over the next few months. This standard is only a minimum; if you can do more reps with a heavier kettlebell, you will derive even more benefit from the program.

Mastering the one-arm kettlebell snatch will be an essential element to your new strength and conditioning program.

Girevoy, Hardstyle, or Both?

There are different techniques out there for snatching a kettlebell. The Girevoy Sport style is used in kettlebell sport competition where the goal is to get as many reps as possible in a set amount of time. Therefore, this technique is relaxed and places an emphasis on efficiency. In contrast, the Hardstyle kettlebell snatch technique is dynamic and explosive and places an emphasis on power.

Some like to argue the merits of one style over another. I couldn’t care less, and here’s why:

I’ve done a ton of manual labor in my life. Throwing hay bales for hours requires settling into an efficient, sustainable rhythm. But sometimes in the middle of the job, a storm rolls in and suddenly it’s all hands on deck to stack the hay in the barn before it becomes waterlogged and three times as heavy. You not only have to work more efficiently, but also harder and faster. The workload just got condensed through greater intensity.

It is important to be able to snatch a kettlebell proficiently with both styles. Some days you feel like working on technique, and other times you want to up the ante and bust out power snatches. The greatest human ability isn’t our ability to specialize; it’s our ability to adapt and tackle many things well.

That said, for the purpose of the program I’m building for you, today we’re only going to cover the basics of the Hardstyle snatch.

The Hardstyle Snatch

Like the swing, a kettlebell snatch starts with a hip hinge. The swing is about controlling the kettlebell as it is projected forward with a forceful hip snap. The snatch starts like a swing but transitions into propelling the kettlebell upwards, more like a high-pull.

As the kettlebell begins to pass in front of the legs, it should be above the knees as you snap the hips through. At this moment, start pulling up and back so the kettlebell transitions from an arc away from your body to a more vertical path. It will still arc up, but you are creating a tighter arc than in a swing.

Arm placement against your body is crucial to producing force in the snatch. At the bottom of the movement, your biceps are snug next to your pecs, triceps are snug against your lats, and your arms are lying right over your ribs. As you hip-hinge forward, you incorporate more upward leg drive than you do with a swing, transferring energy directly from the body, through the torso, and into your arm, which remains tight against your body.

You want to maximize this arm-body contact for as long as possible before pulling the kettlebell into an upward path. To transition the forward arc into a vertical high-pull, bend your arm at the elbow while continuing to leverage the biceps and triceps off of your body.

A common fault when snatching is letting your arm stay long, causing the kettelbell to make a big arc away from your body and come crashing down on your forearm. To tame the arc and keep the kettlebell close to your body, imagine a wall two feet in front of you. Don’t let the kettlebell hit the wall.

The snatch begins life as a swing, but the force is directed more vertically as the arm leaves the body.

Save Your Forearms

If you high-pull the kettlebell way over the top of your outstretched hand to perform a snatch, it’s going to flop and painfully smack your forearm. To avoid this, imagine a shelf six inches above and behind your head. You want to pull the kettlebell high enough so it will float for a moment at shelf height. Once the kettlebell gets high enough to clear the shelf, push the kettlebell back to land softly on the shelf.

It’s like the hang-time during a jump shot in basketball. This weightless feeling is your cue to push the handle around and in front of the bell of the kettlebell to guide it into place. When you do it right, it will it merely fall an inch to land safely on the back of your forearm.

When you feel the kettlebell start to float, that’s the time to put it on the shelf.

Polish the Details

The kettlebell snatch starts as a swing, followed by a rapid transition into a high-pull, with just enough power to float the kettlebell into place. There are a lot of nuances that I did not cover, such as how to hold and position the kettlebell on the arm, the placement of the elbow, which way the palm faces, or how to drop the kettlebell. If you can’t find an instructor to help with these finer points, examine the pictures above closely and you’ll pick up on most of them.

