Why you should STAND FAST!
Weightlifting requires you to both literally and figuratively stand fast. A common mistake I see and have to correct as a coach is the notion that a lifters work is done once they’ve got under the bar to ‘catch’ their lifts. In reality no lift is finished at the point of the ‘catch’. There must be a return to standing in each of the snatch, clean and jerk.
Smooth is fast
A lifter must think of the snatch and the clean as fluid movements that are stood up with the same intent after the catch as they are pulled there with. Too often a lifter is caught off balance, too relaxed or too complacent in the bottom of a lift and struggles to stand up to complete it. This is far more common and obvious in the clean because of its heavier nature, where not utilising our natural stretch reflex in the bottom of the front squat position makes life way tougher than it should be; potentially even compromising our jerk.
Less obvious but arguably as common is a person never really making their snatches consistent and refining their pull. Doing so would allow them to always stand up immediately after receiving the barbell overhead. A lot of time spent re-balancing or making adjustments in the catch position can be a sign that a pull wasn’t as good as it could be. Does this sound familiar?
Not locking out, or having to step forwards as you recover are more obvious indicators of a poor pull but even little wobbles and weight shifts should be on your list of things to eradicate. Of course when lifting new weights, or even very high percentages, the risk of errors in the pull increases, thus an imperfect catch is more likely. The better we can be at creating good habits with lower percentages the more chance we have of consistent heavier lifts.
My favourite example of this is to watch Mattie Rogers lift. Very rarely does she get pinned or recover forwards. Her bar path, due to her fantastic technique, is very consistent and allows a fast and straight recovery to finish almost every lift we see. (Ok, I concede maybe she doesn’t post the bad ones…)
I have also seen this improvement in GB lifter Sarah Davies who has spent time improving her start position and pull, under the coaching of Cyril Martin. Without having spoken to either of them my assumption is: the intent is that any lift that requires ‘saving’ went wrong somewhere earlier down the line and was therefore a ‘bad’ rep on the path to performing more ‘good’ reps.
Intent is possibly the most important part of training as a whole; the intent to move weights fast; the intent to pull as straight as possible; the intent to commit fully to extending and the intent to finish each lift like you’re competing. As long as you’re trying to do those things you will get better and make more lifts. We aren’t robots and sometimes we will make mistakes but if the intent was there it’s less likely.
Whether lifting or squatting your intent to stand up fast cannot be understated. Many people move from A to B without really making it clear to themselves or the bar that what happens in-between matters a great deal. In the same way you care about moving well, you should care about moving fast. Back on planet earth where gravity is always against us, the reality is that weights above 90% aren’t likely to move all that fast. At least not in the squats and deadlifts/pulls, but it’s still the intent that counts.
Intent to move a load fast will; increase rate of force development & increase motor unit recruitment. Both of which are really important for our sport and things we want to improve as much as we can. All other things equal it will be the person who trains and lifts with intent that is the most successful.