I figured out how to snatch.
The trick was keeping my freaking feet flat.
The other trick was reading up on overhead squats.
It's a lift I've been interested in, and tried occasionally, for years. Power snatches were easy, and I love deep squats. But somehow I managed to fail to translate what I knew from squatting - need to keep your feet flat, and not roll up on the balls of your feet, to keep balanced.
I had myself convinced I couldn't keep my feet flat without weight on the bar. But I was wrong. I just worked on getting my body into a fully squatted position with my feet flat without any weight, until I got it, then added the bar.
It finally sunk in maybe a week ago. I've been working on form, mostly the overhead squat part, with an unloaded Olympic bar (45lb / 20kg). I finally just tried it with some weight, and got up to 95lb (43kg). Not a lot of weight, but I'm excited by the progress, and my form is not up to pushing it. They're not joking about keeping the bar above your shoulder blades and not letting it drift in front of your head. Fun lift, does neat stuff to my body. Good use for a dirt floored empty barn stall :)
I wonder how long it'll be before I can (full / Olympic) snatch more than I can power snatch.
The other trick was reading up on overhead squats.
It's a lift I've been interested in, and tried occasionally, for years. Power snatches were easy, and I love deep squats. But somehow I managed to fail to translate what I knew from squatting - need to keep your feet flat, and not roll up on the balls of your feet, to keep balanced.
I had myself convinced I couldn't keep my feet flat without weight on the bar. But I was wrong. I just worked on getting my body into a fully squatted position with my feet flat without any weight, until I got it, then added the bar.
It finally sunk in maybe a week ago. I've been working on form, mostly the overhead squat part, with an unloaded Olympic bar (45lb / 20kg). I finally just tried it with some weight, and got up to 95lb (43kg). Not a lot of weight, but I'm excited by the progress, and my form is not up to pushing it. They're not joking about keeping the bar above your shoulder blades and not letting it drift in front of your head. Fun lift, does neat stuff to my body. Good use for a dirt floored empty barn stall :)
I wonder how long it'll be before I can (full / Olympic) snatch more than I can power snatch.