The snatch is the king of the kettlebell moves. If you are not proficient, take the next few months to practice and work up to the minimum standard. Then you will be good to go when I reveal the complete program.

More Training in the Way of the Bell:

• Bottoms-Up Kettlebell Presses for Solid Shoulders
• 5 Kettlebell Drills to Add Real Function to Your Fitness
• Power, Precision, and Balance: A Triple-Threat Kettlebell Workout
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photos courtesy of Walter J. Dorey.

The post The Kettlebell Snatch: Tsar of Lifts appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

When you do anything new, you can learn a lot of lessons not just as a student, but also as a teacher. I saw that many students needed to slow down, focus, and be more thoughtful about their movement. I realized they would reap greater benefit from skilled practice of a few exercises, rather than just learning a large number of exercises.

Those few exercises became the six that we see in today’s curriculums: 

• Goblet squat
• Turkish get up
• Swing
• Front squat
• Snatch
• Clean and press

Reducing the number of drills was a smart move. I see students now emerging with greater skills than I possessed after attending my first course. However, the downside is that people think the value of kettlebells lies in only a small number of exercises.

The truth is, owning those foundations allows you to add deeper layers to your movement and strength practice. Adding these more advanced kettlebell drills to the foundational exercises you already know will broaden the scope and enhance the core of your training.

Renegade Rows

Renegade rows expose weaknesses in stability and strength like few other drills. Any exercise that can make you feel absolutely spent after just five reps must be doing a lot to your body.

Renegade rows are an amazing plank, work cross patterns, stabilize the shoulder, self-correct bracing, teach how to pack the shoulder, and develop force through the whole body. See, I told you they achieve a lot. You need to make them a constant in your strength training practice, not a drill that makes the occasional cameo.

Single Leg Deadlifts

Single leg deadlifts are good accessory work for swings. They require lower leg, pelvis, and core stability in an unstable load pattern. All these qualities are essential for optimal performance in the swing. We can hide compensations in these three areas during a regular swing, but they become highly exposed during the single leg deadlift.

If for no other reason, you should do single leg deadlifts because they don’t lie about your movement. People think of them as only a “stability” exercise, but stability and strength are interrelated. How much strength do you think you can demonstrate if your stability is terrible?

Heavy Single Arm Squats

Heavy can be a relative term. I define heavy as a weight that you could do five, maybe six, but not seven repetitions in a row.

Why heavy single arm front squats as opposed to doing doubles? Because they train both strength and stability. Spinal expert Dr. Stuart McGill speaks at great lengths about the value of learning to resist movement as much as producing it. Few drills allow us to do both under an appreciable load like single arm front squats do.

If done correctly, you are not just squatting up and down, but resisting rotation. Watch the pelvis, feet, and torso when performing heavy single arm front squats. Often you will feel or see a weird “wiggle” or even the complete inability to resist these forces. That means your body has more strength “leakages” than you may have thought. Oh, and these single kettlebell squats will drive up your squat numbers, too.

Windmills

If you already do get ups, you might not see the need for windmills, but there are differences. The most obvious is range of motion. The standing position in the windmill allows us to get far deeper into our lateral system. This not only serves as an important dynamic stretch, but also lights up one of the most important muscle groups in our body, the obliques. Weak or dormant obliques can wreak havoc in your movement and decrease your ability to develop full-body strength.

Windmills are sly in that they teach us how to perform a hip hinge in something other than the sagittal plane. The sagittal what? We have three planes of motion, and in movement outside of the gym we regularly use all three. Unfortunately, most gym-based functional fitness programs only work the sagittal plane, which means they aren’t all that functional. Performing windmills is a simple way to work the hip hinge in a different plane of motion.

Alternating Presses and Rows

Athletes are often shocked at how much their trunk gets torched during these motions. These drills are great for those who want to improve their pressing, squatting, and deadlifting numbers.

