Snatch - Heaving, Dropping & Balancing vs Hanging & Overhead

In this discussion I wish to talk about Snatch variations and their relevance to the full snatch itself. All these movements have their place but as I have been experimenting by programming them in and out of my training cycles. I have come to notice a misuse of these movements and its starting to look that these movements, other than the Hanging & Overhead Snatch, may not have transferable skills to the full Snatch.

 

Now all the movements relate strongly or try to relate strongly to the completion, speed and precision of the receiving position of the snatch. But I think after examining and using these lifts that the Heaving, Drop and Balance Snatch have little transferable skills and the athlete is better served to focus on Hanging Snatch and its variations off blocks and the Overhead Squat because these two movements match closely to the full Snatch. Where as the others do not and to understand this it is necessary to give a breakdown description of the Snatch.

 

The Snatch is made up of several elements and the first element can be described as the Snatch Grip Deadlift, which the lifter executes by pulling from the ground to standing upright. The next element is the triple extension – the Shrug, the Standing Calf Raise and the drive of the hips to meet the bar. At the completion of the Snatch Grip Deadlift and the Triple Extension the load is effectively pulled upward against the body in a Snatch Grip High Pull, into a Power Snatch, while the lifter is pulling themselves under the bar. At this point the lifter will find themselves in the Bottom Position of the Overhead Squat and will complete the Snatch by standing up and bringing feet tighter.

 

Now lets look at the Heaving Snatch, Drop Snatch & Snatch Balance, well, more importantly the starting position for each ot these lifts. If you analyse these lifts from their starting position you will see that the bar starts at the back of the neck on the shoulders and the lifter drops under the bar.  While the Snatch requires the bar starting from the floor. Now here is my question..

 

At what point is the lifter in the above position in the Snatch? The only time the bar is overhead/behind the lifter in the Snatch is when the lift is received at the completion of the movement. And at what point does the lifter drop under the bar in the same manner as those lifts ask you to?  To me the lifter has already pulled, split, dropped and landed in the Snatch where in the above movements the lifter is required to push, split, land and drop.

 

So the sequence of events to execute the lifts is wrong for skills to be transferred over to the Snatch –

 

• Snatch - Pull, Split, Drop &Land
• Heaving Snatch, Drop Snatch & Snatch Balance - Push, Split, Land & Drop.

 

In the film Rocky 2, Micky Rocky’s trainer had him chase a chicken and Mickey said we need greasy fast speed. Well that’s what the lifter needs in the Snatch too. I don’t expect chasing a chicken will help but what will help are the above movements as they are used to develop speed, timing, precision and reinforce foot placement. But as pointed out if the sequence of the execution of the movements is not correct then there will be no or little skill transfer to the main lift. So what do you do?

Well as coaches and lifters we use the Hanging Snatch and its variations as well as the Overhead Squat.

 

Lets take the Overhead Squat first as its easier to explain. The overhead squat strongly mimics the receive position of the Snatch. It also serves to help the lifter become flexible in the bottom position and it also helps to strengthen all the muscles of the upper body, which help to stabilise the bar over head. Its possible, with work on a steady linear cycle, this movement can be overloaded to 40-50kg of over the 1 rep Snatch max. By doing this it will be possible to strengthen the entire body to hold a lesser load in the correct position. What would make this movement more effective and the skills more transferable is to execute the movement from the bottom position as if the lifter would be in the Snatch. The Chinese use this technique quite well.

 

Now what about speed and precision and foot placement?  Well the Hanging Snatch and its variations will help to deal with these problems and it closely mimics the full Snatch itself. The skills are very transferable from hang to full Snatch. You can do Hang Snatch off high blocks, low blocks from below knees, just above knees you can even do Hang Snatches just before the position you drive the hips.

 

The Hanging Snatch & Overhead Squat are very good movements to help progress the lifter in the Snatch. The Heaving Snatch, Drop Snatch & Snatch Balance are also very good movements but should only be used lightly in a program and I am tempted to say help build confidence but the Hanging Snatch & Overhead Squat do that more effectively. So for now i am struggling to find the benefits of the Heaving Snatch, Drop Snatch & Snatch Balance compared to the benefits of the Hanging Snatch & Overhead Squat.