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Kettlebell Snatch technique

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Chugachjed

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When I do heavy snatches and I go straight from locked out overhead to the hinge it hurts the inside of my elbow. I’m sure I’ve got some technique deficiency but I don’t have any money for coaching. Is there any reason not to go from lockout to the clean position then drop for the hinge? It’s a lot more comfortable for my elbows, seems a lot easier on my hands too.
 
When I do heavy snatches and I go straight from locked out overhead to the hinge it hurts the inside of my elbow. I’m sure I’ve got some technique deficiency but I don’t have any money for coaching. Is there any reason not to go from lockout to the clean position then drop for the hinge? It’s a lot more comfortable for my elbows, seems a lot easier on my hands too.
Perfectly fine, it's called a half snatch. And keep your arm straight on the way down and let your hips absorb the force, not your bicep.
You could be totally squared away, but the bent arm-sore elbow-drop is common.
 
I’ll do a short video tomorrow. Thanks. I don’t have the problem with lighter bells only with 32s and up.
 
I’ll do a short video tomorrow. Thanks. I don’t have the problem with lighter bells only with 32s and up.
Let's take a look since a light to medium weight means you can grease your groove better..

My personal experience was when I grooved my 24,28kg snatches the 32 became smoother
 
That makes sense, I did just go back into them totally cold. Probably been a year since I did snatches at all. I'm plenty strong enough but maybe I'm not in practice. I'll do a video tomorrow of both 24 and 32.
 
Pain is an indicator to stop what you're doing and see what's going wrong, so good job on starting this thread. A video will definitely help. It might be something simple to fix. As @Don Fairbanks said, the half snatch is totally fine. When I'm doing Iron Cardio days with heavier loads I utilize the half snatch.

Looking forward to the video.
 
I did some with right hand at 24kg, then left at 32. I could definitely hinge more. I was being a little lackadaisical just knocking out vid while the car was warming up.
 
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Looking at your snatch there are a few things I could recommend based off what has been taught to me by a few SFG coaches both in person and on here. Your arm is too far out in front, some say practice your snatches in front of a wall to tame the arc. The cue that helped me was the “t-rex” arm cue. When going up the elbow should have some bend and the bell should travel straight up (and eventually down) like a zipper. Practicing trex swings gets you use to that motion. Then on the way down you should be leading with your elbow, not the kettlebell. This video helped me a lot.


 
Looking at your snatch there are a few things I could recommend based off what has been taught to me by a few SFG coaches both in person and on here. Your arm is too far out in front, some say practice your snatches in front of a wall to tame the arc. The cue that helped me was the “t-rex” arm cue. When going up the elbow should have some bend and the bell should travel straight up (and eventually down) like a zipper. Practicing trex swings gets you use to that motion. Then on the way down you should be leading with your elbow, not the kettlebell. This video helped me a lot.



Yep, curtain drill will help big time.
 
I did some with right hand at 24kg, then left at 32. I could definitely hinge more. I was being a little lackadaisical just knocking out vid while the car was warming up.
Here's a very nice side view of a snatch showing a nice bent elbow on the way up and down, to help verticalize the path of the bell, or at least, to tame the arc some.


Here's a nice little drill to get into the bent elbow position on the way up.

 
Looking at your snatch there are a few things I could recommend based off what has been taught to me by a few SFG coaches both in person and on here. Your arm is too far out in front, some say practice your snatches in front of a wall to tame the arc. The cue that helped me was the “t-rex” arm cue. When going up the elbow should have some bend and the bell should travel straight up (and eventually down) like a zipper. Practicing trex swings gets you use to that motion. Then on the way down you should be leading with your elbow, not the kettlebell. This video helped me a lot.



That's really good. I'll give those cues a shot. Thank you all.
 
I did some with right hand at 24kg, then left at 32. I could definitely hinge more. I was being a little lackadaisical just knocking out vid while the car was warming up.
@Chugachjed If I may offer an observation that is more general in nature... I'd suggest to make your hinge position a lot more intentional. Think of it like coiling or compressing a spring as you come into it. Find tension in all those big lower body muscles (glutes, hamstrings, quads) as you come into the hinge. Then explode out of it using all those big muscles to create forceful extension of hips and knees for the launch of the kettlebell towards lockout.