Cross-patterning exercises like dead bugs and crawling are great for the nervous system and teaching the body real-life movement. One of the simplest ways of applying these same concepts to strength work is by integrating alternating arm movements into presses and rows at different positions. These exercises also show areas in which people are compensating and losing the tension that helps them develop great strength. 

Functional Training Uncovers Weakness

I am recovering from three recent spinal surgeries. My focus on finding weaknesses in my movement has caused my recovery prognosis to go from two years to one after just three months of smart training. To shave off nine months of recovery in just three months of training is a powerful thing. 

These exercises complement the core kettlebell movements. Integrating them into your training plan will help you find and fix the weaknesses in your own movement, and give you a truly functional training system.

More on the Magic of Kettlebells:

• The Kettlebell Swing: Mindful Prescription for Low-Back Rehab
• Power, Precision, and Balance: A Triple-Threat Kettlebell Workout
• Grip It: Coaching Cues for Stronger Kettlebell Lifts
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Teaser photo courtesy of Craig Marker.

The post 5 Kettlebell Drills to Add Real Function to Your Fitness appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The double kettlebell snatch.

The kettlebell snatch is one of my favorite exercises for a variety of reasons. I’ve written about the movement in the past, and I’ve done it with many weights and in different styles over the years. But one particular version has caught my attention more in the past few months.

The double kettlebell snatch.

This exercise is performed like the regular kettlebell snatch – except with two kettlebells. They’re swung from below the body, then affixed overhead.

That constitutes a single rep, and often with this movement, many reps are done. If you’re going to attempt one rep of this movement, let alone many, then you’re going to need to have good and efficient technique.

Here are a few tips on performing this exercise. But before we begin, it should go without saying that your kettlebell snatch, which also includes the foundation of the basic swing, should be excellent before trying an advanced movement like this one.

The Technique for Two Bells

With two kettlebells, your stance will have to be slightly wider than for a single bell as you’ll need clearance for the two bells to swing under your legs.

Generally with this exercise, unless you’re going very light, I would recommend doing what is called a half snatch. The upward portion is one explosive movement, but then you lower the bells to the shoulders, and then swing back on each rep.

The half snatch is a useful method as it can help preserve your back from undue strain. If you’re going for high reps, it’s a good idea because the lower back can become fatigued.

That fatigue is even more likely with the full snatch. If you’re going for more power, the half snatch is still a good idea because the weight can often be more than half your bodyweight, and thus want to pull you around. You will have more control if you stick to the half versus full snatch.

Going for Reps

Like the single kettlebell snatch, doubles can be done for higher reps. Often, this will be done in some sort of interval style, like ten reps at the start of every minute for ten minutes.

Another fun challenge is to do an all-out set for as long as you can go. It’s interesting to see what fails first – your endurance, grip, or strength in one area or another. With a lighter weight, as you can always do one more rep, it just might be your mental toughness that fails.

Going for Power

While many people can work up to snatching pretty heavy kettlebells without much problem, the double kettlebell snatch can easily become a maximum power exercise, similar to a barbell snatch. A good test of strength and ability for most men would be to double snatch 32kg bells.

“If you want to work on becoming explosive then try to work from a dead stop.”

When working with heavier weights, it can be useful to do a pre-swing before doing your snatch.

That being said, if you want to work on becoming explosive then try to work from a dead stop. Put the kettlebells under you or slightly behind you, and then snatch them in one clean motion without momentum.

This demonstrates the dead snatch with one bell. You can imagine how two feels!

Competing in the Double Snatch

This event has begun to make its way into IKLF Bolt competitions. I gave this a shot and I found that the most difficult part, at least for me, was getting a firm fix of the bells overhead. Many of my reps were not counted.

Note: In the video of me training in my backyard, you’ll note that I was a bit more lax on my form than here in competition. As it was my first time competing in this event, I learned a valuable lesson about what to work on for next time.

Putting the Movement to Use

I’ve been using this move as an adjunct to my single kettlebell snatch training. As I’m working with a heavy weight there (48kg), two 24kg bells is the same load, but hits the body differently.

