The goal of the pulling phase of the snatch is to get the bar as high as possible while having the elbows stay above the wrists. Every major muscle group that can help to accomplish this goal should be used.
These words also apply to the snatch pull. The snatch pull is an exercise that mimics the pulling phase of the snatch. It enforces correct timing and strengthens the muscles that should be used during the pulling phase.
Because the snatch pull is a complex movement with many moving parts, I’ll break it down into several posts. Today we’ll focus on the part of the pull that happens directly after the bar and hips make contact. In future posts, I will break down other phases in the lifts.
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During a heavy snatch, the bar is pulled vertically until it makes contact with the hips (or upper thighs). This movement is powerful and can clearly be seen in every lift. Many lifters assume that the snatch pull ends when the hips hit or come in contact with the bar, and that the bar gets its height solely from the force of the legs, glutes and back. However, the upward pull is not yet complete.
After the hips come in contact with the bar and the lifter is extended, calves, traps, and shoulders should continue to engage in pulling the bar up. Only after all of these muscles have added to the bar’s upward momentum, the lifter can begin the transition into the catch (to be covered in a future post).
The following video shows Vasiliy Polovnikov performing snatch pulls. When the weights are relatively light, we can clearly see the full use of every major muscle group that can pull the bar up, including the calves, traps, and shoulders. As the weight increases, these muscle groups don’t have as big of an effect on the bar’s height as when the weights are lighter. They are, however, still helping to pull the bar higher. The extra few inches this adds to the height of the bar makes a world of a difference when the lifts are near maximum.
As the hips make contact with the bar, the calves engage, then the traps and then the shoulders. This seems like a small detail, but if the sequence is done incorrectly, the pull will be significantly less effective. There is a small difference between how top lifters view the use of the shoulders in the pull. For the most part, this is a difference in semantics. Some lifters view the work of the shoulders as actively pulling the elbows (and bar) up, while others see the work of the shoulders as actively directing the elbows and bar to go in the right direction.
For an effective pull, the shoulders should be directly above the bar. To do so, keep the shoulders slightly internally rotated throughout the pull (point elbows sideways). after the hips After the traps have engaged, the elbows should be pulled up. The direction in which the elbows point is the direction the bar will be pulled. The final position of the snatch pull is the highest that the bar can be pulled, with the elbows remaining above the bar.
For years, my snatch pull ended with a big smash of the hips against the bar, giving the bar upward momentum. As the bar went up, I would sneak under it. This allowed me to lift respectable weights. When I decided to fix my pull (using the right muscles), my timing was off, and the traps and shoulders were weak. It took time for me to build the needed muscles, but when I did, the lifts felt better, I had more control of the bar, and more height to work with. I had a better understanding of the muscles that were being used and what muscles needed to get stronger in order to lift more. My snatch increased.
A word of advice: When practicing the snatch pull with lighter weight, make it smooth. The acceleration should be uniform throughout the pull. The hip contact should not accelerate the bar faster than other phases. If it does, the bar will go up so fast that there won’t be a need to use the traps and shoulders, because of which the traps and shoulders won’t develop.
A good exercise to learn the timing and strengthen the smaller pulling muscles was introduced by Dmitry Klokov, called “Trapi.”
Trapi should be performed with 40-60% of the snatch for 4-6 sets of 4-6 reps.
- The setup:
– Stand straight up with the bar in hand using straps, with a snatch grip.
– Shoulders should be slightly internally rotated and relaxed.
– Keep the legs straight at all times. - Bend at the hip, keeping the bar pressed into the hip using the lats.
- Thrust up with the hips, pushing up with the calves.
- Pull the shoulders to the ears
- Pull the elbows up as high as possible.
- Lower the bar back to the hip. Try to make a smooth transition from one rep to the next.
By not using the calves, traps and shoulders during the snatch pull, you are limiting the force you put into the pull. In the next few weeks I will cover what happens after this full pull, and what determines the speed under the bar. Tune in next week!
