Hot diggity dog! I came up with a great idea for an article two days ago. I made the mistake of watching the NBA because it was the final game of the championship series between the Dallas Mavericks and the Miami Heat, and I was just sucked into the hype. The Mavericks won the game and the championship, and then the post-game interviews started and the world got to hear the sage words of basketball’s top representatives, guys like LeBron James and Mark Cuban. As I listened to the babble flow from their mouths, it occurred to me that I could write a great article about how selfishness, immaturity, and complete lack of understanding that you’re not the most important person in the galaxy can be applied as cautionary lessons to the lives of the weightlifters who read this magazine. I’ve been coming up with little subtopic ideas for the last twenty-four hours, and this stuff should make for a nifty article…next month.

The reason I’m going to put that idea on hold is because we’ve got pressing business to discuss. I can’t let this article’s topic sit on the back burner for a month because we absolutely, positively have to address this problem now. Many of you need this article like Arnold needs a good divorce lawyer.

I’m talking about your starting position in the Olympic lifts, the position of your body during the instant when the bar is still on the floor, your hands are gripped on it, and you’re getting set to pull a snatch or clean off the platform. Because make no mistake about it, this is the single biggest problem I’ve seen with aspiring new lifters as I’ve traveled around to different CrossFit/general training gyms over the past few years and taught the Olympic lifts. In my job as a strength coach, I’ve taught thousands of athletes how to lift over the last twenty years. Teaching rookies from ground zero is sometimes easier than working with people who have already been taught by somebody else and have been practicing the lifts for a while. Complete beginners don’t know how to do anything, so their canvas is totally blank. They can learn the proper movements and positions from day one. But people who have already learned the lifts and trained for a while have started to develop some motor patterns. They’ve begun to build up some consistency and their nervous system is memorizing a technical path. This is generally a good thing, but it can cause problems if the athlete has some deficiencies in their technique because the body is solidifying improper form. Before you know it, you’ve got an athlete who has been practicing incorrect snatches and cleans for six months. Then you’ve got your work cut out for you as a coach if you want to fix them.

Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying here. It’s not like every lifter I’ve worked with in recent months has been a complete train wreck. Most of these people I’ve coached have already learned some very good basics and they’re already doing a lot of things right…from the knees up. My experience with CrossFitters and new weightlifters has been that they usually have proper mechanics in the pulling/extending movement that takes place from the hang-above-the-knees position (the final stages of the pull before the transition into the turnover). But when the bar is moved to the floor and the lifter has to get set and initiate the lift, I’ve seen big trouble in River City. That’s why this article is what it is. If you don’t get set in the proper position at the beginning of a snatch or clean, you have very little chance of executing the rest of the lift efficiently. The whole thing is screwed. You’re essentially trying to build a house on a foundation of swamp land. So brothers and sisters, we have to get this fixed.

Using a Mental Checklist

One of the concepts I’ve found most useful as a coach is to have a mental checklist that applies to proper technique. When you watch an athlete lift, you should have a set of technical points in your mind that the athlete has to meet in order for the lift to be considered efficient. These technical points can simply connect with body parts and how they should be positioned during each stage of the lift. In other words, the coach mentally asks, “Are the feet in the right position?” “Are the hands spaced properly?” “Are the shoulders over the bar?” “Are the elbows straight?” and so forth. After the coach has watched the athlete and checked off each item on the list, then the lifter should be in a good position to snatch or clean correctly. If any of the items on the list aren’t being met, then it’s time to stop everything and do some coaching. Here is a possible checklist for the starting position:

Feet- Are the feet spaced correctly, according to what you’ve decided is the proper foot placement for this individual athlete? By the way, a good rule of thumb for foot spacing is simply to tell the athlete to put their feet where they would be for a standing vertical jump. That’s what I tell beginners: “Put your feet where they would be if you were standing under a basketball hoop and getting ready to jump up and grab it.” Once the athlete has had a few seconds to place their feet according to those instructions, they probably have their feet in the right place. My experience has been that most people place their feet too wide when they’re getting set to start a lift, especially newcomers. You usually have to bring their feet in closer.

