Switching to squat clean

[killik vash]

i used to do alot of power cleans and now i want to do squat cleans to use more weight ,whats the best way to get deepth on your clean, or the best exercise to learn the squat clean?

[J.L.C.]

From Raffiki's thread:

Cleans from a dead hang:

zMD_wOmBZMA

Start light and work your way up - concentrate on getting under the bar, forget about trying to get the bar up higher.

....and drop power cleans completely from your training for a while

[r_graz]

Start light and work your way up - concentrate on getting under the bar, forget about trying to get the bar up higher.

....and drop power cleans completely from your training for a while

I love those (I learned them as "trap cleans") and do them as part of my warmups. I want to eventually be doing full squat cleans, but my trainer says he wants me to stick to power cleans for a while so I won't get into the habit of not finishing the pull. Hopefully soon, though.

[triglyceride]

good job bro you can do it. just believe in yourself and praise the lord our savior Jesus Christ

[madaozeki]

I want to eventually be doing full squat cleans, but my trainer says he wants me to stick to power cleans for a while so I won't get into the habit of not finishing the pull.

No offense to your trainer, but that's a backwards way of looking at things. The sooner you learn squat cleans properly, the sooner you'll be handling more weight, and the sooner you'll NEED a stronger pull to handle those weights... If you have a decent pull now, there's no worries about losing that. Learning speed under the bar is crucial to maximizing benefits from cleans.

[r_graz]

If you have a decent pull now, there's no worries about losing that.

Well, that's the thing - I don't. I've been doing nothing but power cleans from the hang for a few months now, and have spent most of that time concentrating on getting all the pieces down rather than really increasing the weight (the best triple I've done with decent form is only 145 lbs). I've only recently gotten to pulling from the floor on power cleans, and that's knocked me back even further in the weight I can use.

[madaozeki]

Well if you don't have a solid pull yet, that means you're not really powercleaning, so you might as well scrap it and start full cleans using Raffiki's template and exercise list. Seriously, otherwise it sounds like you're heading towards a dead-end... Is your trainer qualified to be teaching the Olympic lifts?

[r_graz]

Is your trainer qualified to be teaching the Olympic lifts?
Yes. He's not a run-of-the-mill, commerical gym certified trainer, he's a pretty experienced strength athlete and strength coach who's taught quite a few people the Olympic lifts, both as part of strength training for other sports and for weightlfting.

Part of the problem I think has been my focus, or lack of. He taught me hang cleans because I wanted them for basic strength training, but I have become more and more interested in the Olympic lifts for their own sake. If I had been interested in Olympic lifting from day one, maybe the path would have been different.

[ehlpitel]

FWIW, the O coach I went to last semester had me learn power cleans with no dip before full cleans.

[Dark_MadMax]

From Raffiki's thread:

Cleans from a dead hang:

Start light and work your way up - concentrate on getting under the bar, forget about trying to get the bar up higher.

....and drop power cleans completely from your training for a while

Wow. I wonder where the drive to get bar up even comes from - some subtle hip drive and shrug? And it seems like starting weight on those should be very low? true?- if I say can hang power clean 155x3 I probalby should aim at starting those at 65-85, right?

[madaozeki]

Wow. I wonder where the drive to get bar up even comes from - some subtle hip drive and shrug? And it seems like starting weight on those should be very low? true?- if I say can hang power clean 155x3 I probalby should aim at starting those at 65-85, right?

You'd be amazed how much momentum you can generate with just a tiny bit of upward explosion! I can dead hang clean about 200lbs, and my maximum clean off the floor isn't too much higher than that.