@King Cobra Fit
Looks good overall, but I have a few observations/suggestions for fine tuning.
On the upswing:
It looks like the bell is swinging a little far out in front out of the hole, more like the path of a swing. This pulls your arm away from your torso a little early, which I think costs you some power, and then you have to reel the bell back in as it comes up.
Try focusing on keep you upper arm pinned down as long as possible as you extend your hips and knees. Let the momentum of the bell bend your arm at the elbow, and then carry the upper arm away from the body as it rises. I use the cue "Arm down!" as I am driving with my hips to remind me to keep my upper arm connected as long as possible. I also think of it as snatching "through the rack," as if the bell is ballistically flying through the rack position on its way overhead (it's not exactly the same path, just a cue to find the right groove for the snatch). Just like you can clean a bell keeping a magazine pinned in your armpit, I try to keep my upper arm pinned down as long as possible through upswing of the snatch. Then you just have to get a feel for the timing of relaxing so that the bell can fly up unrestricted.
Not only do I think keeping the arm down gives better power transfer, but it also keeps the bell path in close to the body so you don't have to pull it in or lean forward to meet it, and it isn't swinging backward and cranking on your shoulder at the top. This last is not a problem for you, but is for a lot of folks. However, I do notice that you are snatching to point a little out in front and then leaning forward a little into the catch. I try to think of my desired lockout position as a target and then imagine a straight vertical line down from that spot. Then I imagine snatching "on the line" to hit that target position. This way, I am snatching straight TO the lockout instead of the bell swinging back into the lockout or having to lean forward into the lockout. Again, this is a cue and not necessarily a literal description of the actual bell path.
On the drop:
It looks like you are letting the bell fall and then absorbing the brunt of the drop at the bottom. No problem with a lighter bell, but it requires an adjustment with a more challenging weight. The trick is to start absorbing some of that force on the way down and smoothly transfer it to your hips so you are in good position to drive the bell up again, and don't get such an abrupt yank on your grip (and possibly shoulder and back). This overlaps with
@Steve Freides's comment above (quoted below):
My one suggestion would be to try to load up your hips more on your backswing. There is a bit of catch, slow down, and re-accelerate going on. Best if you can, as with a swing, minimize the time at the back/bottom by loading it and then explosively releasing that load.
It looks like you are absorbing all the force of the drop at the bottom, which pulls the bell down too low vertically between your knees (especially on your left side). Then, after absorbing the downward force of the drop, you try to sweep the bell back into the backswing to set up for the next rep.
So what you're saying is to start my drive a split second sooner?
I can't speak for Steve, but I DON'T think this is the solution. IMO, the key is to better set up the backswing on the drop so as to absorb the force of the bell with your hips. In fact, especially with a challenging bell, it's generally better to be more patient in letting the backswing complete before initiating the hip drive, and more patient in ramping up the force of the hip drive itself. If you start the forward hip drive too soon, some of your power gets wasted braking and reversing the backward momentum of the bell. It also puts a lot more strain on your grip. If you wait until the bell is just about to pendulum forward passively on its own, then all of your hip drive goes toward propelling the bell forward. With a heavy bell, I also find it is a lot more powerful to think about FINISHING the hip drive strongly, ramping up the power out of the hole, rather than starting the hip drive explosively. I've found that being more patient is actually objectively faster. When I get the timing right, it feels subjectively slower, but the bell just flies up relatively effortlessly, and if I'm using a clock the time for each set is actually shorter.
So here are some suggestions for the drop:
Counterbalance/"make space for the bell"/"play tug o'war with the bell." These are all ways of saying the same thing. If you stand up vertically straight and drop the bell in front of the plane of your body, then it's going to be out in front when it reaches the bottom. This makes it harder to absorb the force of the drop and harder to sweep the bell back into the backswing. Instead, lean back away from the bell and make some space for the bell to drop straight down from the lockout, rather than dropping out in front. As the bell starts to drop, you can start to absorb some of the force of the drop by leaning back against it as if you are playing tug o'war.
Shorten the lever arm. Just like I try to keep my upper arm down and connected to my body as long as possible on the upswing, I want to get my elbow in get my upper arm locked into my torso as early as possible on the drop, snatching "through the rack" on the way down. Getting my arm locked down helps me to better absorb the force of the drop, so the bottom part of the drop is more like dropping a clean from the rack and I don't have the whole force of a drop from overhead hitting all at once at the bottom.
Hope this helps. These are suggestions based on my experience and practice, and not meant to necessarily prescribe one best way to snatch. Experiment and find what works for you.
BTW, I've found that working with heavier bells has a lot of carryover to the 24kg and the snatch test. However, for the tests, there's no substitute for practice with longer continuous sets and practice tests to get a feel for pacing and learning to stay relaxed through fatigue, etc. For me, 32kg was my short set power training bell, 28kg was the sweet spot for my longer set overload bell, and of course 24kg was my long set/practice test/testing bell.
