One of the problems I experienced when I first started Olympic lifting was that I would often stop still at the bottom of a clean. This can become a habit if it is not resolved quickly. It’s unhelpful to pause at the bottom of a clean. It makes the jerk much harder than it ought to be and is a massive waste of energy, consequently leading to a higher chance of a missed jerk. The problem of stopping in the bottom of the clean is usually down to technique, so spending time improving your technique with the assistance of a coach will really help.

Most problems of spotting at the bottom of a clean can be improved by front squats. (I don’t like to overcomplicate Olympic weightlifting because it’s complicated enough already). The front squat carries over perfectly to the clean, and it builds your core strength and teaches you how to maintain the correct upright posture.

Here are some of the reasons why a lifter might stop at the bottom of a clean and some strategies to address this problem.

Lack of leg strength

Finding a clean so difficult that it causes an athlete to stop might merely be because the weight is very heavy for them. The simple solution for this is to do more front squats and ensure your front squat max is well above the max weight you clean.

I have noticed that I am much more proficient at cleans when my front squats are going well and feeling strong. In phases where I’ve had to put the weight down for front squats, my cleans really suffer. I can get the bar up but can’t get out of the hole.

The better you technically get at cleaning, the closer your clean weight will be to your maximum front squat weight. Therefore, the amount you front squat might become the limiting factor in improving your clean. I have personally noticed that when my 5RM front squat is about 5kg more than my maximum clean, that’s when my cleans are at their best in terms of technical proficiency.
 
Not meeting the bar correctly

Lifters who are very comfortable and strong in the bottom position of a squat sometimes have a tendency to try to get down too fast. They start getting under the bar too early and then don’t meet the bar correctly. This has been one of my tendencies!

If the timing is off between the bar going up and being racked, the bar will likely crash down on you and literally push you down to the floor. A solution for this is to improve your technique in terms of timing. Helpful exercises can be tall cleans or cleans from the power position. Both require you to put great effort into driving the bar up as high as possible in order to get your body down.

Poor rack position

If the bar is not racked correctly, it will tilt you off balance and cause your torso to not be vertical and the weight will then be either too far forward or too far back. Front squatting regularly will help you find and maintain the correct rack position, and this will carry over to your clean.

Weak or inactive core

If your core muscles are weak, you will not be able to maintain an upright posture and will most likely collapse at the bottom of the clean or as you try to stand up from it. Or perhaps you have strong core muscles, but you have failed to activate them sufficiently for the clean. If that’s the case, taking a big deep breath and holding it in before you lift the bar from the floor can really help create that internal pressure in your torso that you need to keep upright. If your core is weak, I don’t recommend anything fancy—you can do planks and side planks, but for me, the best solution has just been lots and lots of front squats!

Mindset

This is probably the most significant reason I stop at the bottom of a clean. There are times when I feel nervous or tired and by the time I get into the squat position in the clean, my mind has given up. There are other times when my mind may not 100 percent be on the lift (because I’m worrying about something else going on in my life, for example), but I have noticed that it needs to be. Olympic lifting requires 100 percent focus. If there is even a small lapse in concentration, it can cause me to fail the clean because I didn’t have the correct mindset to accelerate out of the bottom.

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of setting and changing your mindset during a clean. Becoming stronger psychologically can fix a lot of weightlifting-related problems. Weightlifting is a tough sport – not just physically but it’s demanding on the mind. When you are in the gym, you have to devote 100 percent to every lift you do, there can be no lapses in concentration or distractions. Learning to be more present-minded so that you can focus only on your lifting rather than other life worries can really help.

Before any lift, stop thinking about anything else going on in your life. All you need to think about is you and the bar. You’re only human, so it’s understandable that there will be times in the gym that your mind is elsewhere, but a trick I have learned is that no matter how distracted I am, I know that a clean only lasts a few seconds, so telling myself that “for these few seconds I’m only going to think about this clean” really helps me.

Cues

Before you lift the bar, as you are pulling the bar up and as you are pulling yourself under well before you get to the bottom, you have to be telling yourself: “UP!” We all have different cues we can use. Finding and recalling the words that help you execute a particular technique can be the difference between making or failing a lift. I like to think “up!” or “just get out!” and it helps my brain signal to my body to accelerate. When I fail to use this cue, I’m more likely to be slow and unaggressive which can cause me to miss the lift. Your ideal cue might be different than mine, so find one that works for you.

Additional reading:

Get out of the Clean Faster
How To Quit Getting Stuck in The Clean