Hands- Are the hands spaced properly? This is also determined by what you’ve decided as the proper grip spacing for the individual athlete. By the way, it’s worth mentioning that almost every CrossFitter or rookie I’ve seen in the last two years has had their hands too narrow in the snatch. I’ve had to tell the majority of them to widen their hands out.

Elbows- Are the elbows straight?

Grip- Is the athlete using a hook grip? Are the knuckles pointed straight down towards the floor?

Back- Is the back flat or arched, with the shoulder blades squeezed together and the lumbar area locked tight? This is often a problem area for beginners because many of them don’t have the flexibility or strength in their core to lock the back in a solid position. Most of you have probably seen lifters who get set to pull a lift from the floor and they have a rounded, hump-back position in their lower back. This is something that will take time, along with flexibility and strength development, to fix. If you’ve got an athlete who can lock in a nice arched back position off the floor from day one, thank your lucky stars. The rest of your job is going to be a lot easier.
Bar- Is the bar in contact with the shins? Interestingly, up until a few years ago I had never seen a weightlifter who didn’t start the pull from the floor with the bar actually touching the shins. I was taught that this is simply a cardinal rule, and I have definitely never seen a high-level weightlifter who didn’t start the pull with the bar up against the shins. But in recent trips to different gyms, I’ve seen several rookie lifters who start the pull from the floor with the bar 1-2 inches away from the shins. This blows me away because it contradicts everything I’ve ever learned about leverage and effective technique. Get on YouTube and watch some video of top world weightlifting competitions. None of the best lifters in the world start the pull with the bar separated from their bodies.

Hips- Are the hips raised to a position where the shoulders are over the bar (if you were watching the athlete from the side)? Proper hip position depends largely on the athlete’s personal body dimensions. People come in all shapes and sizes, long femurs…short femurs…long torsos…short torsos…long shins…short shins…etc. The coach will have to physically adjust the athlete to the proper position, and it will have to be individualized to suit the athlete’s build.



The absolute best way you can build the proper technique in your mind is to watch hours and hours of the best lifters in the world. During the first few years of my career, I am not exaggerating when I tell you that I probably put in at least an hour of video analysis every single day. Fortunately, I was young and not working for a living yet, so I had time on my hands. But I wanted to have perfect technique tattooed on my brain, and constant video analysis seemed like the best way to do it. Keep in mind also that this was in the early 90s, before the internet, so I had to scrounge around and look for VHS tapes that had world and Olympic championship weightlifting competitions on them. You have YouTube, so your job is a thousand times easier than mine was. You have no excuses, so pull up a chair and start learning. If you’re not interested in watching weightlifting away from the gym or if it’s too much of a nuisance to put in the video analysis time, then that means you’re not very serious about becoming a better lifter. That’s fine if you want to approach your weightlifting this way. It’s a free country. But you need to accept that you’ll be beaten and passed up by lifters who ARE very serious about their lifting. If being beaten doesn’t bother you either, that’s no problem. Our sport needs a bottom half too.

Static vs. Dynamic

Aaahhh, now we’re talking. We’ve checked off some of the bread-and-butter fundamentals, so now we can start to look at some more advanced stuff. There are two basic ways that weightlifters begin their pull from the floor. One of them is the static start, and the other is the dynamic start. Let’s take a look at both of these.

Static start: This is a technique where the athlete gets the body set in the start position, remains motionless for a few moments, and then starts the pull from the floor. This is called a “static start” because there is no movement from the body prior to the beginning of the pull. The adjective form of the word “static” is defined as “characterized by a fixed or stationary position.” In layman’s terms, you’re starting the lift from a dead stop. All of you were probably taught to lift with a static start, and most of you probably still use it. It’s the proper way to teach beginners. Here is the link to a YouTube video of Chinese female weightlifter Cao Lei clean and jerking 326 pounds at 165 bodyweight in 2009:

If you watch Lei’s pull from the floor, you will basically see a static start. She does have a tiny twitch right before the bar comes off the floor, but it is still a static start. This woman is also the 2008 Olympic Champion. And if you hit pause before she begins the pull off the floor, you will get a perfect visual model of starting position. My two favorite groups to watch in weightlifting are the Chinese women and the Russian men. This is where you usually see technical perfection.