If you’re looking for a new way to test your strength-endurance give this move a shot. And if you’re looking for maximum explosive power, try it out with heavier weights. I think you’ll enjoy it!

More on kettlebell movement:

• Training Kettlebells: Why You Shouldn’t Be Scared
• Kettlebells for an Iron Core: A 3-Phase Training Plan
• The 5 Deadliest Kettlebell Sins

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Improve Your Strength Endurance With the Double Kettlebell Snatch appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

I did not graduate college. Some people say I was just, to put it plainly, somehow very stupid, and I think there may be some truth to that, because my mother said it, too, but I don’t think it’s pertinent. I started out a dual major in finance and accounting, and none could have described my excitement in words; that is, until I heard all the ruckus and excitement that came with majoring in snatches. So I affirmed my resolution and sought out Mr. Norris, my guidance counselor, and demanded my major be changed to the snatch, because that is what all the fellows in my hall said they came to college for, and it was only fair that I ought to be afforded the same high luxury. I said I would work really hard at it and graduate with high honors, and whenever the occasion arose would I give the highest endorsement to the place where I majored in snatches – “West Chester University, of Pennsylvania – talk to Mr. Norris, he’ll get you into snatches easy!”

Said I’d surely make the Dean’s list, too, admitting to being something of an expert in the matter already, and would happily give him a demonstration right here in his office, just had to grab my equipment. Well I guess the class was full, because no sooner than I started to warm my hips up was I drug off the premises by two fellows disguised as policemen and thrown into a dorm that looked just like a jail, and my roommate this time was all the more well-mannered and respectable and invited me to show him my snatch without even knowing I was an expert! But I told him I couldn’t because I hadn’t the equipment. He understood.

And here, thus, we are brought to my thesis. Can the handling of a snatch be taught? I suspect it cannot. Because nobody who ever went to college for the snatch, so far as I know, ever learned a thing about it – and I think the problem must be that the professors who are teaching it themselves really know very little about it.

But surely the snatch, if it cannot be taught, can still be learned – and learned quicker and easier, too, with some guidance from somebody who knows his way around it, like myself, or Professor Dan John, than it could be otherwise on your own.

I have in my day given three most useful advices for the refinement and refreshment of one’s snatch. They are as follows:

The first, of course, is to not even think of fooling around with snatches until you have spent sufficient time with all things requisite; to wit, that before you go – I was going to say “balls deep,” but as I’d prefer to keep this article free from any indecencies, I’ll just say “the whole hog,” as the phrase has it – that you have full command over the two hand swing, the one arm swing, the clean, and other such things of a hip-hinging nature, as well as the press and the get-up.

Three months minimum is what I recommend to a fellow who wants to get himself deep into snatches – that is, three months spent only on swings (both two arm, and one arm) and get-ups first, and no other funny business. After that, a fellow should allot an additional two to three months familiarizing himself with the intricacies of the clean and military press, before he goes poking his head around in places it shouldn’t be. The same goes for any ma’ams, though they do tend, as my experience shows, to advance quicker than most fellows in nearly all departments.

Now when you are ready to have a go at snatches, it is imperative that you approach them with some prudence, or, as I tell all my clients, let it get a sniff your hand first, else it might engage its teeth. I speak figuratively, of course – snatches aren’t dogs, obviously – but the point is this: Do not go after the biggest, fattest snatch you can find slinking around the gym, as so many desperately zealous men tend to do – start with a snatch you know you can handle; one that will challenge you, but not eat you alive. Because if you don’t pick the right size, and then if you come at it from the wrong angle, a heavy snatch could break your arm entirely in half, clear through, I’ve seen it happen!

