Teaching the Clean, Part 2

In my last post I covered teaching the power clean to large groups of athletes.  There are times where we want to teach the competition version of the lift.  We often say that this version is too difficult to teach large groups of athletes, but that is not my experience.  With this blog I’m going to present some thoughts on how to teach this lift to large groups of athletes.

Note that in this blog I’m going to use clean, full clean, and squat clean interchangeably.  For me they are all the exact same lift.  This is the variation most commonly used in competition today.

Why is this lift used in competition?  After all, it’s awfully technical compared to the power clean and more things can go wrong with it.  It boils down to this, when doing the power clean the bar is pulled to the height of the shoulders before the athlete moves into a quarter squat and received it on the front of their shoulders.  During the squat clean, the bar is pulled to the height of the diaphragm or chest before the athlete moves into a full squat to receive the bar on the front of their shoulders.  In other words, it is not pull to as great of a height.  This height difference means that potentially more weight can be lifted during the squat clean than during the power clean.  This is important if we are going to compete in the lift.

Now, the traditional approach was hinted at in my previous blog.  The lift is taught from the top down.  First the focus is on the power clean and it is taught from the above the knee position.  Then it is taught from the knee position.  Next it is taught from the below the knee position.  Finally, the power clean is taught from the floor.  This can take a few weeks for four months to move all the way through these steps.  Then, if we want to teach the full clean these steps are repeated only now incorporating the full squat.  Initially it is done as a power clean followed by a front squat until the athlete becomes very comfortable with this and is able to transition into the full clean.

As you can imagine this takes a long time.  By the end of this we have great technical mastery of each phase of the lift, but it takes a long time.  It also has an unintended consequence.  I find in coaching that we go back to what we learned first, and best, whenever we are stressed, tired, or sore.  If we learned the power clean first, then we are always going to rely on this lift first instead of the full clean – which limits our weightlifting potential.  So if we’re going to teach the full clean, I think it’s valuable to start there and then use the power clean, or lifts from the hang, as supplemental exercises to address deficiencies.

I have used this approach with groups of 30-40 athletes at a time.  Years ago I actually taught an Olympic weightlifting class at Texas A&M.  At the end of the class, students performance on the clean and jerk, front squat, and snatch would be tested.  These tests would be graded depending upon two things: performing the lifts according to the rules of competition and how much of their bodyweight they could lift correctly.  So, to get 100% men were expected to front squat bodyweight, clean and jerk 75% of bodyweight, and perform a snatch that would get white lights in competition.  My point behind telling this story this approach can be used with large numbers of athletes.

Like the power clean, I like to start with the front squat and the Romanian deadlift first.  Once the athlete is comfortable with that, we can move into teaching the full clean.

1. Teach approaching the bar on the platform
2. Teach the first pull
3. Teach lifting the bar to mid-thigh
4. Teach the hip extension
5. Teach the hip extension, shrug and plantarflexion
6. Teach the explosion
7. Teach the explosion efficiently
8. Teach receiving to a squat

Teach approaching the bar:

This is an important step because how we approach the bar has a huge impact in how successful a full clean will be.  We’re starting with the bar on the floor because the bar is on the floor in competition.  I’m going to say this up front, I’m a little out of step with how the lift is coached today.  I don’t find that many beginners can just approach the bar, set up, and go.  There’s a lack of knowledge, a lack of strength, and a lack of mobility so all these things have to be developed.

In this step, the bar does not leave the platform.  The athlete approaches the bar.  They will stand in front of the bar with their feet hip-width apart.  From here, while standing, they will pull their shoulders back and stick their chest out.  The cues here are “chest out” or “shoulders back” or “tight back.”  Their arms will hang at their sides.  From here, they will unlock their knees and push their hips back, lowering their center of gravity until their hands are at mid-thigh level.  From this position, maintaining that tight back, they will continue to flex their hips and knees until they are able to grasp the bar.

There are several things that we need to emphasize with this stage.  First, we’re going to use the hook grip from the beginning.  It’s easiest to teach this at the beginning so that it isn’t a weird change later on.  Second, we’re going to maintain proper chest/back/shoulder positioning throughout – we don’t want to sacrifice this.  Third, when we are gripping the bar we will rotate our elbows out.  Just like the power clean this will help to keep us from pulling with our arms later during the lift.  Finally, we want our shoulders slightly in front of the bar.  If we have trouble getting there then we need to lift our hips up until that position is hit.  The reason is that we don’t want this lift to be a quad dominated lift, we want to be able to use the posterior chain in the lift.  If we’re sitting behind the bar, then it becomes a quad dominated lift which limits our performance.

This step can be done by a large number of athletes at one time, with the coach walking around and providing feedback.  It can be done as a series of steps until the athletes have it down.  For example:

• Approach the bar!
• Feet hip width apart!
• Chest out, shoulders back!
• Arms at your sides!
• Push your hips back!
• Squat to the bar!
• Rotate our elbows!

Teach the first pull:

This is the stage where the athlete learns to lift the barbell off the platform.  Unlike the rest of the lift, the first pull is slow.  This is because ripping the bar off the platform tends to cause a chain of errors that impacts the lift negatively later on, so it needs to be done in a slow and controller manner.

