Kettlebell Question on KB Snatch

[oukeith1]

Random question. I am sprinkling in some snatches into my routine to learn the movement. I may make snatch repeats part of my program once I complete Simple.

From the top of my snatch, when I bring the bell down, it feels weightless for a moment, and then sort of “crashes” into my grip at the bottom.

Is this a typical feel? Or should the bell be smoothly “swinging” down into the hike position at the bottom?

I can post a video later. Don’t have one at the moment.

 

[Chris Mills]

I "squeeze" the handle and give it a forward twist at the top, just as I'm starting to bring it down. Kind of like shooting a basketball. It gets the bell to start (and finish) rotating earlier, so it's "rotating steam" is gone before it actually gets to the bottom. There's still a bit of a "crash", but it's when you've still got several inches of travel overall, so it's softer than if the descent AND the rotation stop at the same time/point.

 

[Anna C]

It's a pretty typical experience when you're new to snatches.

Think of keeping just enough downward pressure on the handle as it's descending to control it and not react to it.

As my training partner (who I haven't seen now since March 2020!!) @WxHerk likes to say, "My instructional tip is to imagine the bell drops at 10 mph (hypothetical, actual drop speed is irrelevant), thus you pull/guide the bell down at 10 1/2 miles per hour. This eliminates the elbow wrenching "YANK!!" and loads the hinge for the next snatch."

 

[Rick213]

I had this exact problem as well. I started practicing the "waterfall" technique and also really focused on keeping elbow close to body on descent.
Definitely a typical problem to solve in learning the kb snatch.

 

[coachnathanwhite]

@oukeith1

Takes many reps of practice, making small tweaks to your grip technique along the way. Once you feel it click in you will know. Then all you have to do is repeat that again, and again , and again......

 

[Stuart Elliott]

I had this exact problem as well. I started practicing the "waterfall" technique and also really focused on keeping elbow close to body on descent.
Definitely a typical problem to solve in learning the kb snatch.

+1 keeping the elbow close to the body, it was a game changer for me (on the way up and down) . As I got better I focused on connecting the arm to the body just under the arm pit in the drop, as soon as possible. What also helped was when flipping the bell from the top position was to re grinp almost straight away (but not rushed). I guess this would be the same as @Anna C 10 1/2 mph analogy, I'm guiding the bell down not letting it drop. This takes a while to learn in my experience.

 

[Mark Limbaga]

Apart from what everyone else mentioned, I found throwing the bell to the zipper helped make the downward trajectory also be more manageable to control..

 

[DuncanGB]

Random question. I am sprinkling in some snatches into my routine to learn the movement. I may make snatch repeats part of my program once I complete Simple.

From the top of my snatch, when I bring the bell down, it feels weightless for a moment, and then sort of “crashes” into my grip at the bottom.

Is this a typical feel? Or should the bell be smoothly “swinging” down into the hike position at the bottom?

I can post a video later. Don’t have one at the moment.

This be no mere random question!

Check out this horribly under-appreciated thread:

Kettlebell - Learning to Snatch Part 2

Began regular kettlebell training mid-Jan of this year with 24kg 2H- and 16kg 1H-swings and first posted on the StrongFirst forums in April on this thread: https://www.strongfirst.com/community/threads/learning-to-snatch.15845/ Just thought I’d start my first thread in order to compile 4 key...

www.strongfirst.com

... from which, please forgive me, one quotes oneself, but, in order to express gratitude to great teachers who helped a novice along the way of the snatch...

Began regular kettlebell training mid-Jan of this year with 24kg 2H- and 16kg 1H-swings and first posted on the StrongFirst forums in April on this thread:

Kettlebell - Learning to Snatch

I've done a few months of ROP with 24kg, and I've done Phase 1 and 2 of KB strong with 24kg. I've done timeless S&S with 28kg SW/ 36kg TGU a few years ago. I've done a mixture of C&P / C&J with double 26kg and HEAVY farmer walks ( double bw ) last year, working up to 140 Reps per session...

www.strongfirst.com

Just thought I’d start my first thread in order to compile 4 key resources for anyone else who is learning to snatch as well as for experienced "snatchers" to share their wisdom...