Hips then calves then traps then shoulders. Never thought of the pull this way. If there is one thing my coach has drilled into me, it’s patience with that pull. Hopefully this cue helps me achieve that.
Its hard to cover more than just a fraction of a second of a fast movement in a post. I hope that future posts will help explain the timing of the pull in a more practical way. I think once you understand what the catch is – it will help with the pull. I don’t mean to by cryptic.
Thank you Yasha
….I had a question:
I have seen klokov(on his ebook) do this with leg bend in power position is this also OK? Or to get the most out of motor skills should be done stiff leg?
2nd
On the “trapi” exercise of mr.klokov Getting on your toes, should this happen naturally as a result from the momentum going up as if u got on ur toes unconsciously?
Or do u get on ur toes while intention in shifting to ur toes?
Thank you again.
Hi Toli, By taking the legs out of the pull, you’re forced to use the other, weaker muscles. You will do less weight – but will stress the weaker muscles more. This doesn’t make one way more right than the other. They just stress you differently. If your upper body is already strong, and you want to stress a longer part of the pull (starting lower) – then trapi with legs bent is a good exercise.
Getting on toes – this must happen. You have to get on your toes. If you do it naturally – it’s not something you need to think about. If it doesn’t happen naturally – then force it until it’s second nature.
Shifting weight to your toes – no, you shouldn’t shift the weight to your toes (this may be an argument in semantics). You should start the lift on the mid foot, and push straight up. If you do so, the bar will go up, and the catch will also be on mid foot, since the force was only upward. You do get on your toes during the pull, but if you were to stay on your toes and pause in the extended pull position, you would fall back (since the weight is on mid foot). Does this make sense?
Thank you Yasha it helps a lot.
Great stuff bud.
Thanks Yasha,
I’m looking forward to the rest of this series!
I’ve always been confused about how pulls, in this case high pulls, (hips and knees extend and arms pull the bar higher after traps are done working) relate to the classic lifts (lets say snatch in this case). When I watch Vasiliy’s snatch pulls, he clearly pulls the bar higher with the traps and arms after it makes contact with the hips. But when I watch him snatch (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3IF0EUYx7c), after the bar makes contact with the hips, his knees re-bend and he starts to pull under rather than pulling the bar higher. So what is the primary purpose of pulls? To reinforce a straight bar path? Strengthen the traps and shoulders? I definitely see some variety among elite lifters: some pull the bar a little higher with their traps and arms after the bar contacts the hips and then begin to go under the bar, while others begin to go under the bar almost immediately after contact. I’m confused because what happens after the bar makes contact with the hips during a high pull just looks much different to me than what happens during a snatch. Thanks!
When doing just pulls, we pull as high as we can (so long as the elbows are above the wrists), until we can’t pull any higher to build strength in the muscles needed for the pull phase of the snatch. In the full snatch, the traps and shoulders pull less, because there is a point at which these smaller muscles aren’t adding any more to the final height to the bar. But if these muscles are strong enough (because we do pulls using these muscles), they can add a significant amount of height (when used correctly) to the bar’s final position. I do agree, it’s very hard to see the involvement of the smaller muscles in such a fast lift, especially when the weight gets heavy.
I think it’s easier to notice the involvement of these muscles in other lifters when you have felt the longer pull yourself. It’s also easier to see the longer pulls when lifters are doing less weight when the smaller muscles can have a bigger impact on the bar’s final height. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r976kRdBzAk
Does that make sense?
That makes sense. There are obviously many pulling variations so I suppose it ultimately depends on what you are trying to work on. I’ve only been weightlifting about two years so I’m constantly learning. Do you or Vasiliy ever program fast pulls (https://youtu.be/QoZRU97jxXQ?t=13s)? Do the Russians use this exercise?
Out of the lifters I’ve worked with, all of them pull with every muscle that can help get the bar higher (in the snatch, the clean is different). As for the quick pulls, I’ve seen them done once or twice as a rare variation, but it isn’t done often at all by the Eastern Europeans. The body type/limb lengths have a lot to do with the pull dynamics, and what pulling exercise helps the most for the classic lift.
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