To teach this stage, we repeat everything done before with regards to addressing the barbell.  Once the athlete is in position, the athlete will extend the hips and knees until the bar has reached knee height, then the bar will be replaced on the platform.  Several points to emphasize here:

• Chest out, shoulders back.
• Elbows rotated out.
• Hips and shoulders rise at the same speed.
• Bar remains close to the body.
• Shoulders remain in front of the bar.

If we rip the bar off the platform, then we tend to do several things.  First, we allow our shoulders and chest to collapse, so we pull with rounded shoulders which is bad for the lower back and promotes swinging the bar away from the body during the second pull.  Second, we tend to lift our hips up too high, which also promotes swinging the bar away from the body during the second pull.

This step also becomes a great strengthening exercise.  I call these clean pulls with no explosion.  The bar is lifted to the knees and then replaced on the platform.

Teach lifting the bar to mid-thigh:

Moving the bar around the knees can be tricky for many athletes, it’s important to spend time on this so that it does not become a weakness for an athlete.  All the steps for addressing the bar and the first pull are repeated for this step.  From the knees, the athlete continues extending the hips and knees and pulling the bar towards the body until it reaches mid-thigh, then it is replaced on the platform.

When the bar reaches mid-thigh, the shoulders should still be ahead of the bar.  The elbows should be rotated out.  The athlete’s chest should be out (big chest) and their shoulders should be back.  Again, this is a phase where a large group of athletes can be performing it simultaneously while the coach walks around and gives feedback.

Teach the hip extension:

This is the phase where the shoulders move from being in front of the bar to being behind the bar.  It’s also a common source of errors with lifters.  For this step we are going to reinforce everything that has come before.  The bar is lifted to mid-thigh, from here the athlete will extend their hips until they are “tall.”  This means they will be standing straight up.

There are several things we need to emphasize during this step.  First, the bar needs to remain close to the body.  If we let it get away then this is really going to mess up our ability to receive it later on.  We need to keep our elbows rotated out.  We also still want to maintain our big chest/shoulders back position.

Teach the hip extension, shrug and plantarflexion:

Basically this is the second pull done in slow motion.  First we will reinforce everything until the bar reached mid thigh.  From here the athlete will, slowly, extend their hips, move up onto their toes, and shrug their shoulders up.  Like the last step, we focus on keeping the bar close, keeping the elbows rotated out, and maintain our big chest/shoulders back position.

Teach the explosion:

For this step, every step up until now is reinforced.  The bar is lifted from the platform to mid-thigh.  From here the athlete will do several things nearly simultaneously.  First, violently extend the hips.  Second, shrug the shoulders up,  Third, plantarflex.  All this will be done so explosively that the athlete will leave the platform.  I cue this as “Jump and shrug.”  This is to teach the idea of using the entire body to perform the lift.

A few things are important here.  First, the bar needs to remain close to the body.  Allowing it to get away makes it more difficult to receive the bar later.  Second, the elbows need to be rotated out.  Third, we want to avoid extreme landing positions.  By this I mean that when the athlete lands the feet should be between hip-width apart and shoulder-width apart.  More on this later.

Teach the explosion efficiently:

Now, the last step is repeated but this time we want the athlete to remain on the ground.  Like we discussed with the power clean, this is about doing the minimum to complete the lift as opposed to wasting effort and energy.  Leaving the ground during the explosion is incredibly inefficient and unnecessary.  The same considerations that were in the last stage apply here.

Teach receiving to a squat:

If we want to teach the athlete to pull the bar to chest level and receive it in a full squat, that needs to be taught here.  We need to avoid teaching the athlete other, confusing, variations and focus on what we want out of this coaching.  This is one of the few steps where I’ll talk, it’ll sound something like this:

• Explode
• As you explode, relax your arms.
• Allow the bar to move up your body.
• When the bar reaches your chest, move into a squat.
• As you squat, rotate your elbows so they move under the bar.
• Catch the bar in a front squat.

Things we need to emphasize here:

• The bar needs to remain close to the body.  It needs to be close enough to lift the athlete’s shirt.
• Nothing good happens when you step back.  Stepping back means you let the bar move away from you during the second pull.
• Pulling with the arms moves the bar away from you and limits the speed of the lift – both of which are bad things!
• In the front squat the elbows need to be high and the weight needs to be on the heels.

Now, another controversial thing I want to cover here.  We do these like we do front squats.  People don’t do front squats with their feet wider than their shoulders, it doesn’t work on that lift.  The front squat involves a narrower stance than powerlifting back squats.  So, that means that if we are splitting our feet really wide to the sides then we are making the lift more difficult than we need to.  At most our feet should move from being hip-width apart to shoulder-width apart during this phase.  If we can do it without moving our feet to the sides at all that would be ideal!  Again, think let’s do this with the minimum effort.

At this point your athlete is able to execute the competition lift from the floor.  I have gone through this in a few sessions and I have also taken weeks to go through this.  Once you have spent a good 4-6 weeks working on the lift from the floor, then you can begin introducing variations to address the specific needs of the athlete.