A couple of nights ago, I was sitting in a bar with my wife and some friends of ours. We were listening to a band that played mostly classic rock from the late sixties and seventies (my kind of stuff), and this group had their act nailed down tight. The best moment of their show was when they tore through "Come Together" by the Beatles, which is a song that most of the smart people in the world probably love. I had already enjoyed a good steak and sampled plenty of Ireland’s finest beverage specialties, and this song made me start thinking about weightlifting. That might sound odd, but I probably never go more than thirty or forty waking minutes without thinking about weightlifting in my normal life anyway. So thinking about snatches while I’m listening to John Lennon’s lyrics about spinal crackers isn’t all that unusual for me.

The title of this song made me think about all the different physical qualities that have to "come together" to make an Olympic lift work properly. Over the last few months, I’ve been visiting a lot of different gyms and teaching snatches, cleans and jerks to some great people who want to master these lifts. Most of these athletes have already learned the basics of the power snatch and power clean before I get there and start working with them. This is obviously helpful because the power snatch and power clean allow the learner to practice the pulling movements of the lifts without worrying about the challenging transition that takes place when the lifter has to perform the full lifts and take those snatches and cleans down to the bottom position.

However, this particular subject takes me to the topic of this month’s article. If you’ve spent some time in the Olympic lifts, you probably know that some weightlifters continue to use the power snatch and power clean as part of their training programs even throughout their intermediate and advanced stages. What I want to look at this month is the value of this. In other words, should weightlifters continue to spend time doing power snatches and power cleans in their training once they’ve passed the beginner stages and learned the full versions of the snatch and clean? I’ve actually been wanting to write an article about this subject for several months because I know there are a lot of different opinions about it. So you can thank The Harry McGraw Band and Irish Car Bombs for finally bringing this idea to paper.

What are Power Snatches and Power Cleans?

I always assume Performance Menu readers have a solid level of previous weightlifting knowledge when I write these articles each month, but let’s just quickly make sure we all know what we’re talking about before we get too far into this discussion. A power snatch/clean is basically just a snatch or clean where the athlete catches the bar overhead and does not sit down into the full squat bottom position. Power snatches and power cleans are usually caught in approximately a quarter-squat position, as seen here:


Power Clean

Right away, I need to throw in my personal opinion about these lifts. Over the years, I’ve heard some athletes and coaches who have different definitions of what a power snatch/clean is. The idea they use is that power snatches/cleans are determined by the depth of the squat position when the athlete catches the bar in the receiving position, but they judge these lifts the way a powerlifting referee judges squat depth. The idea is, "If the lifter has to squat below parallel to complete the lift, it’s not a power snatch. If the squat position doesn’t break parallel, it’s a power snatch." I don’t like this idea because I think a legitimate power snatch/clean takes place when the lifter completes the lift with only a few degrees of knee bend, as seen in the photos above. When the weight gets heavy enough that the lifter has to squat "around parallel" before standing up and finishing the lift, it’s not a true power snatch/clean. At this point, the lift becomes a kind of almost-a-full-snatch-but-not-really type of thing. I simply prefer to have clearer distinctions between power movements and full movements, so this is the way I look at it.

Moving on. I think most coaches in the world probably include the power snatch/clean in the earliest teaching phase when working with new athletes. I definitely do. The transition into a full bottom position of a snatch or clean is athletically demanding, and newbies usually need to learn how to power snatch/clean before they start moving on to learning the complete movements with deep receiving positions. Athletes who use the Olympic lifts to improve their performance in a different sport, such as football or track and field, often stick to the power snatch/clean in their workouts full-time because the primary reason they use the Olympic lifts at all is to reap the benefits of the triple-extension pulling movement, and sitting down into a deep receiving position simply isn’t necessary for them to accomplish what they want. However, this article focuses on athletes who are either competitive Olympic lifters or strength athletes who want to improve in the full versions of the Olympic lifts.

An important question that pops up is "Why would any weightlifters continue to use the power snatch/clean in training after they have learned to perform the full movements?" I’ll try to give you a short combination of answers I’ve heard for this question from different people over the years. One of the first answers is that the power snatch/clean provides variety in training, and the benefit is that the athlete simply doesn’t get mentally burned out from constantly doing the full lifts. Another answer I’ve heard is that the power snatch/clean builds up greater explosive pulling power because the higher receiving position forces the athlete to elevate the barbell higher than in a full snatch/clean, so the nature of the power snatch/clean demands a snappy full extension of the top pull. I’ve also heard some coaches say that the power snatch/clean prevents some of the pounding on the knees that occurs when athletes perform full movements, so the joints of the lower body get some rest from the constant strain of maximum depth lifts.

