Ashley Asks: I have been weightlifting for 5 years and cannot seem to break the habit of rocking back on my heels between the first and second pull, especially on the clean. I see it every lift I record: my toes come completely off the ground. This subsequently results in me having to bring my heels off the floor in order to have contact with the bar.... instead of the desired chain of reaction: heels come off the floor BECAUSE of the bar contact. (I hope this makes sense...)

I’ve tried fixing by adjusting my back angle and also by scooting the bar slightly closer to my shins on setup, but then I hit my knees on every pull. It’s frustrating because I know I could probably have some higher numbers if I could just maintain contact with the floor longer. 

Do you have any drills in mind in which I can practice not rocking back on my heels? Or to help me keep my whole foot planted as long as possible? I’m getting old and desperate. 

Greg Says: There are several good exercises for this, but a big part of it is fundamentally changing the way you see the movement in your mind.
 
It may just be that I find the way you’ve worded it confusing, but the heels should NOT rise because of bar contact, but because of vertical drive of the legs against the ground. This is exactly the kind of fundamental conceptual issue I’m talking about. The heels rising because the hips are contacting the bar is viewing the pull motion as a horizontal hip extension into the bar, which it is absolutely not. Think of doing a standing vertical jump and what happens with your ankles—you plantar flex as a natural part of the drive against the floor to elevate yourself. THAT is what is causing the heels to rise in a proper pull.
 
In other words, you need to reconfigure your understanding of the motion as one of vertical extension rather than horizontal. This alone will help with the problem of rocking back on your heels because there won’t be any impulse to do it if you’re focused on moving up.
 
The first exercise I would work on is a segment deadlift. Pause one inch off the floor, at the knee, and at mid-thigh, at each position focusing primarily on feeling your foot flat on the floor and even pressure across it. Forget speed, just focus on that balance and position.
 
Next work to a segment pull—instead of just standing up after the last pause, perform a snatch or clean pull from mid-thigh. There are two keys here: first, start with the feet flat and pressure across them like you should; second, push straight up with your legs—don’t drive the hips forward into the bar like you’re doing a kettlebell swing.
 
When you’re comfortable with these, remove pause positions and pause only at mid-thigh without sacrificing balance or position on the way up. Eventually you should be able to do snatch and clean pulls with the correct balance and vertical drive. If you can do that, you have no excuse to not pull that way when you snatch and clean—you just have to be focused on doing it.
 
Work on the snatch and clean with those same pause steps, and you can do complexes like snatch pull + snatch, or segment pull + snatch. Don’t rush the lift after the pulls—make sure you’re moving the same way you did on the pull.