clean and jerk?

[Mallet]

I've seen alot of guys with different techniques when it come to the clean as well as the jerk, the one i'm having trouble with is where you use your hip to assist you in cleaning the bar to the shoulder area of the lift, it looks like guys are actually bumping the bar with their upper thighs? but i can't quite get this down...then i've seen guys who almost treat the clean in the same way as the snatch, wher they do sort of a high pull followed by dropping the hips to get the bar situated at the shoulder part of the lift...any recommendations or tricks of the trade..BTW i haven't done weightlifting movements in almost 10 years. lol

[kdawg21]

I prefer to go from a hang position, but if you were doing it from the floor the majority or your your initial burst would come from your hips and legs. You want to keep the bar as close to your body as possible, both to maintain control and to gain an adequate power angle. You shrug or upright row the bar as far as possible and then drop down beneath the bar like in a front squat position. the bar should come to rest across your shoulders with your elbows facing outward. They you simply stand, or if you want to press, you get the idea

[Mallet]

Thanx for the tips Kdawg! It's gonna take some practise...

[itsallmental]

just to add. you wanna think about a big PULL. your not bursting from the ground to your shoulders, your bursting from your knee caps to your shoulders. you wanna have the bar under control as close to your shins/knee caps. pull the bar up under control moderatly, then when the bar is about near your knee caps thats where you wanna explde. drop as quickly under the bar as you can(that part takes a tremendous amount of practice and will give you the tuffest time).

when you have the bar resting on your shoulders, this is very important bro and most people ignore this part so pay attention. when you are at the squat, ass to the floor position, getting ready to stand up, try and keep your feet as FLAT to the ground as you can. most guys tend to alter most of the weight on they're forefoot, causing most of the weight to transfer to the front, also causing you to have a messed up front squat when your actually trying to stand up with it. most of the time when theyre attempted to go heavy on theyre 3rd lifts, they really CAN get the lift, but since all the weight is on theyre forefoot the weight can quickly tend to be heavy causing most guys to just throw the bar down in front of them, when they try to squat and find out they cant stand up. so basically, you'll have a much more stable and stronger front squat, if your feet are flatter to the ground. another thing about keeping your feet flat is, most guys are scaired to do this because, if the weight is too heavy for them, they always think theyre gunna fall backwards instead of forwards because of how your footing is, and this is totally not true.

but as for the squatting part, this is where your mentality kicks in. ive seen good friends of mine fall with weight im SURE they could get, and ive seen littler guys get an unbelievable amount of weight. its ALL in your head bro.yelling helped a tremendous amount for me, i would yell my frikken brains out on the squat and ofcourse it would grab everyones attention, i wouldnt care, i just wanted to win.

JERKIN IT.

heres the tricky part, this took me awhile to do right. and everyone has theyre own take on the right way to do this, except in reality theres really on 1 way to accomplish the jerk correctly.

when your standing up, and you got the bar rested on your shoulders. the biggest mistake, the BIGGEST mistake, is taking too long of a rest when your standing preparing to jerk. you can SEE it in peoples eyes bro, you can see it, when theyre standing and theyve had hell trying to clean the weight up, and they rest for too long, you can see it in theyre eyes that theyres no way theyre gonna jerk it now. if your rest is longer than 4 or 5 seconds, your in some deep water. what happens when you take too long of a rest is; #1) you've wasted energy, #2) your losing focus #3) youve lost even more energy trying to regain your focus. big big mistake bro. ive done this a few times, and i could of gotten the lift if i hadnt of 'rested' in between the clean and jerk.

so what you wanna do is, you wanna try and 'bounce' the bar on your shoulders and throw the bar up on the positive motion of that 'bounce'. so what im saying is, bounce, then on the way up of the bounce, do the actually press.try not to bend your knees when you bounce the bar, cuzz most judges will not count your lift if they see the bar travel too far down. it helps sometimes, i had to do it all the time, if you change your grip before you jerk. what i would do is, being my thumbs in, under the bar, giving me a thumbless grip. this helped me to envision a heavy object such as a wall fall on me, and im trying to press it back up you know?