Now, the Mang Foremong Version...

So these are some of the reasons why weightlifting athletes would continue to incorporate the power snatch/clean into their training programs after they’ve already learned and, at least to some degree, mastered the full versions of the lifts. However, this is where I need to make some statements. I personally do not believe that the power snatch/clean is particularly valuable to an experienced weightlifter. There is no way that I would ever issue a complete condemnation of them, nor would I ever say, "Power snatches and power cleans are a waste of time unless you’re a beginner." It’s impossible to make a statement like that because there are some very high-level athletes and coaches who use them. (I’ll mention a few examples later.)

But my experience in weightlifting has led me to think that the best way to perfect the technique of the full snatch/clean is simply to practice the full movements, along with pulls and squats. From a personal perspective, I can tell you that from 1993 through 1998, I went from a 115 kilo snatch to a 155 kilo snatch and I know for certain that I did not use power snatches in my training at all during this time. I also went from a 155 kilo clean to a 187.5 kilo clean during this same time period, but I did use power cleans on a semi-regular basis in training. The power clean, in my opinion, has a slightly more beneficial translation to the full clean than the power snatch has to the full snatch.

One of the main reasons why I don’t like using power snatches/cleans for experienced weightlifters is the problem of foot positioning in the turnover. Most weightlifters lift their feet from the platform and jump them outwards when they are making the transition from the pull to the receiving position. Some coaches call this "jumping the feet from the pull stance to the squat stance" or some other terminology. Some athletes, such as superheavyweight world snatch record holder Behdad Salimi, lift their feet several inches from the platform and then jump them into the squat receiving position with a loud SLAP on the platform. Other athletes, such as former superheavyweight Olympic champion Alexander Kurlovich, lift the feet only as much as necessary for re-positioning into their squat, so the feet look like they’re almost "sliding" outwards. Regardless of the amount of lift from the platform, almost all successful lifters jump their feet laterally into their squat width when turning over the lifts. Here is where I notice a problem with the power snatch/clean.

Almost all of the lifters I’ve seen in my life jump their feet out to the sides at least a few inches wider when they perform power snatches/cleans than they do when they practice the full lifts. In other words, the turnover of the power snatch/clean is different from the turnover of the full snatch/clean because the athlete is probably lifting the feet from the platform and moving them out much wider than usual during the power movements. This is done because when an athlete is performing a power snatch/clean with any significant weight on the bar, the athlete has to get into a lower position in the turnover to be able to successfully complete the lift. If the athletes know that the lift is supposed to be a power snatch/clean, then they are going to try to complete the lift with minimum knee bend in the receiving position. In order to get lower under the bar and lock out the lift overhead AND maintain minimum knee bend, the body’s only biomechanical option is to move the feet out to a wider position. If any of you have done heavy power snatches/cleans yourselves or worked with anybody who does them, you probably know exactly what I’m talking about. I’ve seen some lifters attempt maximum weights in the power snatch/clean where they jump their feet out so wide that the lift looks like an ultra-wide stance powerlifting squat.

As I see it, there are a few potential problems here. First of all, the injury risk increases when the athlete attempts heavy power snatches/cleans with excessively wide foot placement in the turnover. As we mentioned before, some coaches like power snatches/cleans because the joints of the lower body are relieved of some of the pounding that takes place when attempting full lifts with maximum-depth receiving positions. But if the athletes are doing power snatches/cleans with excessively wide foot placement, the risk of groin pulls and ankle strains becomes more significant. Second of all (and this is the main problem I see with power snatches/cleans), the muscle memory of the full movements is not being fully developed. I believe that the best way to improve in the Olympic lifts is for the athlete to practice thousands upon thousands of perfect, identical full snatches and cleans. This way, the motor patterns of the lifts become so deeply ingrained in the athlete’s neurological system that the athlete’s body simply doesn’t know how to do an incorrect lift. This type of "muscle memorization" becomes less likely when the athlete is continually going back and forth between power snatches/cleans and full snatches/cleans.

