A lot of people have issues keeping the arms relaxed while keeping the bar close in the clean (or snatch) causing them to overuse the arms and shoulders instead of using the legs to power the lift. Obviously, this can lead to loss of power potential and lifts failed at weights you should be strong enough to hit.
Clean Drill to Relax & Keep it Close
Video by Justin Wright
Common Mistakes in the Clean
There are a handful of “mistakes” that are also the byproducts of trying to muscle through your cleans. If you commonly face one or more of these issues, try out this drill and see if it doesn’t correct the other parts of your lift by setting you up to use your powerful legs to their potential.
1. Not Keeping the Bar Close on the 2nd Pull
Your super-stiff arms are actually helping the bar swing out and away from your hips – not allowing you to properly explode to your finish and putting you in a terrible position to receive the weight for which you will likely have to overcompensate to hit. (See next point)
2. Leaning Back too Far in the Finish/Catching the Bar Too High
Because the bar is way out in front of you, you overcompensate with an extreme lean back in your finish position (top of the 2nd pull). Now you are leaning back as far as you can in mid-air and have to get yourself down and under the bar to receive it in the bottom of a front squat. But you can’t quite get there and land high instead of pulling under.
3. Having Trouble Getting Elbows Through
Because your arms are so stiff and your elbows are locked out from your death grip, they can’t move as fast around the bar and your range of motion in your front rack position is likely reduced, making it harder to get into a good receiving position.
Clean Drill: Vertical Dip & Drive with Relaxed Arms
When you set up in this drill, place your feet under your hips and make sure your torso is upright.
Dip and drive while practice keeping arms loose and transferring energy from legs through the shoulders, teaching yourself to drive through the legs to power the lift instead of pulling with the shoulders and arms.
Now, dip and drive then shrug your shoulders behind you at the top. Focus on loose arms but pulling back on the bar with your lats to keep it close to your body as you shrug and explode to your finish position.
Once you can feel the power with the relaxed arms and are able to keep the bar close to your hips on the drive and shrug, perform a few reps of cleans and see if any of your issues have been fixed!
Start working on this now – we will surely see some sort of shoulder to overhead in the CrossFit Open this year!
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