Snatch School

Snatch School 🏋🏾‍♀️

The greatest lift of all.

For all it’s technical challenges the biggest factor in a heavy snatch is still brute strength.

Strong legs and back are essentials.

Nobody has ever snatched 80kg at 80 years old (68kg is the world record for 80+)

Mobility for snatching

Split Squat

Cross Bench Pullover

Flies / Band behind the neck press

Note: must be able to fail the bar backwards. Practice dropping the bar with 5-10kg plates to get a feel for a missed lift. This will happen rarely for most lifters in training but it’s important to know how to fail to avoid injury.

Teaching the snatch.

Behind the neck press

Squat and DB Press

Slow start power snatch

Overhead squat

Snatch balance

High hang full snatch

Slow motion snatch grip deadlift

For a technically great snatch the requirements are:

Positions - do you have the mobility to get into the required positions quickly. Most elite weightlifters are very flexible in the directions they need to be flexible in.

Movement pattern - there are common errors. Most are the result of relative weakness. A moderate weight generally teaches the snatch better than no weight.

Squat strength - can you stand up with the weight overhead.

Power in the back and glutes - how high can you get the bar.

Courage to use big weights

Problem Solving - What needs work?

1. How high can you get the bar

2. How fast can you get under the bar

Blocks

High hang

3. Positions and technique

No hook

No feet

4. Squat / Standing up the bar

Squats 10RM / Belt Squats etc.

Standing up the weight

Training the snatch

Drill the 3 technical components that are missing most. Use 1-5 repetitions of each movement in sequence. Use higher repetitions for beginners.

Improve the squat. Use 60-120 second sets as well as 1-5 repetition dense strength.

Improve the deadlift or snatch grip deadlift. Use low volumes of 60-80% of maximum deadlift weights.

Assistance work

Increase Back Squat

Pin Squats

High Rep Squats

80kg 2/01/0 - target 8 minutes.

Hungarian Oak Leg Blast

Benoit Brodeur has been the President of the Quebec Bodybuilding Federation for around 20 years. Muscle - especially bodybuilding - is his passion. He's traveled around the world from Tahiti to California, trying to learn and develop the art of building muscle.

https://www.t-nation.com/training/hungarian-oak-leg-blast/

ATG Split Squats + Seated Good-Morning

Predictor Lifts:

Good-mornings, seated and standing.

ATG Split squats

Behind the neck presses

Overhead Squat

Competition Snatch Sessions

Ramping - More intense → Ladder on the minute eg. add 1-2.5 or 5kg each minute until technical or absolute failure.

Flat → Get 5-20 sets of 1-3 repetitions consecutively on the minute without missing a repetition.

Wave Loading → Add 2.5-5kg after each successful lift but drop the weight back 2.5-5kg after every third successful lift.

Lifetime Journey

First year - Specific (low intensity)

Second to fifth year - Broad Variety

Elite competition - Specific High Intensity (high intensity)

CrossFit Vs Traditional Weightlifting

Beginner weightlifting might be the main place that traditional weightlifting can learn from CrossFit.

This discussion is compared to what I saw of how weightlifting is being taught and is a generalisation not a rule. REPS CrossFit like Westside Barbell uses VERY HIGH REPETITION training along with lower reps. Most weightlifting programs don’t go beyond 6 repetitions, few go beyond 12-15. Supplementary high repetition training is a key part of the Chinese weightlifting system.

** We know that higher reps heal, create stronger neural connections, help to heal and recover tissues through high blood flow. Someone training CrossFit with good technique is likely to learn the snatch faster than only doing 20-30 repetitions in a session like many beginners in weightlifting. FATIGUE

Traditional weightlifting discourages training under fatigue. CrossFit challenges high skill movements under-fatigue.

** We know from motor-learning that we get new learning when training a movement under fatigue. Someone training CrossFit is likely to learn faster with the novelty of fatigue. Great coaching and self-management decides whether fatigue creates injury risk or not.

PRESSURE

CrossFit gamifies workouts by having “RX” weights, time measurements, top weight measurement etc. This makes it auto-regulatory in a way that you give what you can on a given day. Smart CrossFit isn’t maximal daily. Pushing for maximal endurance across multiple movements can

Weightlifting often works towards set %’s for the day and treats a person like a machine. Most sessions don’t have competition pressure.

** When it matters we can come up with more. High standards of technical failure are important.

Bulgarian Weightlifting

The most successful weightlifting program in history. They had a small population, a low budget and they dominated the Soviet Union.