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THE
JOURNAL
Coaching the Low Catch
By Bob Takano May 2013
Pull it higher or pull yourself under? Bob Takano explains how to get under heavy bars fast.
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There are two components involved in getting a bar overhead or up to the shoulders from the ground.
The most commonly conceptualized component is to lift the weight up to the required height. The second is to lower
the body under the bar. In the sport of weightlifting, both components are combined simultaneously by procient
practitioners. Many aspiring trainees, however, understand only the rst and cant seem to quite conceptualize the
secondor combine the two. For these lifters the default is always to lift the bar higher.
Low Catch ... (continued)
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The task, therefore, is to coach the second aspect and
provide training that will combine the two. Whether the lift
is a snatch, a clean or a jerk, lifting the weight and dropping
under the weight are combined. In this article, Ill focus on
the snatch and clean as it seems that fewer people have
trouble learning the jerk.
Before I get into the specics, I need to lay out a few things
about technical training exercises. They are primarily used
during the technique-learning phase for two purposes:
1. They are helpful for learning positions and motor
patterns.
2. They can strengthen specic areas of the anatomy
that are imbalanced for lifting weights.
Once technique is mastered and the lifter is balanced, the
technical exercises probably wont be employed again
unless a lifter is recovering from injury. Some athletes like
a particular exercise, and it becomes a pet exercise. They
then spend an inordinate amount of time and eort devel-
oping tremendous strength in the specic movement.
While this isnt bad, it does siphon o time and energy that
could be put to better use in training.
In the process of learning technique, high repetitions
per set are counterproductive. Each repetition should
be attempted with the intent of perfect performance.
Fatigue and lack of proper mental preparation will inhibit
proper performance. If the move is explosive, it should be
practiced at the beginning of the session when the athlete
is fresh.
The Snatch: Finding Home
Before you can teach athletes how to get to a certain
place, you need to teach them what it feels like to be there
andif possibleto get comfortable with the position.
Many athletes do not go into a bottom position because it
is not familiar or comfortable. The following exercises will
teach the feeling of the bottom position for the snatch.
The Snatch-Grip Squat Press
This exercise has mistakenly been dubbed the Sots press.
The Sots press was actually a pet exercise of Viktor Sots, the
1981 100-kg world champion who employed the power
jerk rather than the split jerk in competition. He credited
his prociency in the power jerk to a unique exercise in
which he would press the weight overhead from in front
of the neck while sitting in a front squat. He claimed a
personal best of 160 kg in this exercise, which later came
to be called the Sots press by people other than Sots.
To perform the snatch-grip squat press, one must have
sucient range of motion in the ankles, hamstrings and
shoulders as well as sucient strength in the lower and
mid back to maintain an erect posture of the torso. Ive
seen very strong men who were unable to use a 20 kg bar
for this exercise due to shortened range of motion.
The lifter begins the movement by supporting the bar
on the shoulders behind the neck, taking a snatch-width
grip, then descending into a full squat with a at-footed
stance. The movement is to press the bar to arms length
overhead before lowering to the shoulders and repeating.
This should reinforce the bottom position and allow for
opportunities to develop balance in this position.
The Overhead Squat
In this movement, the bar is taken from a rack while being
supported on the shoulders behind the neck. The grip is at
snatch width. The lifter steps away from the rack and places
the feet in a comfortable squatting stance. The weight is
then push-pressed overhead, and from this position the
lifter proceeds to squat all the way down and then rises to
full stance.
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Both the snatch-grip squat press and the overhead squat
are excellent exercises to develop the strength and fexibility
needed for the bottom position of the snatch.
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Getting Comfortable With the Descent
Pressing Snatch Balance
In this exercise, the lifter begins by taking the bar from
a rack, supporting it on the shoulders behind the neck
and assuming a snatch-width grip. The lifter steps away
from the rack, places the feet in a squatting stance and is
ready to commence. The movement proceeds with the
lifter pressing the weight overhead while simultaneously
descending into a full squat. This is a slow movement and
one designed to accustom the lifter to lowering the body
under the bar.
Heaving Snatch Balance
The next exercise in this progression begins in the
same position as the previous one except that the feet
are placed at pulling width. For this exercise, the lifter
descends slightly by bending the knees as if to jerk the
bar and applies sucient drive to get the bar moving. He
or she then drops under to the overhead-squat bottom
position while simultaneously moving the feet to a
squatting stance. This requires a speedier descent than
the pressing snatch balance: its a little more dynamic
and a little less controlled.
Snatch Balance
The nal exercise in this progressive sequence begins in
the same position as the previous one. The movement
requires the lifter to suddenly drop out from under the
bar, simultaneously move the feet out to a squatting
stance and catch the bar at arms length in an overhead-
squat bottom position. This is the most dynamic of the
three and most accurately mimics the rapid descent into
the bottom position.
Learn to Pull and Drop Under
As the athlete masters the descent into the bottom
position, the exercises from the previous group can be
minimized or eliminated from the training program and
replaced by the exercises in this group, which focus on
the transition from the pull to the drop and catch. At
an intermediary point, the trainee may be using snatch
balances as warm-ups before using one of the following
exercises.
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In a pressing snatch balance (above), the feet do not move as the lifter presses down under the bar. In a heaving snatch balance
(Page 4) or snatch balance, the feet move from the pulling to the squatting position as the lifter drops under the bar.
