In order to lift a heavy weight from the floor to overhead, you must make sure that the horizontal distance between the bar and your body is absolutely minimal. This all starts at the setup position, which for a lot of people will mean the bar touches your shins very slightly. If you would like an obvious example, watch one of Lydia Valentin’s snatches. The bar is in contact with her legs the whole time.

Some people find the bar comes away from them during the first and second phase, even if their start position is good. When this happens, it has consequences on the rest of the lift including causing the bar to swing out in front during the turnover, which can lead to a very unstable catch position (if the bar is even caught at all).

So what are some actions lifters can do to try to keep the bar close?
 
Make sure you are ‘tight’ during the setup

This means that there should be tension in your whole body, particularly your latissimus dorsi muscle. A common difference between an experienced lifter and an amateur one is that the experienced lifter very obviously has tension throughout their body, whereas an amateur one does not. You can see this very clearly if ever you watch an experienced lifter squat—they tighten their body, get the bar on to their shoulders and take one or two steps back, keeping their whole body locked. An amateur squatter will most likely be flapping about (literally) and moving about nervously! It’s because their body isn’t ‘locked.’

When you are setting up for the snatch, squeeze your shoulder blades back and down and this will help create the tension you need to keep the bar close. You could even try taking ‘the slack’ out of the bar before you move it. This technique helps a lot of people.

Maintain that tightness during the first and second phases

The lats must not just be activated at the setup, that tension must be maintained all the time the bar is travelling up the legs. Consider thinking about your lat muscles as you execute the lift with a cue such as ‘tight back’.

Think about ‘drawing’ the bar back

Although most us know that the bar is supposed to move upwards in a straight line, that’s not the exact reality. It might be helpful to consider the bar to be moving slightly backwards (as well as up), rather than just up. For the bar to move backwards, the lats have to be switched on. The cue ‘drawing’ the bar back, describes the movement very well.

Keep the bar close around the knees

Getting the bar around the knees can be tricky. In order for the bar to pass the knees, the knees must move back; however, they should not ‘snap’ back, which is what can sometimes happen. If the knees snap back, which means that they move back too soon or too quickly, the thighs get straightened too soon and you will notice a large gap between the bar and the thighs. This can happen when the bar is at the knees or it can happen when the bar is above the knees.

Again, ensuring that the lats are switched on and tight the whole time the bar is travelling—especially at and around the knees—can prevent this snap back from happening.

While warming up, you might also find it helpful to practice pulling the bar slowly, which will mean extending the legs slowly too. Pulling the bar very slowly means you have time to assess the positions you are in and can check that the bar is close to you throughout the movement and that the legs are in their correct positions too.

Exercises to help keep the bar close
 
A lot of pulls!
 
The key though is not to just pull, it is to pull in the correct positions. Pulls are often done with weights higher than a lifter’s maximum snatch, but often the positions that mimic the snatch are not maintained, so instead the pull is more like a deadlift. Deadlifts are excellent, but they don’t have as much carryover to the snatch as controlled snatch pulls do.

You can do plenty of pulls starting with an empty bar. As mentioned above, it might be helpful to do them deliberately slowly, or with pauses, so as to ensure you are keeping the bar close throughout. Pay attention to where the bar is during the lift and check in with yourself at each major point, e.g.

·       Bar start – is the bar touching my shins?
·       Mid-shin – is the bar close?
·       At knees – is the bar still close?
·       Above knees – is the bar still close?
·       At full extension – is the bar touching the ‘pocket’?

Really at no point should the bar ever be more than half an inch away from your body for most people.
Focus on ensuring the lats are activated throughout the slow pull. If ever the bar comes away, it’s likely because you’ve lost tension in your lats.

Remember Greg Everett’s order of priorities

In his book, Greg made a comment, “We need to understand now, and throughout the learning process, that there is a simple order of priorities: Position, movement, speed, load.”

The reason why it’s so important therefore, to spend time doing snatch pulls and snatches slowly (snatches are not meant to be done slowly of course, but you can manipulate the movement so that parts of the lift are done slower such as the first phase, and you can even incorporate pauses in positions), is because it gives you plenty of time to ensure the bar and your body are in the correct positions. Positions are the number one priority in weightlifting and only once positions are dialled in, should a lifter start focusing on other aspects such as speed.

Use pulls in complexes, for example one slow pull + one normal speed pull + one full snatch. Use pauses in different positions, such as at the knee or at full extension. Use pulls + power snatches or hang power snatches because there is even less room for error in these exercises – the bar absolutely must be kept close the whole time as there is less time to get under the bar. Use hang power snatches from below the knee to focus on keeping the bar close above the knees.

Bottom line

To execute an excellent snatch, the bar needs to be very close to a lifter’s body. One of the best cues to encourage this to happen is ensuring complete tension in the body, in particular the lats. Plenty of snatch pulls at a slow tempo and/or with pauses can help a lifter know what this tension ought to feel like, and can help a lifter practice drawing the bar towards their body. The eventual result will be a nice smooth upward movement of body and bar!