Vertical Leg Drive in The Pull | Snatch & Clean Technique

Vertical leg drive in the snatch and clean helps provide both elevation and direction on the bar.
Picture a vertical line running through your shoulder, hip and ankle. As you extend in the pull, your hips should move forward into this line and then up along it-they should not cross through it. If the hips move through this line, you’re losing upward acceleration and putting more horizontal force into the bar.
The hips will be hyperextended at least slightly, but this is done by bringing the shoulders behind the hips, not by pushing the hips forward through our imaginary vertical line.
We don’t control the hip position by being less aggressive with hip extension, but by ensuring the legs are driving vertically as we extend the hips.
This vertical drive not only helps accelerate and elevate the bar, but guides it in the right direction, maintains your balance, and helps keep the bar closer to the body after contact.
In other words, that vertical push is what allows us to be maximally explosive while directing that force productively.
To help improve your leg drive and timing, practice snatch and clean pulls, snatch and clean from power position, snatch and clean with no jump, or a complex of any of those.
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[@raymondbach5448]

Just started weightlifting and this made it super clear to me what to do on the pull !

[@howtosnatch]

Greg's videos are awesome.

[@petrolene_performancecoach]

So creepy. Just watched my videos of today's lifts and told myself I need to fix my leg drive. I lean backwards instead if driving upwards.

[@somuchfat]

I’m still having inconsistent receiving feet position, should I avoid doing no jump variation until then?
I like doing no foot high hang snatches because it seems to help me with my 3rd pull, I can catch lower. If that’s something that works for me, I guess I should continue doing it?

[@Mr.Ciobanu]

On it!

[@spencermoody6699]

My issues with leg drive do not seem to be improving by working on pulls or hanging variations. At nearly any weight (including well below what I can "successfully" lift), my hips stay back in pulls turning it into more of a row and my hips immediately cross the vertical line on hang variations (or turn into an even stranger row if I try to keep them back). Would this be indicative of a more mechanical problem (such as with mobility or ROM), or are there other ways to attempt to "force" the leg drive to occur?

[@CatalystAthletics]

Try lifts and pulls from power position to feel proper finish
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th-cam.com/video/BS4_mf4kmes/w-d-xo.html

[@nigelgraham8890]

Sorry if this is a basic question : Do older lifters struggle to reach a deep squat? Is it a natural symptom of age as I’ve never seen videos of older (50+) lifters doing olympic lifting.

[@CatalystAthletics]

Mobility tends to decline with age, but much of that decline is due to lack of activity to maintain it. You can remain very mobile into your 50s and later IF you consistently work on preserving your mobility. Regaining it, or gaining it in the first place, at that age is very difficult but possible to varying extents. And there are lots of 50+ lifters - masters weightlifting is huge.

[@wallinggraham3836]

My problem is i cannot stop myself from jumping, especially with pulls. does it even matter? I do struggle to get under the bar quickly enough in cleans partly because im scared at a certain weight that i will miss the bar and it will crash onto my knees.
If for example i can pull 80kg and i'm jumping as well with that weight, does that mean i have adequate upward drive?. If so how the hell do i get down quickly?

[@CatalystAthletics]

You shouldn't be actually jumping - feet should only come off the floor as your body is moving down. So you drive into the floor to extend the body to accelerate/elevate the bar, and then actively pull down.

[@66666Den]

my mistake is that I don't straighten my legs at the knees. How to fix it?

[@CatalystAthletics]

See this - th-cam.com/video/eKx7O60U11w/w-d-xo.html

[@TheComedyButchers]

Poopoo