In my 13th years of coaching, I’ve found when coaching athletes through the jerk, the majority of the time it is either a quick comprehension of the movement and their lives are easier, or an exercise that feels like it is the bane of their existence. Fortunately for my weightlifting, I happened to feel out jerks relatively quickly, although I think it may have hindered my ability to coach the exercise for my first three to five years. 
 
I didn’t understand how some athletes were competent on the clean and fell apart on the jerk. Over time, I was fortunate enough to be able to progress through the Catalyst Athletics Coaching Certification and I found more appropriate progressions as well as a more articulate way to teach the components of the lift. Learning what I had, the athletes that I had been working with were able to execute Jerks more proficiently to higher minimums than before the technical execution hit a limiter. 
 
This all likely is obvious, and I would hope that you as coaches are doing your diligence to ensure that you can communicate, coach and program to the appropriate level of the clients and athletes you work with. The next concepts I’ll dive into are more based on how to improve their limitations with a greater set of tools to have at your disposal. 
 
When analyzing the discrepancies that may be limiting the jerk, there are a number of variables to consider; overall exposure, morphology limitations (like a shorter humerus, relative to the forearm or someone with extremely narrow hips), mobility, stability, previous injuries, psychological perception of the lift and so on. There are also physiological limitations, such as the ability to express strength, power and speed. As coaches and strength enthusiasts, you likely have heard of and apply elements of your training within the concept of the strength-speed spectrum. To keep this brief for those who are not familiar, there are four general buckets in which certain velocities and intensities that movements naturally fall into. 
 

Quality	Description	Example
Absolute Strength	Lower speed and highest load exercises. Use of load for a high degree of rate of force production.	Back Squat, Front Squat, Press
Strength Speed	High speed with lower load exercises. Use of loads for a high degree of force development.	Jerk, Power Jerk, Power Clean
Speed Strength	Higher speed and low load exercises. Use of light implements to degree high power outputs.	Light Barbell Jumps, Med Ball Throws
Absolute Speed	Highest Speed and lowest load. Use of bodyweight or underloading bodyweight to develop the highest rate of contraction speed.	Upper Body Plyometrics, Jumps, Bounding, Sprinting

  
 
As all athletes are different, they may bias towards one or two qualities along the spectrum. Some athletes are stronger than they are fast or faster than they are strong. This is an important point for coaches to consider as their programming biases may not be organized appropriately relative to the individual said program is designed for.  Oftentimes we program from periods of higher volumes with lower intensity transitioning to periods of lower volumes to higher intensity. This has, and continued to work for decades. It’s not my place to question this model, although I would like for you to have a chance to question this organization for all of your athletes. 
 
For example, an athlete you work with didn’t perform jerks as well as they could at a competition. We often design the first subsequent mesocycles around higher volume abbreviations of the jerk, such as power jerks, push presses and presses, although if the limitation is that they are not fast enough, the previous mention exercises might be too slow for them to develop the quality. These exercises are great and should not be neglected, it just can be helpful to involve upper body plyometrics and light implement throws to develop higher levels of speed development in conjunction with the more specific barbell exercises. 
 
I like seeing training after the diagnosis of limitation as 1) an isolation of the limitation, 2) a transition to integrate the limitation, and 3) specific exposure to limitation in a performance setting. That was pretty wordy, but if you have been around in the fitness community, you may have heard different coaches call this an isolate, innervate and integrate model or a limiter, bridge and performance model. It’s all close to the same concept.
 
Depending on the athlete, and where they currently stand within their experience level and competition season, you may have a longer time isolating specific qualities. Personally, if I’m focusing on one to two qualities, the mesocycle will be shorter to 10-21 workouts (two to three weeks) or if it’s two or more qualities, we’ll adjust the training variables for 15-30 workouts (three to six weeks). Being overly specific has a cost, so if you need single quality focused, keep the specific training period on the shorter side so you are not neglecting the other key performance indicators for too long. 
 
