How to get good at the Snatch

Monday, December 15, 2014

Weekly Programming Links:  Group Class, Barbell Club

Attend VBC or Gymnastics tonight at 8pm at Venice!

Prehab

PVC Dislocates x 15 reps
Keg Drill x 60 seconds
Wrist and Ankle Mobility x 60 seconds each
Monster Walks x 10 steps each direction
Sampson Stretch x 60 seconds each

Warmup

Jog 200 meters
Bear Crawl 100′
then with PVC or Barbell:
10 Good Mornings
10 Pause Overhead Squats in your best possible overhead squat position
10 Hang Power Snatches with 2-3 second pause in catch position

Cool Down

Couch Stretch x 60 seconds
Wall Extensions, 2×10 reps
Foam Roll Legs as needed

Fitness Strength

15 minutes to perform 3-4 sets:

Hang Power Snatch plus Overhead Squat  x 3-5 reps
L- sit x 20-30 seconds

Notes:  Rest as needed between movements.  If this is your first time trying snatching, keep the weight light, focus on making good hip contact and catching the bar in a good overhead position.  Only squat as deep as you can maintain a quality overhead position, so partial range of motion is ok.  Some athletes may just practice performing the overhead squats.  Scale the Lsit to try and hold for a minimum of 20 seconds.  For some athletes, this may just be a support on boxes or benches with very little hinge at the hips.  More advanced athletes should try to lock their knees and hold their ankles above hip level (this is very hard!).

Advanced Strength

15 minutes to perform 4-5 sets:
Power Snatch x 3 reps
L-sit x max effort with knees locked out

Notes:  Prioritize catching the bar above parallel in a quality overhead squat position.  Drop the bar between reps and work up to as heavy as possible with perfect technique.

Fitness and Advanced Conditioning

CrossFit Games Open 14.5

21-18-15-12-9-6-3 reps for time of:
Thrusters
Bar Facing Burpees
-20 min cap-

Notes:  Prescribed is 95/65 and bar facing style burpees with the feet leaving and landing at the same time.  Depending on the number of people in class, you may have to perform lateral burpees to save space.  Newer athletes can scale by starting on the 18 set and performing DB thrusters if needed.

The above videos were filmed a few months ago during our last “On Ramp” group sessions and represent a very different learning experience than our current group class structure.  While these classes were great, we believe there could be a better way that works for more people.  Continuing on what we have been discussing for the past few weeks, our goal is to offer varying paths to success so everyone can achieve their goals.  For anyone that wants to improve at their Olympic lifts, here are the current options that you can pursue:

1.  Attend Venice Barbell Club – this is an hour and a half focused session on the barbell, instead of just a short segment of group class.

2.  Watch all of our videos – not just the ones above, but the many more in our video library.  We have breakdowns of the technique, mobility exercises, scaling suggestions, demo videos and more.

3.  Perform the Monday and Wednesday advanced strength – As often as possible, we perform Snatch on Monday and Clean and Jerk on Wednesdays.  This is designed to help you develop habits and improve through consistent regular work.

4.  Hire a coach – We can’t stress this enough.  If the VBC class times don’t work for you, you struggle to perform work on your own, and you need more help than group class…ask for help from a coach!

5.  Commit to the Olympic Lifting Specialty course – Wait…what’s that?  Well, its that New Year’s change we keep teasing, you’ll just have to wait to find out!