Kettlebell The kettlebell snatch is a CLEAN that ends up overhead

[Anna C]

I've seen an evolution of the hardstyle kettlebell snatch over the past 7 years or so.

Years ago, it was called "a swing that ends up overhead", and often had a big arc.

Over time, practitioners who delved deep into the qualities of this movement, including @Geoff Neupert, @Al Ciampa, and Senior SFG Tim Almond @hardstyle_method who spent years refining qualities of the heavy kettlebell snatch, defined some more subtle nuances.

Even for not-so-heavy snatches for beginners, the teaching methods produced by @Brett Jones and others were changing at the time of my SFG II in 2017 to include a "low pull" with a bent elbow that got progressively higher until ending in a snatch.

It seems that now, the benefits of snatching a kettlebell with a bent elbow and REALLY taming the arc to keep the kettlebell close on the way up and on the way down in the snatch are becoming widely adopted.

If you've ever combined cleans and snatches, you'll feel the difference right away.

Of course, you can do this with a single kettlebell / one arm, or double kettlebells / two arms. Also, can do full snatch (dropping from overhead to the hinge), or half snatch (dropping to rack, then hinge on the way down).

"The snatch is a CLEAN that ends up overhead."

Tim Almond explains brilliantly in this post. Also reposted by StrongFirst.

 

[Brett Jones]

Always progressing

 

[Steve W.]

Well, not to pat myself on the back too hard, but I posted this on Feb 22, 2015:

To experiment with a more vertical bell path, it may help to think of the snatch less in terms of the swing and more in terms of the clean. In the clean, you keep your elbow in and your upper arm connected to your body. The elbow acts as more of a pivot point than the shoulder. This is a cue I use a lot myself. On the drop, I focus on getting my elbow in to my body, almost like dropping the bell "through" the rack in one fluid motion. This ensures that my arm is connected to my body so I can absorb the downswing with my hips, and not have the bell yank on my shoulder. It also allows for less of an abrupt strain on the grip. Then on the upswing, I think of cleaning to an "overhead rack" rather than swinging the bell out to the front.

SFG snatch test prep help

And this on August 10, 2017:

I often think about the snatch as "a clean that finishes overhead."

I've heard instructors refer the to the snatch as "a swing that finishes overhead." I interpret this "swing that finishes overhead" idea to mean that the driving force should come from the hips, not the arm (which I agree with), but I think it messes people up more than it helps because it leads to snatching in an overly large swing-like arc.

Instead, I imagine the snatch as more of a clean that finishes overhead. The drive still comes from the hips, but the elbow stays in close. I think of snatching "through the rack," meaning that instead of catching the bell in the rack, you let it continue to float up and catch it overhead. Same thing on the drop -- pull the elbow down like you are dropping the bell into the rack, but let it drop "through the rack" and smoothly into the back swing. On the drop I like to get my upper arm locked down to my body before I initiate the hinge to get better power transfer through the torso to the hips and prevent abrupt yanking on my shoulder.

A Snatch is a Clean that Finishes Overhead

From earlier in the same thread:

--On the up swing, try keeping your arm pinned down a little longer as you extend your hips and knees.

Especially with a heavy weight, the tendency is to want to get that arm moving up, but you will get better power by keeping the arm down longer. I use the cues "arm down!" or "stay down!" during the forward hip drive to remind myself to keep the arm connected. It seems paradoxical since you are thinking "down" during a phase when the kettlebell is coming up, but I find it very helpful.

--Keep the bell in closer to your body, especially on the up swing. Your are swinging the bell way out in front like a swing and then trying to reel it in after it is well above waist level. This means you are swinging the bell back into the lockout instead of snatching it up TO the fixation point. On many of your reps this causes you to lean into the lockout with your head thrust forward instead of catching the bell standing tall, vertical and planked up.

The first point above about keeping your arm down longer will help with bell path as well as power transfer. As you extend your hips and knees, keep your elbow in as the bell starts to float up so the bell path is closer to your body from the star and you don't have to reel it in at the top.

Another visualization I use is to imagine the bell fixated overhead (or actually hold it there) and imagine a line straight down vertically to the floor. Then, during the snatch imagine snatching "on the line." This won't be the actual bell path, but I find it's a useful cue to keep the bell from swinging out in front.

--You keep your drop much closer to your body than your up swing, closer to dropping "on the line." To do this, you have to lean/sit back a little on the drop to make space for the bell. This is good! You don't want to be casting the bell out in front of you on the drop, and if you try to drop the bell vertically without making space for it, you won't be able to get a nice smooth arc backwards into the hinge.

You might want to think about more actively counterbalancing the bell and "taking the slack out" of your arm on the drop. It seems like you are letting the bell free fall with you arm a little slack and then letting the full force of the drop hit you at the bottom. By counterbalancing the drop, you absorb some of the force on the way down so you get less of an abrupt yank at the bottom. Imagine a letter "V." One upright of the V is path of the bell. The other is your body. You want to keep the center of mass of the system on a vertical that splits the V. Again, this is not necessarily an exact literal description, but more of a conceptual visualization.

To facilitate counterbalancing, think about keeping your torso more upright a little longer before initiating your hinge. I imagine a strong spring or rubber band pulling my head toward the ceiling and resisting the force of the bell trying to fold me over.

Another visualization I use is "playing tug o'war with the bell," to help me counterbalance the force of the bell.

Finally, I use the cue to "pull up on the bell" as I initiate the hinge and sweep the bell into the back swing. I'm not actually pulling the bell up, but I am exerting upward force to smoothly and fluidly absorb the downward force and redirect it backward.

Keeping the Arm Down/Snatching "On the Line"

 

[Anna C]

Well, not to pat myself on the back too hard, but I posted this on Feb 22, 2015:

You did, indeed!

I like to think the best ideas sprout and grow right here on the forum

 

[rwleonard]

I think of camming the bell off my pelvis (that doesn't actually happen, of course) to get the bell heading up as early as possible.

 

[Mark Limbaga]

Always progressing for sure..

It also helps there are more people nowadays who put a movement under their own microscope to further streamline it's useage and applications

 

[Provx]

Excellent tip

 

[wespom9]

This is still what I struggle with most on my left arm, keeping that arc very tight like that.
The evolution to this style definitely makes sense, one can really feel the difference with different "arcs"

 

[Manuel Fortin]

This is still what I struggle with most on my left arm, keeping that arc very tight like that.
The evolution to this style definitely makes sense, one can really feel the difference with different "arcs"

This is indeed a very nice cue. I also had some problems in really taming the arc in heavier snatches as I learned through the high pull approach. I was in fact working on this these days and I tried the "clean" approach in my A+A practice yesterday. This made a world of difference. I had recent snatch videos from the side ( 2 weeks ago) to compare to and filmed myself doing something much closer to the instagram posts above. The kettlebell was visibly many inches closer to the tip of my feet with the new technique, and I only practiced the clean version for one session. Also, the drops were a lot smoother. I had the cue to "go through the rack", but for some reason it had not occured to me to really pull the elbow back just after the rack, so that the bell could keep on going down uninterrupted, and then pushing the elbow back to neutral at the end.