Here are some I've seen recently. Feel free to share others.
FWIW, I think it's the more vertical line of the snatch vs swing. If you "tame the arc" on the way down, you have to add a pretty hefty hike to get the bell back and do a purer hinge. At some point in the weight progression, you just can't do it without casting the bell out further.
One thing I notice is most of them are quite ‘squaty’ rather than pure hingey, something I found myself doing instinctively when I tried snatching with a heavier bell but thought was poor form. Perhaps at a certain KB weight to bodyweight ratio adding more squat to the movement becomes more necessary.
I would choose this one as an example for me. Arc is tamed, but no exaggeratedly, there is a clear hinge.
For me, @Harald Motz remains the gold-standard exemplar of heavy kb, hardstyle-snatching virtuosity:
1) the hinge-then-squat in his set-up alone speaks volumes
2) surely the Lion's Roar of @Pavel Macek owes more than a little to the action of Motz's "non-working arm"
I am extremely grateful for this confluence - it is taking my snatching from strength to strengthI am a huge fan of Harald's work, but no, I haven't learned it from him (or any other instructors). As I mentioned in the article, Lion's Roar snatch is a result of analysis of multiple snatch tests/TSCs, where many gireviks do it naturally. I have just followed Pavel's example and reverse-engineered what they do naturally.
Here, swipe for video #4:
I would choose this one as an example for me. Arc is tamed, but no exaggeratedly, there is a clear hinge.
I understand that heavy snatch has a different requirements. I think that the arc radius will define the movement type character - either more hingy or more squatty, as well as certain dominance - quads or hams (same as lats-dominant people love low pull in snatch, and traps/upper back - high pull). True, still, there is unavoidable little squat as weight goes heavy (above 35-40% of bw), as glutes and hams only are insufficient to launch the weight.
Yes, most of the heavy snatchers on Al Ciampa's forum agree that when you go heavy with the snatch, moving the hinge towards more squatty is a good thing. Interesting, isn't it?
I love how smooth and controlled they can be, even when heavy, quite notable in all of these examples. Calm, smooth, mastery of powerful movement. You can bet that all of these practitioners have done many thousands of kettlebell snatches!
Hey Anna,
Now that is interesting that others on a different forum are concluding something similar independently of this discussion, there must be something to it!
I suppose if you took the idea of snatching heavier and heavier further, the form would start to get closer and closer to the barbell snatch where obviously the line of pull would need to be more and more vertical, not just because you can’t swing a barbell back between your legs but because when the weight gets really heavy you need to take the most direct route you can. Also, the limiting factor of the grip being challenged more and more to the limit means you cant add preswing momentum and still hold onto it with your legs and hips able to produce much more force than the grip can withstand , hence the wrist wraps for world record deadlifts etc.
Just my thoughts of possible reasoning...
Dave.
I don't know exactly his height/bw, but I assume he's below 6ft and, accordingly, around 180 lbs. It seems like he snatches 24kg, so hinge is exemplar. However, the guy is very strong nonetheless. I love stuff he does.Hey Alexander,
Thanks for the video example. Yes definitely more hinge in that 4th video heavy snatch. Do you know the height and weight of the guy doing them? He looks big and so I wonder what the relative weight is to his bodyweight and so might be why he can keep more of a hinge rather than squat? Great form example regardless, thanks!
Dave.
@Anna C , nice job on the snatches, both the barbell and the Kb.
Watching the ETK video of Pavel snatching brings me back to like 08 or 09 when I must have viewed that particular segment on the snatch about a thousand times.
Frankly, if you get good at the snatch, you could stay in shape for life!