Week 8, Day 3: On positioning, technique, and strength concerns

Halting snatch: work up to 1 set of 2 reps at 85% of Day 2
Halting clean + jerk: work up to 1 set of 2 cleans + 1 jerk at 85% of Day 1

*For the halting snatch and clean, take the bar from the floor to the knee and hold for two seconds, then finish the lift. This differs from a lift from the hang because we are setting the position at the knee from the floor, rather than from the top.

BEAUTIFUL bottom position!

Today is a going to be a lighter day for everyone who made it to both Tuesday's and Thursday's session. The lighter loading today will really allow us to focus on great positioning and movement, so I wanted to take a moment to chat about technique, strength, and practice. I was chatting with John A. yesterday about the importance of positioning and only using as heavy of loads as we can maintain perfect positioning, and he asked me a very relevant question that may be at the forefront of a lot of our minds. The essence of his question was this: if we are keeping the loads intentionally lighter if that's what it takes to have good positioning, then won't our strength development struggle? I think this is a very understandable concern. One of the reasons I love this sport so much is I love making myself stronger. If I'm not getting stronger, I'm grumpy, and I imagine most of you are in the same boat.

There's really a couple important points I want to make here to answer this question. First of all, we are weightlifters. Ultimately, we are trying to improve performance in the snatch and clean and jerk, and in the strictest sense the rest is just accessory work. Why do we squat? To snatch and clean and jerk more. Yeah, that's a big over-simplification. I love squatting too, and I love seeing my squat go up and up, but we want that added leg strength to carry over to big snatches and clean and jerks, and as such we want our squats to look as much like snatch and clean recoveries as possible. It makes absolutely no sense to put 10 more kilos on the bar if it means that your back rounds, hips shoot back, and knees buckle in. That's not going to help your clean and jerk...how are you going to rack a barbell in a position like that? Furthermore, building strength in those positions is only going to hinder long-term development. If you always squat just as heavy as you can, no matter what position it puts you in, then you are just continuing to strengthen those bad positions, and the trend will never reverse itself. Better to take a little off the bar and allow yourself to strengthen what needs to be strengthened to maintain great positioning throughout the lift, because when the weights get maximal, your body will default to the positions you are used to and feel strongest in. If you are diligent about positioning, then before long those great positions will just be your default even when the weight gets heavy, and you will be FAR stronger when you maintain that positioning than when you lose it.

This applies just as much if not more to the snatch, clean, and jerk! These lifts are incredibly technical, and positioning is crucial to optimal performance. The importance of proper positioning at ALL loads cannot by overstated, and adding weight to the bar if your technique degrades will not help anything...you will only be practicing inefficient technique and reinforcing bad positioning, and then again, that will become your default.

Okay, so now to address the concern: won't taking weight off the bar retard my strength development? I mean, maybe I can only snatch like 40% of my best with good positioning, and anything heavier and it just goes down the toilet. How is snatching 40% going to make me stronger?! Well, it might not (today), but here's the deal: we squat, and improving positioning, technique, and consistency in the snatch will push that 40% up to 60%, 80%, and on up to 100%! I've heard it said before that improving in weightlifting really comes down to two things: practicing the snatch and clean and jerk, and getting your squat up. Again, that is a gross oversimplification perhaps, but this makes a lot of sense to me, and I think is very relevant to this discussion. If you are improving your technique, and you are getting stronger, then your lifts will go up. Simple as that. We squat to get stronger, we lift to get better. We regularly incorporate presses, push-presses, snatch/clean pulls or deadlifts, etc, and all of this is intended to make us stronger (and improve positioning), but above all else, we squat, and we practice the snatch and clean and jerk! If you are squatting heavy (as heavy as positioning allows), then you are going to get stronger, and if you are improving technique on the snatch and clean and jerk, then you will more efficiently be able to apply that strength to the lifts. Squat to get stronger. Lift to get better.