For example, I had worked with an athlete who had previously competed in an online competition. Snatches went as well as they could, going 3/3 with a new competition record, but clean and jerk didn’t quite go to plan. All of the cleans were relatively easy but the athlete didn’t have the endurance (yes, endurance is still an important aspect of weightlifting) and speed was limited through the drive and lockout. After a few days to recuperate, we had a plan to develop these limitations. 
 
We spent a three-week period working on speed exercises med ball throws, rebounding pike pushups (body inverted with hips bent as the feet are elevated on a box. Perform the rep as you absorb into bottom range and punch away from the floor as fast as possible), and other low load and high speed drills. We then transitioned into a program where we focus on jerks three times a week. This athlete trains five times a week from Monday to Friday, so we programmed these sessions every other day and lowered the volume and intensity for the Tuesday and Thursdays workouts. 
 
Our weekly lay out for the Jerk exercises looked very closely to this:
 
Monday 
Front Squat + Jerk 
Description: Execute a Front Squat with a Clean grip, the position of the hands on the bar should mirror as close to possible to the ideal placement of the arms. Adjust the grip after the Front Squat reps are complete for the Jerk. Jerk style would chosen relative to the coach’s and athlete’s discretion.
 
Traditionally, this complex is performed by completing the written amount of Front Squat preceding the repetitions of jerk. This would be good for athletes who have a harder time staying composed on tired legs as well as those who need to for the demand of the leg drive of the succeeding jerk. 
 
Progression:
 
Week 1-2 (75-80% 3+2) 4 
Week 3-4 (80-85% 2+2) 4-5 
Week 5-6 (85-90% 2+1) 5-6  
 
Rational: We wanted to build the composure of the jerk after fatigue has been accumulated through the legs and upper back. 
 
Wednesday 
Synchro Power Jerk 
Description: Start the first rep as you would any power jerk. The difference here is, as soon as you receive the weight, absorb into the dip of the succeeding rep. Athlete must maintain the exact rhythm of the dip drive and receiving into the succeeding dip throughout the set. 
 
Progression:
 
Week 1-2 (50-60%5)5 
Week 3-4 (55-65%4)5 
Week 5-6 (60-70%3)5 
 
Rational: Synchro power jerks or touch and go power jerks force the athlete to maintain balance in all of the components or the dip, drive and receiving phases of the lift. If balance is lost at any point of the rep then the athlete will lose composure within the desired position. 
 
Friday 
 
Clean + Front Squat + Jerk 
 
Description: Complete the required amount of cleans before moving onto the desired amount of front squat and jerks. This can be performed as a sequence (2+2+2) or as rotation alternating between the exercises (1+1+1/1+1+1).
 
This is a pretty standard complex for many weightlifter, although we want to keep the volume higher so the athlete learns to perform with composure while fatigue is building. 
 
Progression 
Week 1-2 (70-75% 2+2+2) 5 sets
Week 3-4 (70-75% 2+2+2) 2, (75-80%2+2+2) 3 
Week 5-6 (70%) 2+2+2 (75-80%2+2+2) 2 (80-85%2+2+2) 2 
 
Rational: We wanted to integrate the endurance and the speed development from the proceeding training days while being exposed to an exercise in closer resemblance of the classic Clean and Jerk. Performance of this exercise would give us an indicator as to how the next week of training would look like as we adjust the exercises, intensity, volume and frequency.
 
This mesocycle had been a success so far, as the athlete miss a 205 Jerk for two attempts in the previous competition, he just PR’d his Jerk at 220 with a previous best of 210, while we are seven weeks out from the next major competition.
 
Closing Thoughts 
 
I hope this gives you a few ideas and concepts to think about when organizing your athletes or your own training. Some athletes might need a number of parameters and exercises while others may just need to perform heavy jerk singles for them to improve. As we can develop specific parameters to increase performance of one exercise, just remember that all exercises are manifestations of our own imagination. We made up weightlifting, snatches, clean and jerks, so be mindful when you feel like you are becoming too dogmatic. You may have to be creative with certain athletes or yourself and honestly I hope you have a chance to do so. There is a lot of fun within that creativity when it becomes a purposeful tool for you to use every once and a while.