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Kettlebell Are kettlebell snatches dangerous for the wrist and forearm bones?

The catch is easier because it’s initiated far earlier in the process. If that snatch isn’t widely arcing in your eyes, then I’m unsure what you’re talking about because the arm is fully extended at the hip level. Unless you’re only referring to the drop, but if we are talking about widely arcing in relations to the catch the drop is inconsequential.

Sport style snatches are also taught as a sport swing that ends up overhead.

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Intro To Kettlebell Sport Part 3: The Kettlebell Sport Snatch

We received a lot of really positive feedback and interest from our first post introducing people to Kettlebell Sport so we are breaking it down into a series. Like we mentioned, we love so much about kettlebell sport because it gives you great goals to motivate your workouts, its cominbation of...
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I respect the GS style practitioners. But I have to say that a hardstyle swing, clean or snatch is more intuitive for me. It always seems to be a lot of moving parts with GS style. For a total novice practicing at home alone, hardstyle has a lower barrier of entry in my opinion.
 
Hrungnir said:
The catch is easier because it’s initiated far earlier in the process. If that snatch isn’t widely arcing in your eyes, then I’m unsure what you’re talking about because the arm is fully extended at the hip level. Unless you’re only referring to the drop, but if we are talking about widely arcing in relations to the catch the drop is inconsequential.
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You're comparing apples to oranges. First of all, I wasn't commenting on GS. You were the one who brought it up. Second, in GS style, where the lifter keeps the knees bent on the upswing and sits back, the bell is already on a more vertical path, even if the elbow isn't very tight to the body. Third, he DOES bend his arm as the bell floats up. This is not what a hard style swing looks like (lifter standing in a straight vertical plank with knees and hips locked, and a straight arm projecting out horizontally).

But while we're using GS examples, here's a video of Ksenia Dedyukhina where she uses a very vertical bell path. Starting at about 4:55 (video is cued to that point below) Joe Daniels comments in the narration about how consistent her lockout is. She's not swinging the bell into the lockout point; she snatches right TO the lockout point every time, rep after rep.
 
Ege said:
I respect the GS style practitioners. But I have to say that a hardstyle swing, clean or snatch is more intuitive for me. It always seems to be a lot of moving parts with GS style. For a total novice practicing at home alone, hardstyle has a lower barrier of entry in my opinion.
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I’m a bit of a unicorn, for this forum at least, in that I started my kettlebell journey with an AKC coach and learned GS first.

When I went to CrossFit, kettlebell snatching was the one thing I was better than people at. Talk about some violent catches in those WODs, if forearms don’t break with CrossFit technique then everyone is pretty safe. When I would show people GS style they would pick it up fairly quick and their catches would be clean. Typical CrossFit style is poorly taught hardstyle because it’s a faster RPM and kettlebell snatches occur almost exclusively in AMRAPs and chippers.
 
Steve W. said:
You're comparing apples to oranges. First of all, I wasn't commenting on GS. You were the one who brought it up.
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I brought it up because you were speaking about a widely arcing snatch not being able to be caught cleanly and consistently. That just isn’t true and I brought up GS technique.

And yes, that’s why I specifically said sport style swing. I think the struggle with our conversation is you keep putting everything into just a hardstyle box. Sport style swings are also very different than hardstyle swings, but that doesn’t change that a sport snatch is taught as a swing that ends up overhead. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that you don’t have sport experience?

My comment was on a widely arcing snatch being very catchable and in my opinion easier to catch. GS shows the first part to be true, regardless of some outlier athletes.
 
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Hrungnir said:
And yes, that’s why I specifically said sport style swing. I think the struggle with our conversation is you keep putting everything into just a hardstyle box. Sport style swings are also very different than hardstyle swings, but that doesn’t change that a sport snatch is taught as a swing that ends up overhead. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that you don’t have sport experience?
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No, this is not the case at all. I probably advocate cross-pollination between hard style and GS as much or more than anyone else on this board.

Although I come from a hard style background and training specifically for GS competition doesn't interest me, I think StrongFirst has missed out on a lot by being overly doctrinaire about building a wall between hard style and GS. It's like teaching the powerlifts or Olympic lifts (which StrongFirst does) but dismissing a lot of the technique of competitive athletes in those disciplines instead of synthesizing and assimilating it. In commenting on the high tension techniques from PTTP, Louie Simmons once said that Pavel "reverse engineers what strong people do naturally." But when it comes to GS, it's dismissed as "not what we do."

Even though I don't train for or compete in GS, I actually spend a lot of time analyzing GS snatch competition videos, watching and reading GS snatch tutorials, and then experimenting with my own technique to see what I can apply to my own practice.

I don't agree that "widely arcing" is an accurate description of typical GS snatch technique, and certainly isn't a defining feature of GS technique. However, I do think it's an accurate description of the hard style swing, and I don't think it's a good bell path for snatching.
 
@Steve W. We agree but disagree homie lol. I think it’s semantics on how we view it.

Definitely agree on your approach to the styles, wholeheartedly. I got on my soap box when we were on the same page completely.
 
Thank you everyone for your comments.
I have decided to hold off on the KB Snatch and to keep it as the last move I learn.
I will first practice and perfect the KB Clean to perfect it.
That will help with Clean/Press and with Double Handed KB Squat/Press.
And then at the end I will learn the Snatch.
 
joemac said:
Thank you everyone for your comments.
I have decided to hold off on the KB Snatch and to keep it as the last move I learn.
I will first practice and perfect the KB Clean to perfect it.
That will help with Clean/Press and with Double Handed KB Squat/Press.
And then at the end I will learn the Snatch.
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That's where I'm at currently.
 
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