Dynamic start: This is a technique where the athlete gets the body set in the start position, but then uses some kind of movement immediately prior to the pull from the floor. This movement might be a quick shift upwards with the hips followed by an immediate shift back to the start position, which then moves straight into the pull. Basically, the dynamic start is a method of using some pre-pull movement to build momentum and utilize the stretch reflex. The stretch reflex is a physiological occurrence where the muscles contract immediately in response to stretching. The dynamic start gives the muscles the opportunity to contract with greater force because the movement stretches them instantaneously before the bar is lifted from the floor. Since this might be difficult to visualize from my description, here are a few YouTube clips of elite weightlifters who use a dynamic start in the snatch or clean and jerk:

Daniel Nunez – 167.5kg (369 lb.) Clean and Jerk, Sweden 1982

Evgeny Chigishev (RUS), Snatch 211

Marc Huster in Atlanta, 1996

Now, there are a few things to keep in mind with the dynamic start. First of all, there are several different variations of it. You probably noticed when you watched these clips that each lifter had a slightly different movement prior to the pull from the floor. Athletes, through practice, will find a technical rhythm and “feel” for the dynamic start that suits them personally. If you want an extended look at a variety of lifters who all use some form of the dynamic start, check out this year’s European Championships in the 85-kilo weight class.

As you can see, there are different ways of doing it, but any lift that involves some kind of movement immediately prior to the beginning of the pull (even if it’s very small) is classified as a dynamic start. A second consideration to keep in mind is that proper use of the dynamic start can greatly increase the athlete’s power and speed. The stretch reflex is like electricity. If you can control it, it will allow you to do things you never dreamed of. The vast majority of the top lifters in the world use some variation of a dynamic start. Sure, there are a few top world lifters that use a static start, but they are rare. The reason so many elite lifters use the dynamic start is because it works, if you do it correctly. As a personal example, I was taught to lift with a static start, exactly like all of you. After some time had passed by, I eventually learned how to use a dynamic start. And I don’t think my coach ever taught it to me. I believe I simply watched other lifters who used it and I started to practice it myself. After I had found a groove that suited me, it greatly improved my lifting. You should have the same progression if you decide to experiment with your technique. I don’t know if there’s a one-size-fits-all way of teaching a dynamic start to an athlete, but lifters who have good kinesthetic awareness and are willing to put in work will likely find a movement that suits them and improves their pull.

To finish off…about the start

As I said in the beginning, I wanted to get some information out to all of you about this topic because it’s tremendously important and sometimes overlooked. When people think about the Olympic lifts, they think about the pulling movement. Take a look around at all the coaching information that’s circulated throughout the lifting community and you’ll probably find this to be true. It’s all about the double knee bend, the top pull, shrugging or shrugging under or catapulting or whatever the hell. People don’t talk about the starting position enough, plain and simple. They breeze through it quickly after they’ve taught the top pulling mechanics of the lift, and the result is athletes who are trying to finish a pull that they never started correctly in the first place.

If you’re a lifter and you train on your own, you need to invest in a video camera and start recording yourself when you train. Compare your positions with those of the elite lifters you’ve watched in the clips above. Do your body positions look like theirs? If not, what do you need to fix? And if you’re a coach, take a look at the lifters who train for you and honestly assess how their positions look. If they look drastically different from the elite lifters and they violate some of the rules I mentioned above, then you need to fix them.

In my opinion, the best lifters learn by imitation. They watch the technique of other elite lifters and then they just make their bodies imitate them. The greatest situation you can ever have in your gym is a core of five or six outstanding lifters who have great technique, because all the newbies you bring into your gym are going to learn from watching the best. If you don’t have any high-level lifters in your gym and you also don’t have a strong command of teaching the lifts, then you just have a situation where the blind are teaching the blind how to be more blind. That’s not good. Educate yourself, people. Go to the gym and work on these things and come back next month with the best technique of your life, because that will soon lead to the best lifting of your life. Maybe a bunch of rookies will be watching videos of you on YouTube someday, trying to imitate your movements and reach weightlifting perfection. Hey, it’s better than a video on YouTube of you getting the crap kicked out of you by a cop or making an ass of yourself in a post-game NBA interview. We’ll talk more about that next month.