How to Power Snatch, Common Mistakes and Practice Drills
Snatch is my opinion is the most beautiful movement in weightlifting. The movement however is quite difficult to master, as it needs a lot of mobility. Power snatch is an easier cousin of the same movement, which is actually better in terms of power production and does not need as much mobility. In this video we will discuss Power Snatch in detail.
How to perform a Power snatch
With the bar placed on the floor, bend over at the hips with knee flexion to grab the bar with a wide grip while keeping the bar lying on top of your shoelaces. Lift the bar up while keeping the spine straight, or ‘neutral’. As the bar gets up at the level of the crease of your hips, in one explosive movement, shrug your shoulders and extend your hips, knees and ankle in a jump to pull the bar overhead. The bar should travel as close to your body as possible and should be received overhead with your elbows fully extended, knee slightly bent and your feet firmly grounded. Now straighten your legs and stand up straight.
This movement is harder than the clean and press and hence needs some coordination training. In this video instead of the variations we will go over the progression to a full power snatch.
Power Snatch Drills to master the movement
Hang Dumbbell / Kettlebell Snatch
The movement is very simple to master. Take a kettlebell or a dumbbell in one hand and with the triple extension of the hip knee and ankle fling the weight up overhead in a single movement.
Snatch Pull
This is the first half of the snatch movement. As the bar gets up at the level of the crease of your hips, you perform a shrug and lower the weight down
Hang Power Snatch
In this version of the exercise the barbell is at the level of the crease of your hips and hanging from your arms, while you are standing upright. The movement is started by bending forward slightly and then performing the full snatch pull. Lower the bar to the hang position and repeat
After mastering snatch pull and hang snatch, all you need is the merge these two movements into a single movement and you would have performed the power snatch
Common Power snatch mistakes to avoid
1. Swinging the Bar Forwards: Most of the novices try to swing the bar forward trying to move it in the form of an arc. The bar instead is pulled upwards and kept close to your body
2. Elbows Not Locked during the catch: Elbows not fully locked when you catch the bar overhead is another common mistake. This can cause injury to your elbow. Make sure that when you catch the bar your elbows are fully extended
3. Delay between the catch and feet landing: The delay between when you catch the bar and when your feet land on the ground. These two things should happen at the same time, otherwise the force produced with be suboptimal.
Benefits of Power Snatch
More than targeting the muscles, as this movement targets all of them, this is actually about huge advantages it provides in developing your overall athleticism. This exercise will not only make you strong but also explosive and agile.
Power snatch is a great movement for developing power and athleticism. This one movement will instantly put you a league above everybody else in the gym. This is a badass exercise for badass people.
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