My apology to Hang Power Cleans

Dear Hang Power Cleans,

Sorry I gave you the finger and bad-mouthed you all over town last week. It's not your fault - it was just a communication mix-up, really. I know you were only trying to be helpful by demonstrating why my squat clean form is not, in fact, very good. I thought I saw you and your friend Push Jerk pointing and laughing at one point, and that made me REALLY mad. But it turns out you were just trying to make me see that jumping from my toes is really inefficient. And for all those reps that you withheld... well, I know now that pulling with my arms is downright insulting. So, sorry, Hang Power Clean. We're totally cool now. I've added you as my Facebook Friend and everything. (But your buddy Push Jerk can still suck it.)

xoxo
BYERS

_____

I was lucky enough to train with Dallas for a few hours on Sunday. He started out by fixing my press - and I didn't even know it was broken. More on that in a later post, but for now I'll just say that a slight tweak to form can make a formerly "heavy" weight feel LIGHT. Which is sweet.

We spent the most time working the hang power clean. We worked this move once about a year ago, but only using an empty bar, and only briefly. I've been teaching myself the full clean (from the floor) and thought I was doing okay. Turns out, I was not.

I tried power cleans from the hang on my own for the first time last week. It did not go well. In fact, it simply did not go - my reps at 75# were almost all fails. One look at last week's form on video and it was easy for him see my issues. Set-up position was all wrong, bar wasn't staying even CLOSE to my body on the way up and I was jumping off my toes and pulling with my arms. I mean, disaster. Which means my squat cleans are only successful because I'm strong enough to muscle 100# off the ground. Damn.

Dallas fixed me one step at a time - as much as he could before I got too tired to continue. He triaged my form, and we addressed the biggest issues for our first session. For the set-up, he used the cue of "covering the bar" with my chest. I was setting up with my shoulders way too far back, partially because my hips weren't back far enough. That made it impossible to keep the bar close and keep weight on the heels. He described the cue as "covering" the bar with shade from your chest for as long as possible as you open your hips.

We also fixed my arms - they were still bent at the hang, instead of being locked down with a slightly turned over wrist. That position helped a lot, but what helped the MOST was the introduction of the hook grip. It hurt, and the first few reps it was all I could think about... but when I finally got used to it, it made a big difference in how effective my pull felt.

We did a lot of pull drills, including some clean shrugs. This helped me get the hang of keeping the bar CLOSE - dragging it up my thighs and shirt. (We chalked the bar, so he could see it was leaving marks on my pants.) The shrug drills also helped me learn to keep my weight in my heels, something I have a hard time doing with a variety of movements.

Finally, we worked some fast elbow drills. This is my biggest problem - in a few of my fails today, it wasn't because the bar wasn't high enough. I'm pulling PLENTY high... but I wasn't getting my elbows around quick enough. That's something I have to keep working on. Dallas gave me a drill on a bar in the rack... basically mimicking a catch with REALLY fast elbows. Still a major work in progress.

Here's video from my day. I had done a crap-ton of reps at 65# and 75# before this, so I was pretty tired, but I was determined to get a few successful pulls at 85# (PR). If you're an Oly coach (EC!) feel free to drop some feedback, and if you're just an athlete working on their cleans like me, see if you can spot my continued form issues as described above. (I mean, I'm pretty sure you can see them from space...)

I'll be working these with Dallas (instead of the squat clean) for a few weeks going forward. My power clean PR is 100# from the floor - I'd like to get there from the hang pretty soon. The elbows are going to be the key.

The song in the video is Wyclef Jean covering CCR's "Fortunate Son".