Although it can look like a person who is snatching is dropping down fast into the squat position where they catch the bar, that’s not exactly what’s happening. What’s actually happening is that they are pulling the bar high and catching it while it’s still being pulled. Ideal: pull the bar until you’ve caught it. Not ideal: pull the bar, stop pulling, get down fast and catch it. In other words, the bar always needs to be moving upwards, even while your body is moving under.

Some people (like me!) don’t finish that upward pull before going down. The moment between pulling upwards and going down is very, very tiny. It is that point where the ankles go from being extended to the feet landing back down on the ground. The major difference at this point is the direction of the force. In the first and second pull of the snatch, you are applying force against the ground. In the third pull, you’re applying the force in the opposite direction to move your body down.

If the upward pull isn’t finished before the lifter goes down, it means that the bar hasn’t been elevated high enough. If the bar isn’t elevated high enough, the lifter will have trouble getting under it in time, and the bar can crash down, as opposed to them meeting it and catching it smoothly. Obviously, if there is limited bar height, it will massively limit the weights a lifter can lift, but also if a bar crashes down, it’s likely to cause a lifter to miss the lift.

It’s essential to get under the bar quickly, but relying on gravity and speed isn’t the answer. You have to be actively pulling yourself under the bar.

There are a few exercises I like to do to help me practice both pulling on the bar for as long as possible and exerting force on the bar to get under it.

Snatches from power position

The snatch from power position helps a lifter to remain flat-footed through their pull. In essence, it forces them to complete their second pull before getting under the bar.

Hang snatches

Hang snatches mean there is limited time and space to accelerate and pull the bar up. This helps the lifter apply greater force and aggression when moving their body under the bar. A lifter who relies on simply dropping under the bar to catch it will benefit from hang snatches because they will help them learn how to be more forceful rather than relying on speed.

Snatch pulls

These can help a lifter focus on maintaining force on the ground/remaining flat-footed and finishing their pull. The legs must continue pushing against the ground so long as the bar is moving upwards. Only once the bar has reached its maximum height and is going down, should the feet return to the ground.

Power snatch to parallel

This is my personal favorite exercise for helping me to keep pulling on the bar until I’ve caught it. Use a weight heavy enough that it forces you to have to catch it at the parallel position. If you can catch it higher, the weight is too light to get the real benefit of this exercise for this particular problem we’re talking about.

By power snatching to parallel, the weights are heavy enough that they actually force the lifter to get under the bar by applying force, rather than simply relying on speed and gravity.

Drop snatch

I really like this exercise for lots of reasons. For the problem we’re describing, using this exercise can help a lifter learn how to exert force in order to get down, since there is no upward drive on the bar preceding the downward movement of the body. It’s a good exercise for teaching a lifter how to meet the bar with confidence and precision quickly. There should definitely be no ‘sinking shoulders’ feeling when catching the bar in this!

Hip drive

Something else that has helped me become more forceful in getting the bar up as well as getting my body down is to consciously think about my hips. Cues are very important in weightlifting, and trying to think ‘hips!’ as I go into triple extension helps me to mentally switch them on. The final extension of the hips is key at exactly the point we’re talking about in this article—that tiny moment between the second and third pull—to allow a fast and aggressive change in the direction of the body from going up to getting down.

Shoulder stability

Alongside these exercises which improve the timing of the catch in the snatch, another important aspect not to overlook is general shoulder stability in the overhead position. If you can feel your shoulders sinking as you catch the bar in the snatch, then your shoulders may not be very stable.

It’s important to ensure your overhead position is correct.

·      the wrists should be extended (but not completely), and the barbell should be over the forearm, and the heel of the palm is facing upwards

·      the shoulder blades should be retracted and slightly upwardly rotated

For practicing correct, stable movements of the shoulders, I like to warm up with behind the neck presses in both or either the standing and squat positions.

I also always make sure my shoulders are very mobile before I start snatching, by carrying out shoulder dislocations with as narrow a grip as I can get to. I carry out these before starting any weighted work.

Bottom Line

In the snatch, recognizing and practicing that the bar always has to be going up, even as your body is going down, is key. Some exercises will be able to help with this, such as power snatches to parallel and power position snatches.

I personally went through a few weeks where I didn’t do any full snatches at all.  I just focused on these exercises, which I found very hard! It felt difficult when I went back to regular snatching, as it always does when I don’t do a particular exercise for a while, but several sessions later, I seem to be meeting the bar much much more smoothly and no longer is it crashing down on me!

Further reading

The Connection of the Second & Third Pulls

The Power Snatch: Uses and Cautions

Hips, Meet Bar: Bar-Body Contact in the Extension of the Snatch and Clean