I
Come March, as soon as I was making the 1H-swing pop-n-float with the 24, couldn’t resist learning how to snatch the 16. This excellent 3-part tutorial by @Hector G got me off to a flying start:


II
These 5 tips improved my technique and got me from 16 to 24 to 28 A+A snatches:

1 connecting all the parts in one fluid motion
2 deep hip hinge
3 taming the arc
4 keeping the bell more or less on the centre line
5 evading as late as possible

III
Pavel Macek’s focus on "the non-working arm" really helped power up my 24kg Q&D snatches:

Lion’s Roar Kettlebell Snatch | StrongFirst

Perfect your kettlebell snatch technique with the Lion’s Roar.

www.strongfirst.com

IV

Kettlebell - Another great slow-mo demo - the Snatch

Low-pulling the snatch out of the hinge in conjunction with the Lion’s Roar saw me blast through the Master’s snatch-test (60 + 40 @20kg in just under 5 mins) last Friday and, @WxHerk, get the 32 up-and-down smoothly for 6 consecutive repeats of 5L, 5R yesterday!!

P.S. From the lockout position at the top of the snatch, check out the cue to "make space for the bell" - this is of crucial importance in smoothly reloading the hinge...

 

[Adachi]

From the top of my snatch, when I bring the bell down, it feels weightless for a moment, and then sort of “crashes” into my grip at the bottom.

Is this a typical feel? Or should the bell be smoothly “swinging” down into the hike position at the bottom?

I second @Anna C . This seems to me to have turned out to be an issue of timing of the movement which is subsiding , as I continue to improve my practice with the snatch. It seems that this shock at the bottom of the movement is being ameliorated as I learn to pre load at the bottom so that I can use my hips to start the next rep. I believe it may be my lat guiding the bell backwards between my legs smooths it out.

And @Anna C recently posted some great videos of snatches in slow motion that are great references for me.

Thread 'Great examples of heavy kettlebell hardstyle snatches' Great examples of heavy kettlebell hardstyle snatches

 

[Rumsmike]

Also as suggested before by @Anna C (and someone else I can't remember) you could try doing some sets with your eyes closed. I found this really helped my brain focus spatially on the movement by eliminating one unecessary sense from the equation.

 

[barrak]

This be no mere random question!

Check out this horribly under-appreciated thread:

Kettlebell - Learning to Snatch Part 2

Began regular kettlebell training mid-Jan of this year with 24kg 2H- and 16kg 1H-swings and first posted on the StrongFirst forums in April on this thread: https://www.strongfirst.com/community/threads/learning-to-snatch.15845/ Just thought I’d start my first thread in order to compile 4 key...

www.strongfirst.com

... from which, please forgive me, one quotes oneself, but, in order to express gratitude to great teachers who helped a novice along the way of the snatch...


P.S. From the lockout position at the top of the snatch, check out the cue to "make space for the bell" - this is of crucial importance in smoothly reloading the hinge...

THANK YOU for quoting this link. After going through it, I reviewed my self video from yesterday's Q&D snatches to look for form mistakes. One key mistake I was doing was a shallow hinge which necessitated a high pull that consequently resulted in arm jarring at the lockout.

I spent all morning GTGing sets of 5 snatches at half my 24K Q&D snatch weight. I focused mainly on deepening and loading my hinge with the aim of having the bell starting to outpace my hand at chest level on the way up. No high pull and no lockout jarring.

I'll continue doing this GTG on my rest days for a while, though I'll use 16K. The 12K was too light to load my hinge.

 

[oukeith1]

Thank you all for the helpful responses! This provided me what I needed. I will try and clean up my form and we’ll see what happens!

 

[Trever]

This may or may not help as I am also less than a year into snatching, but one thing that is helping me is concentrating on leaning back slightly on the drop. This helps me to pull the bell down and get my elbow to my body. This helps smooth out the arc at the bottom for me.
I also realized my hinge was shallow and a little squaty so now I concentrate on reaching my non working hand as far back and up behind me as I can during the back swing. This forces me into a deeper hinge and has improved my power.