the split part of the jerk is always the hardest. on your way up, you wanna split your legs as FAR as possible. when you split your legs as far as possible, your dropping lower under the bar, making the lift more possible and a little easier for you. your more dominent foot, is always in front, and your other foot is in the back obviously. on your rear foot though, try and move your foot a little sideways, this will help with stability to ensure your knee doesnt give out causing you to drop the weight.

you wanna have the weight above your head, with your elbows locked out, before you bring your foot in. sometimes if you try and bring your foot in too quickly, your gonna wobble and go back and forth, and your gonna end up dropping the weight. if your having trouble stablizing after your elbows are locker out, take as much time as you want to bringing your feet closer to the standing up right position. it helps if you move your front foot a little, then rear foot a little and so on untill your standing.

well thats about it bro, i hoped this helped you out.
good luck.

[kdawg21]

good post..............

[morfeuss]

what i can add is that the clean and jerk is easier than the snatch...
it should be a grip nearly same witdth of the shoulders

to learn the propper movement start withe the hanging position and clean to the shoulders, do this several times, then do some push press,
then after practice put the bar on the floor, power clean it on shoulders without knocking it against the upper hip[ its not knocking but just light push, knocking it with the hip is a wrong movement which will push the bar far infront in the second phase of the clean] and after that the bar passed the lower part of the belly start to pull upwards, and try to keep the elbow as high as possible, and when at the maximum position you will know it, kust tuen the elbows , same as the hanging clean. then after powercleaning do dome power jerk, its jerking without putting the legs front and back, when the bar is on ur shoulders; raise the shoulders as high as possible to prevent suffocation.. then bend ur knees and lower 30 cm with the bar on shoulders, then as quick as psossible get up, push the bar, and in the same time separate the foot sideways...
well im tired of typing, im giving a link to see the proper movement,its one of my friend...


http://ogv.asn.or.at/


you will get videos on the snatch and clean and jerks --its in german i think, see in the videos section obviously....

[Mallet]

Thanx for all the great pointers itsallmental and morpheus! When your doing hanging pulls or cleans, are you bent over at all in the begginning position or standing straight? so the bar would be above my knees if i started hanging cleans or below?

[morfeuss]

well you may do hanging cleand above and below the knees... below is easier as you get biger momentum ...but above knees will help in learning proper movement. when the bar is just below the knees, the back should be at about 45 degrees with the ground.. \ but the back must always be tense and curved to the inside. and when doing above the knees its a little bit more straight back... but this will be automated with practice. if you keep your back at 90 degrees its not good, it will hurt u and make it heavier. the angle between the [belly and knees] vary proportionally with the angle between [ham and calf] if u get what i say? it should be well coordinated.

[itsallmental]

Thanx for all the great pointers itsallmental and morpheus! When your doing hanging pulls or cleans, are you bent over at all in the begginning position or standing straight? so the bar would be above my knees if i started hanging cleans or below?

the bar would be above your knees if you were doing hang cleans. your basically just standing straight up holding the bar on your thighs and the weight is just hanging there. hence the name, hang clean

[Mallet]

Once again thank you both, i'm gonna practise these techniques for the next 6 months or so..let me ask you about when the hips come into play? and although it appears like your thrusting the bar away from your body, i understand it that you not at all? any tips on the hip portion of the lift?

[kdawg21]

You actually want to keep the bar in as close to your body as possible, that way you are able to maintain your power angles easily.....
Your hips are involved, all be it to a limited extent, during the initial explosion in which starts the bar moving, when your doing it from the floor think of it as a really deep deadlift, however, the majority of your hip work comes after you have shrugged/rowed the weight up and you drop below to get yourself under it, your hips them become the primary stabilization muscles and the means by which you use to stand.

[morfeuss]

the bar dont need to hit the hips, only like a small push. and the strength of that pust will be determined if you can really pull the bar after the hip push. i mean the pull should be with higher elbows. if you hit hard with the hips and do not pull hard the bar will simply go infront and will be difficult to clean or hurt ur shoulders.

[morfeuss]

http://www.prin.edu/college/athletic...ting/index.htm

check these
i just found this link

about wl

[Mallet]

Very helpful information gentlemen! thanx again...