My second piece of advice is to learn the snatch in reverse. Start from the top, and learn the groove coming down, rather than going up. It is easier this way and will save you much agony. As well, if you can figure the snatch down, you can figure it up – the groove is reciprocated. So, start at the top of the snatch; cheat it up however you’d like – clean and press works well – and then work your way down like this: At the lockout simply think of throwing the bell straight down into your loins, and moving your hips out of the way at the very last second. From there, just go into a one arm swing, a clean, or whatever; don’t even worry about bringing it all the way back up yet. Give it time.

And regarding moving the hips out of the way, I’ll tell you just one horror story. This one guy, he did not get his hips out of the way in time, as I’m telling you to do, and it struck him, squished his most cherished parcel, and bounced. It sounded just as it would if you were to drop a melon from a second story window. As to the type of melon, I would say a honeydew. And basic physics tells us this: When a hurling, screaming cast iron instrument of roughly one and a half pood meets a fixed object at full-tilt, and when that fixed object is another person’s genitals, the benefit, let me tell you, is never toward the receiver – it is toward the spectator. This poor fellow, he slumped to the ground, clutched his injury, howled out in one final colossal excretion of pain, and was dead.

My last piece of advice is to film your snatch, get it on YouTube, and send it to Dan John. That way he can get a good look at it, and you can get a good look at it, too. Now because you can’t see your own snatch (if you can, then you can do something I cannot) most people are frightened when they witness it on camera for the first time, because they simply have no prior information as to how unlovely it ultimately and really is.

And let me caution you. Don’t have somebody look at their own snatch for the first time near a bridge, because they are likely to want to throw themselves off it. “That’s what my snatch looks like? Is that really so? Where is that sharp knife?” is what you will hear. And yes, I do vividly recall the instance I caught my own snatch on film for the very first time. I was out my usual cameraperson that day and enlisted the means my sweet and tender grandmother to come into the basement and fulfill the roll. And what a mess it was! It looked angry and frustrated, and caused me to shriek. But it has come along way, my snatch has. Here, take a quick look:

Now when you go to show off your snatch, as you can see, note that the start position requires you to push your butt back towards whatever is behind you, and for the unveiling you snap your hips forward with all the passion of a surprise enema, and finish standing tall with your arm(s) straight in the air, garnering a grade of either pass or fail.

Also, and please put this down, do you notice how I am loosening my grip and spearing my hand through the snatch, and not trying to go into it with a balled fist? This makes for an easier, smoother insertion, and will likely save you from tearing a callous, acquiring a blood blister, or other such rookie mistakes.

And just a few other things that I look for when examining a snatch. At the start, does the person hinge or does the person squat? There is a difference, and it is a marked one. In a hinge, the butt goes back; in a squat, down. In a hinge, the hips are above the knees but below the shoulders; in a squat, the hips are below both the knees and the shoulders. In a hinge, you have maximal hip flexion with minimal knee flexion; in a squat, you maximize both, preferably. This is why I place such a strict emphasis on mastering the swing before the snatch – it teaches the hinge.

I hope you found this article useful, but I don’t want you to think that getting into snatches is the one quintessential, all-important, and ultimate quest of life. Because how useful are snatches, really? I have myself the character amongst my colleagues of being one who holds the value of snatches in some doubt. What I mean to say is what can you get from a snatch that can’t be gotten elsewhere for cheaper and easier, and with considerably less intimidation? The answer, of course, is not much. Most of what you can get out of a snatch, save for a slightly increased rate of secreted fluids, can also be gotten out of a one arm swing, or a one arm high pull – and even those too, worked good and hard, cause you to sweat all the same.

But still I am a man who loves his snatches, so I leave you with these. The first is a means to handle heavy snatches, the second, lighter ones. Because it is good to not keep with the same sort of snatch all the time, else you might get bored and be left under stimulated; and I cannot feasibly imagine that the Great Creator, in all his all-pervading wisdom, would have set so many different species of snatch to roam freely about the verdure of his Footstool if he did not want you to catch and sample them all.

Snatch Ladders:

Cadence Snatching:

Photo 1 courtesy of Shutterstock.

Photos 2 & 3 courtesy of Pat Flynn.

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