This weekend Coach Ronnie and myself, Rachel, attended a Clean and Jerk seminar hosted by Melanie Roach, a former Olympic lifting Olympian in 2008 clean and jerking 110 KG (242 LB) and 83KG snatch (182LB) oh yea… she weighs 110LB her self!!!
She is a vibrant, little lady with lots of knowledge! A great experience for us as athletes and coaches.
She gave some great advice we would like to pass on that is often hard to stick to but definitely pays off.
When working with your warm up weight, light technique weight don’t add until you execute perfect form. Technique is what helps us nail our heavy lifts not strength, so spend time working form. Often we like to motor through our warm up to get to the working weight, don’t practice bad habits, seek perfection when we practice.
SQUAT!!! Melanie recommends squatting at least 3x a week to improve your lifts, front and back squats especially if you are not hitting your lifts due to strength. If you are missing your lifts due to technique, obviously keep squatting but keep working the movements with light weight until they are comparable to your strength.
Be sharp with your movements especially with jerk, being quick through the middle allows us to get under the bar and hit our feet at the same time as our lockout. Being slow through the middle reduces our ability to do this.
If you are making changes to your positions, make them slowly. Position adjustments feel strange… and take time to set in. If we can remember when we first started using the hook grip if felt crazy weird, but once we get used to it, you wont want to clean or snatch without it! if you are widening your stance or grip be patient, it might take time to feel right, everyones body has different proportions whats right for someone might not be right for another.
When you hit a lift perfectly, it should feel effortless. I love this because ITS TRUE!!!
If you are working on your OLY lifts or wanting to spend more time on them, ask a coach for extra help or show up to open gym and get some good pointers. If mobility is keeping you from achieving proper position work that first, seek proper movement before you start wanting to throw weight up.
GOOD LUCK OUT THERE!! and if you didn't hear Ronnie PR’d his C&J!!!
She is a vibrant, little lady with lots of knowledge! A great experience for us as athletes and coaches.
She gave some great advice we would like to pass on that is often hard to stick to but definitely pays off.
When working with your warm up weight, light technique weight don’t add until you execute perfect form. Technique is what helps us nail our heavy lifts not strength, so spend time working form. Often we like to motor through our warm up to get to the working weight, don’t practice bad habits, seek perfection when we practice.
SQUAT!!! Melanie recommends squatting at least 3x a week to improve your lifts, front and back squats especially if you are not hitting your lifts due to strength. If you are missing your lifts due to technique, obviously keep squatting but keep working the movements with light weight until they are comparable to your strength.
Be sharp with your movements especially with jerk, being quick through the middle allows us to get under the bar and hit our feet at the same time as our lockout. Being slow through the middle reduces our ability to do this.
If you are making changes to your positions, make them slowly. Position adjustments feel strange… and take time to set in. If we can remember when we first started using the hook grip if felt crazy weird, but once we get used to it, you wont want to clean or snatch without it! if you are widening your stance or grip be patient, it might take time to feel right, everyones body has different proportions whats right for someone might not be right for another.
When you hit a lift perfectly, it should feel effortless. I love this because ITS TRUE!!!
If you are working on your OLY lifts or wanting to spend more time on them, ask a coach for extra help or show up to open gym and get some good pointers. If mobility is keeping you from achieving proper position work that first, seek proper movement before you start wanting to throw weight up.
GOOD LUCK OUT THERE!! and if you didn't hear Ronnie PR’d his C&J!!!