As a bonus, I think doing this may help with your original issue as well, because it creates a more controlled drop into the hinge position which should be easier on your arm/elbow/grip.
 
I agree with a lot of the suggestions here but think a regression might be in order.

The main issues to reiterate:
  • Keep the KB much closer on the way up
    • This will help the bell land more gently and be easier to stabilize at the top
  • Sit deeper into your hinge
    • This will give you more power to move the bell
It would be helpful to see you do one-arm swings and cleans. Can you upload videos of those lifts as well? The snatch is the culmination of the other "ballistic" lifts so if your hinge depth issues are also there with the swing and your wide arc issues are also there with the clean I would strongly recommend you work on improving those lifts before moving on to the snatch.

Can you upload those other videos?
 
I had a shallow hip hinge similar to the OPs that I only even realized when I went to my certification. A cue that helped me from my instructor was to "squat your hinge" more. While we are told the hinge is not a squat, my instructors realized that, in my case, that cue resulted in a shallow hinge. This article by Rif also helped me a lot, as well as this one by Brett Jones.

My instructor had me stand a couple of feet in front of a wall, facing away from the wall, and hinging until my rear touched the wall. I had to play with the distance until I could barely hinge back far enough to touch the wall. Then, I had to practice that deep hinge 100 + times per day until it became automatic. Then I built that hinge into the basic kettlebell movements, starting with the dead stop swing and then ending with the snatch.

I found that a deep hinge took a lot of strain off my arm during the snatch. I didn't have to pull the bell up with my arm anymore. Rather, the bell was being launched out AND UP due to the deep hinge. My arm only needed to tame the arc (agree with the towel drill as well to help there) and catch the bell at the float. Also, on the way down, a deep hinge allows you to "catch" the bell with more shock absorption, also taking strain off your arm.

Another cue that will help is to think of the explosion out of a deep hinge as a "jump that doesn't leave the ground." Focus all that stored energy into an explosion from your knees down through your midfoot. You will be amazed at how much lighter those bells will feel and how much stronger your are. And, hopefully, your elbows will thank you.

Best of luck.

John
 
Well. Made some more short vids. I did all these before starting my session. Snatches felt way better at the end of my 20 mins. I definitely lost a lot of my technique after over a year just doing CP
Swing
Clean
Right snatch
Left snatch
Thanks for these videos. As you can see, your hip hinge is super high on your swing. So high you're barely bending your knees. I recommend you practice your swing with a MUCH deeper hinge. There are other issues to fix but to keep to points we've discussed in relation to your snatch, I recommend you at least triple the depth your hips are getting to right now. You can probably go deeper than that but triple will be a good start. And practice them a lot because they will help your clean and your snatch.

Your clean lands a little rough and the arc could be tamed a bit more. The bell must land gently on your arm, not bang into you. This comes from giving it enough power to move the required distance. No more. No less. And this understanding of "tempered output" takes not just good movement but also a lot of reps. Dial in your swing at different heights and you will start learning how to control the output for the clean and later the snatch.

I mentioned in my previous post that a regression might be in order and after seeing you snatch the 32k I know it will help you. Right now you just don't have the snatch movement coordinated enough to do them safely with the 32. You need to sit deeper, keep your back more flat, reach back further at the bottom, rotate less on the way up, not press out at the end...you get my point. There's a lot to fix. Yes you can get it overhead, but I strongly urge you to back off the weight and fine tune your swing and your clean before digging into the snatch again.

Hope this helps!
 
So there is a slight improvement..

I'd like you to try this for your clean..

Use a lighter bell and then float it to just above belt height and then spear your hand through and guide it to the rack...

Give this a try and please upload a vid
 
@Chugachjed, I noticed the same thing that @John Spezzano mentioned about some good points of your snatch that you can bring to your swing. The set-up for one arm swing and the set up for snatch should look the same. Your set up for snatch is currently much better and tighter than your set-up for swing. See if you can do that for your swing as well. On the set-up for both: hip hinge, flat(ish) back, engage the lats (drag the kettlebell towards you as you do, if it's too far away, which it is), square up the shoulders, get tight all over, then hike.

Good job with the videos! You've got a lot of strength and skill to work with, and I know you'll improve with all this great input. Not only that, but others benefit as well when they realize they can make some of the same improvements.
 
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