So when I coach athletes (and in my own lifting career), I do no power snatches at all, and only some moderate power clean workouts early in the competition training cycle. When a competition or a max-out session is approaching, the lifter is only practicing the full lifts.

There’s Always A Big Asterisk Next To Everything...

Now that I’ve taken a definitive stance on this issue and asserted my opinion with clear reasoning, let me tell you about a few noteworthy examples that basically contradict most of what I just said.

As I mentioned in a Performance Menu article a few years ago, I trained with Olympic Champion Nicu Vlad for a month back in 1990 when he was still one of the top lifters in the world. Vlad is one of the greatest snatchers in history, with a record of 441 pounds in the old 220 pound bodyweight class. By any standard, he is one of the great lifters of all time. And Vlad used a lot of power snatches in his workouts. In fact, he used the power snatch in one of the most interesting ways I’ve ever seen. When doing a snatch workout, Vlad would power snatch most of the lighter weights of his warmup. As the weights got progressively heavier from set to set, his receiving position would get incrementally deeper and deeper. His foot positioning was identical every time, and he had none of the excessive-width power snatch foot placement problems that I described above. His power snatches would simply hit a deeper receiving position as he snatched 90 kilos, 110 kilos, 130 kilos, 150 kilos, etc. By the time he was loading up 180 kilos on the bar, he was performing full snatches. In twenty-three years of weightlifting, I’ve never seen an athlete with as much control over their body as Vlad had. He controlled his body the way Ray Charles controlled the piano.

Another example is 1996 Olympic Champion Pablo Lara from Cuba. Lara was the top lifter in the world in the old 76 kilo class (177 lbs), with a 205 kilo (451 lbs) clean and jerk. You read that right...177 bodyweight and a 451 clean and jerk. In the Atlanta training hall before the ‘96 Games, Lara did some of the most impressive power cleans I have ever seen. In one workout that he did less than a week before he competed, he power clean and jerked 190 kilos (418 lbs). It looked like just another routine training lift for Lara, and it was mechanically identical to the rest of his lifts. None of the potential technical glitches that I described earlier were present in his lifts.

To summarize our discussion, Matt Foreman says that power snatches/cleans are not especially beneficial to an experienced weightlifter, but some of the best lifters in the world use them in training. Yeah, that sounds about right. So let me give you a few final thoughts that should tie all of this together and keep me from looking like a mental midget. First of all, what I’ve described in this article is my own personal philosophy on power snatches/cleans. You can simply add it to the library of training philosophies you’re accumulating in your mind as you learn about this sport. I have over two decades of experience in weightlifting and I’ve had a successful career at the national level, so I guess I can humbly say that my opinions didn’t just fall off a turnip truck. However, there are obviously other well-credentialed people in the sport who have slightly different philosophies than mine.

Keep a couple of things in mind, though. Power snatches and cleans have some potential shortcomings, as we described above. But athletes like Vlad and Lara have found a way to incorporate power movements into their training without letting those shortcomings emerge. In other words, Vlad uses power snatches, but he doesn’t have foot placement problems in the full lifts. Why is this? Well, one of the main reasons is that Vlad is an extremely exceptional athlete. As I have written in the past, some athletes are able to take kinesthetic awareness to a higher level. He is one of them. The technique hazards that many of us have to work hard to overcome simply don’t apply to Vlad. He can do a full snatch, or a power snatch to any level of depth, and his body will hit the correct positions every time.

Does this mean that we should train differently than Vlad because we have to start by openly admitting that he’s a better athlete than any of us? No, not necessarily. I think it’s important to study the training methods of world champions and then use those methods to make yourself better. The main point of this discussion is that most of you who are reading this article are probably in the beginning/intermediate stages of your weightlifting careers. Because of this, it’s important that you understand the benefits and hazards that go along with every aspect of your training. If you can utilize power snatches to make you a better athlete the way Nicu Vlad has done, then go for it. But you should design them into your training program with a clear idea about which technical qualities you want to develop and which ones you DON’T want to develop.

Let’s finish it off by looking at it this way. The Beatles started their career by saying, "She loves you...yeah, yeah, yeah." They finished their career by saying, "He got feet down below his knees, hold you in his arms ’til you can feel his disease." In other words, they started pretty basic and they got more complex as they practiced and gained experience (and dropped acid). If you handle your weightlifting career the same way (minus the acid), you might wind up with fame, money, and a relatively hot one-legged wife. Happy hunting.