Life and Training... with an Attitude.: High Thigh

When I think of snatching I think of a phrase I have heard used amongst weightlifters: ballet with a bar. The technical aspects of the lift, along with the fluidity required to propel an extremely heavy object above one’s head while catching it in a rock bottom position with locked out arms is nothing short of majestic every single time I see it. When executed efficiently and correctly I dare say there is no movement in all of sports more captivating than the snatch.

The clean? Eh. No finesse there. Just brute strength. Ugly. Blah.

I kid, I kid. Kind of.

Unlike the snatch, in my opinion, the clean is less about technique and more about strength and determination. The weights are always heavier, which already indicates a need for more strength and power to be produced. A mistimed snatch or poorly executed first pull in the snatch often times means a missed lift, whereas the clean can sometimes be saved by sheer grit and determination. As a result I believe many lifters fail to hit arguably the most important of all positions in the clean: the power position.

The power position in the clean – which I refer to as Attitude Nation Step 1 as taught to me by Jon and Jessica North, but also commonly used by many weightlifting coaches – is where the bar and body meet upon the athlete completing the double knee bend and beginning the “finish”. The "finish" is the point which the hips will extend and the lifter will apply as much force to the bar as possible to allow the bar to have maximum float time. This float time then allows the lifter to use the bar for leverage, where he/she may then VIOLENTLY pull him/herself underneath the bar. In a clean, this point of contact occurs ideally at the high thigh (whereas in a snatch it would be in the hips… there are people who are hip cleaners as well, such as Donny Shankle, but they are a rare breed. I agree with Jon North that hip cleaners are generally born not made and if you are one of them, God bless you).

Finding that high thigh area in the clean requires patience, and avoiding the urge to begin to extend the hips too early and therefore contact the bar just above the knee or in the low thigh area. This lack of patience or poorly executed power position will inevitably result in the bar looping away from the body and forcing the athlete to chase the bar forward.

However being patient and allowing the bar to travel further up the body before extending your hips through the bar (or vertically depending on your style I suppose) will allow for optimal contact on the high thigh. Now the lifter can keep the bar close and once fully extended may begin VIOLENTLY pulling their body under the bar. Assuming the lifter is accurately continuing to pull (what Donny Shankle calls ‘pulling through the middle’ http://donnyshankle.blogspot.com/2013/07/keep-pulling.html) it will be much easier to receive the bar with a vertical torso and properly balanced feet.

Here are some photos from the one and only Nat Arem (check him out at hookgrip.com). Take a look at the power position in each sequence and where the bar is contacting the body.