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“Stay over the bar”!!  This is what I catch myself saying or yelling all damn day long.  No matter where I go, no matter what sport, what gym, it’s always the same thing, stay over the damn bar people!  In my opinion the hip explosion is the most important part of the lifts, and the only way to get the most out of your hips is to have your shoulders over the bar when your hips come through for the knock out punch.  If your shoulders are already behind the bar before your hips come through then you will have very little hip pop with the bar and way to much “arm pull”  at the top.  There are no amrs in weightlifting, your arms are like cables, they just hang and your hips and legs do all the rest.  The arms hang and catch, thats it.  When I see someone pulling back to early before the hips come through that tells me that person is using the arms and thats not good.  When you use your arms and pull back to early it makes the lift slow and unexplosive.  When you use your arms the bar crashes on you.  You tend to catch the bar to high and the bar slowly pushes you into the hole and thats not good. You want to catch the bar in the hole.  You want to hit and catch.  Thats it.  I have a few great drills that I invented that teach you how to catch the bar in the hole very well, one of them is called the “hit and catch drill” lol not to fansy of a name, but this drill teaches you how to hit the bar with your hips and then drop into the hole to catch the bar as fast as you can in one explosive movement.  The only way you can do this is to stay over the bar all the way til the bar is into the hips, then your hips and shoulders explode at the same time!  do not pull your shoulders back behind the bar before your hips come through.  That is an arm pull and I hate that.  I hear this first pull, second pull and even third pull bullshit, what is that!???  It’s one fast strong pull and then your hips do the rest of the work, all you have to do is get in the hole and catch the bar, it’s that easy, stop making it complex.  Your legs and hips are much much stronger than your arms, so why would you ever use your arms to pull the bar to get under it??   The best way to snatch big weight, snatch fast, and make life alot easier everyday in the weight room, is to keep your shoulders over the bar longer.  You might be reading this and saying to yourself “o i am good at that, I stay over good”  well i bet you dont, stay over even longer.  Jon North AKA bar crusher, bar hitting, Tyson hip hitting, soon to be American snatch record holder Jon North 2012  London 

wow this is my biggest problem.  I was always told to pull the bar with my traps and arms at the top and then dropp under thew weight!  Know one has ever told me to use my hips……..  this is weird.  I will give this a try, becuase it makes lots of sense.  It would make sense that using your hips would be much better, thank you Jon I will spread the advise on to my friends in my gym.

Yea start doing this and your lifts will go through the roof!  Dont listen to me, get on youtube and watch every medalist in the last 20 years!  they are all doing this, the best of the best do this!

“Tyson hip hitting”? are we gonna see you doing youtube remakes of throwback videos soon too? (go search Tyson on youtube if you don’t know what i’m talking about)
this seems to be one of my problems whenever i do Olympic lifts too. i’m still working on really getting the technique and all the parts of the lifts down, and this is great advice.

would you say this is the biggest problem you see people making or are there worse offenses?

 
Go to californiastrength.com, click on the video button, the drop down menu will list several options including Olympic lifting videos, click on that, then scroll down to step one of the snatch learning progression.  Do that drill, every time you snatch, for maybe 3-4 sets of 5 with light weight.  It will help you not use your arms so much.

Hey pete whats up, I would say the second crime people committ is getting on their toes!  When you pull the bar you should be on your heels, when you “finish” also knows as tyson knock out punch you should be on your heels and not on your toes!!  When you catch the bar in the ever so comfortable “hole”  you should be on your heels and of course when Jon North stands up after making the American snatch record this weekend at the California strength open at 166kg he will be on his heels.  Toes are bad, heels are good, but I still see so many people getting on there toes!  This results in leaving the bar out in front on the catch and losing the bar in front of you becuase you do not get a good finish with the hips.  Also alot of times getting on your toes can force you to lose the bar behind  on the catch becuase being on your toes on the pull forces you to swing the bar with to much arms and then your fu**ed.  The most imnportant reason why being on your toes is bad is becuase your just not strong on your toes, it’s that simple, shit i don’t know.  It’s common sense…..I think……..light weight!! 2012 

What about you Coach, what are the three biggest mistakes people make in weightlifting??

i’m still not comfortable being down in the hole, let alone catching a loaded bar down there. i’ve been told that it’s not a flexibility issue and that i just need ot practice and lift more and get used to it. any advice?

 
1.) Not snatching enough
2.) Not cleaning enough
3.) Not jerking enough

 
My advice is to practice more.

Coach Penlday is always right on!  I am learnign fromt he best!  Practice more!  there is no magice formula, just blood, sweat and tears and in China alot of medicine!  lol jk…well kinda….