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Snatch on Toes
In this movement, the lifter takes a snatch-width grip on
the bar, which is resting on the platform. The lifter then
deadlifts the bar so that it is hanging down at arms length.
The lifter then performs and holds a heel raise. This is the
starting position. From this point, the lifter can only elevate
the bar by shrugging and arm pulling. Most will not be
able to lift much weight this way.
The movement commences with the lifter upright rowing
the bar and then suddenly descending rapidly, moving
the feet to a squatting stance and pushing the body down
while pressing up against the bar. This exercise cannot be
done with very heavy weights.
Snatch on High Blocks
This requires blocks that are adjustable in height. The
blocks should be adjusted so that the bar is at the power
position for the lifter. The acceleration of the bar should be
generated by the extension of the legs and hips, followed
immediately by a shrug and arm pull. Immediately upon
full extension, the lifter should drop rapidly into the low
squat while moving the feet into the squatting stance.
Snatch
When the lifter is procient and comfortable with the
previous two exercises and executes them precisely, it is
time to focus eorts on the full movement. The best way
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As the athlete becomes more comfortable with dropping under the load,
snatch-balance drills can be replaced by pulls from the toes or blocks.
Blocks set to place the bar at the power position allow an athlete
to emphasize the second and third pulls in a snatch or clean.
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to practice technique is to perform many singles, with
sucient rest and proper mental preparation before each
one. Having a knowledgeable coach available is also highly
desirable. The weight on the bar should require sucient
eort, and it should not be so light that it turns the exercise
into a pantomime.
On to the Clean!
Attaining a low position in the clean is usually a little less
daunting because it appears that catching a weight on the
shoulders is not as perilous as catching the weight overhead.
Furthermore, once the squat snatch is mastered, the
conceptualization of lowering the body to catch a weight
is more soundly ingrained into the athletes psyche, and
learning the descent into the clean is more easily achieved.
The Clean: Finding Home
This is basically the front-squat bottom position. Most of
the diculty in performing a front squat is found with
athletes who are longtime bench pressers and nd it
comfortable to support the weight by keeping the wrists
straight and the shoulders pulled back. The bar is then
resting on the upper chest rather than on the deltoids.
Once the athlete conceptualizes the proper supporting of
the bar on the shoulders with the hands and arms serving
merely as brackets that keep the bar from rolling forward,
the proper front squat can be practiced.
Some adjustment of the grip and coaching of the proper
support position by a knowledgeable coach should
expedite matters. An appropriate range of motion at the
ankles and stretchable hamstrings will also facilitate the
achievement of a solid bottom or receiving position.
Enough front squatting needs to be done so that the
athlete becomes comfortable sitting in the hole with
relatively heavy weights. If the weights are not suciently
heavy, the wrists will not bend back suciently to achieve
the desired rack position.
Learn to Pull and Drop Under
Clean on Toes
With the exception of the grip width, this exercise starts
from the same position as the snatch on toes. The weight
employed should be heavy enough that it cannot be
pulled very much higher than the catch position in the
bottom. One of the aims of the athlete should be to catch
the weight at the height to which it is pulled and not let it
crash down on the shoulders.
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After extension in the clean, the athlete pulls under the bar
with aggression. The proper receiving position fnds the bar
resting on the shoulders with the elbows as high as possible.
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Clean From High Blocks
The bar should be placed so that the lifter can grip the bar
and maintain a power position with the center of pressure
on the balls of the feet. In this variation, the hips, knees and
ankles extend, and very slightly later the shoulders shrug
and the elbows rise. From this full extension, the lifter
drops immediately into a squat for the catch. The weight
employed can eventually exceed the 100 percent gure
for the clean.
Clean
This drill should not be conceptualized as a power clean
transitioning into a front squat. It should be conceptualized
as a proper pull, a catch in the bottom and an immediate
rise to erect stance. If enough work has been performed
on the previous two movements, this nal transition to the
classic clean should be relatively easy.
In Closing
The training of technique is often misrepresented and as
such can provide unnecessary diculty. Coaches who
dont know how to coach proper technique consider it
dicult to learn.
In comparison to the technique coaching in sports such
as gymnastics and diving, the snatch and clean and jerk
are not that dicult to coach. In programs where highly
talented athletes are selected, the learning of procient
technique is not especially dicult. Athletes from sports
in which they learn complex technical moves by simply
watching and imitating have little diculty learning the
snatch and clean and jerk. Most of the problems develop
when athletes who are not good motor learners attempt to
master the lifts under the supervision of coaches who are
not used to coaching technically challenging movements.
F
About the Author
Bob Takano has developed and coached some of the best
weightlifters in the U.S. for the past 39 years. A 2007 inductee
into the U.S.A. Weightlifting Hall of Fame, he has coached four
national champions, seven national record holders and 28 top
10 nationally ranked lifters. Fifteen of the volleyball players hes
coached have earned Division 1 volleyball scholarships. His
articles have been published by the NSCA and the International
Olympic Committee and helped to establish standards for the
coaching of the Olympic lifts. He is a former member of the
editorial board of the NSCA Journal, and an instructor for the
UCLA Extension program. He is currently the chairperson of the
NSCA Weightlifting Special Interest Group. He is a member of
Mike Burgeners seminar team for the CrossFit Olympic Lifting
Trainer Course. Website: www.takanoathletics.com.
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