The Power Clean - The ultimate tutorial to learning it fast!

[NorwichGrad]

I also agree that there is NO jumping in weightlifting.

The e-coaches that have helped me, along with some of the best WL coaches in the US confirm that there is no jumping. The head coach at OTC, Coach Zygmunt aka "Ziggy" (who was a Polish gold medalist in 1972 Olympics) even said so himself "there is no jumping."

Jumping is a bad cue. STAND UP HARD is a pretty good cue to get the lifter to properly extend.

When you jump, as in athletic jump like playing basketball, the shoulders will be forward of the bar and when the lifter finally "jumps" the hips will end up 'banging' the bar sending it forward instead of 'slicing' it upward, and the lifter will either miss the catch because the bar got away from him, or the lifter will jump forward to catch the bar, which is very inefficient and incorrect.

Don't jump; STAND UP HARD!!

[ManWithCurls]

OP knows what he's talking about. There is no jump in weightlifting. There are a lot of different mental cues that people can use to get in the proper positions before the first pull (deadlift), second pull (explosion of the hips), and third pull (pulling yourself under the bar).

Very small guys can put up huge clean numbers with good form. Nothing says "I am stronger than you" more than a fast and explosive clean. Watch olympic lifters in slow motion and see if you can see the positions they are in before each the 3 pulls of the clean.

If you start in the proper position and you try to keep the bar close to your body, you're probably cleaning with decent form.

I also agree that there is NO jumping in weightlifting.

The e-coaches that have helped me, along with some of the best WL coaches in the US confirm that there is no jumping. The head coach at OTC, Coach Zygmunt aka "Ziggy" (who was a Polish gold medalist in 1972 Olympics) even said so himself "there is no jumping."

Jumping is a bad cue. STAND UP HARD is a pretty good cue to get the lifter to properly extend.

When you jump, as in athletic jump like playing basketball, the shoulders will be forward of the bar and when the lifter finally "jumps" the hips will end up 'banging' the bar sending it forward instead of 'slicing' it upward, and the lifter will either miss the catch because the bar got away from him, or the lifter will jump forward to catch the bar, which is very inefficient and incorrect.

Don't jump; STAND UP HARD!!

Thank you for contributing, gentlemen!

NorwichGrad, damn, I missed the fact that you got 1st place in Pennsylvania's 94kg category; haven't seen your sig for like a year so that explains it. Congrats, my man; you have gotten so far since I met you here and you've so much more to go!

[sciosarah]

Hey brah, a bit late but can't see the vid. Hope you're still power cleaning!




Wat ya waiting for?



My pleasure.



Not sure if you're trolling. There's NO jumping in the power clean. Yes the feet leave the floor momentarily to catch the barbell, but that's it. Full stop. Simple.

And please don't spam this thread with your ******** page; if you want to see real athletes that have won medals and know Olympic weightlifting, then I advice you to go on Youtube and start with Klokov. Perhaps advice him in one of his videos to jump when catching 200 kilograms; by all means, let us know what he replies.

Uhhhh, spam? Hookgrip is a well known weightlifting photographer and tons of athletes have been featured/follow/use the page for reference. I'm not spamming anything. I understand having a policy of not spamming but accusing me of doing it for using a point of reference is just stupid. I just assumed that most Olympic style lifters know the page - feel free to Google it and see hundreds of pictures of world class athletes, including Klokov. That you assume I don't know who he is is puzzling to me.

I don't see how your feet can leave the ground without a jump occuring. It's simply a different way of teaching the movement. If your feet are off the floor, you have jumped, whether or not you trained it that way. I understand the idea that the force of your hip drive would pull you off the floor rather than intentionally jumping but...it's still a jump.

I also don't see how the cue to jump would cause you to throw your hips into the bar. I was trained to jump and not only do I not throw my hips into the bar, I don't have a forward jump on my clean, and my arms are over the bar as far as I know.

I'm not claiming to be an expert, I have only been training Olympic style lifts for a little over a year, I'm just interested in the real logic behind teaching one cue over another.

Here is what my clean looks like, feel free to tear it apart by all means.

youtube com/watch?v=HcDHNhZN0XA

This is what my clean pull looks like, my feet don't leave the floor on the pull itself, the jump happens when preparing to catch the weight.

youtube com/watch?v=HcDHNhZN0XA

You'll have to fix the dot com obviously, my post count is low.

[Jimthegiant]

Thanks for the guide. I've only done power cleans on two sessions now with absolutely terrible form. I should be able to easily do my body weight after reading this.

[Jimthegiant]

Did some today to just to practice technique (it wasn't leg or back day). Did 90kg (198lbs) without much of a struggle.

[ManWithCurls]

Thanks for the guide. I've only done power cleans on two sessions now with absolutely terrible form. I should be able to easily do my body weight after reading this.

My pleasure.

Did some today to just to practice technique (it wasn't leg or back day). Did 90kg (198lbs) without much of a struggle.

Good stuff; this same guide is the one I use to teach people to learn the power clean fast. Just be careful of any muscling up of the barbell as this is one the biggest and most-common flaws when learning the power clean without supervision.

Best

[SMKillerBody]

Jesus Christ that was a good article. I have never done these before and now I am tempted to go try them.

[ManWithCurls]

Jesus Christ that was a good article. I have never done these before and now I am tempted to go try them.

Go at it, buddy. You've got nothing to lose and much to gain if you do them correctly.

Remember, start light and practice the technique on and on.

[6mildollarman]

Thanks for posting a great tutorial. This is the best one I've seen because of your straight forwardness and simplicity in describing form and technique.

I started power cleaning 6 years ago with really crappy form (think of an explosive reverse curl... Yikes). I gradually cleaned up my technique by watching training vids of oly lifters. I just learned proper triple extension 2 years ago, and my technique is still nowhere near perfect. Then there's conflicting information because of the recent popularity of oly lifts (I think the crossfit explosion had a lot to do with this). I was actually confused when I watched Rippetoe teach the power clean and thought I had to deprogram myself and relearn it. Ultimately, I stopped doing the lift for a year because the gym I was at changed their policy to not allow PCs and other oly lifts.

I recently built up my garage gym complete with a proper oly bar and a set of bumpers and now incorporating power cleans with a vengeance. I've picked up a bunch of useful tips here regarding technique, frequency and workout programming. Keep up the good work man, I'll be keeping a close eye on this thread

[rossmcd87]

I think this article deserves a bump so more people can benefit from reading it.

I just had a lesson with a Strength & Conditioning Coach at my gym. Having only tried Power Cleans twice before with 66lbs & bad form, he had me doing fractionally under my own bodyweight within 15 minutes!

Everything I've read here correlates with what I was taught.

A couple of comments I'd make - I found the starting position was very important to keeping good form & also the trickiest part was learning the transition between the first & second pull.

What really helped me was to initially add a brief pause between the first & second pull just as the bar cleared my knees. This enabled me to learn a cue for transitioning into the second pull, which I am now able to focus on speeding up.

I must say I am very impressed by this article as it is more complete than the chapter in Starting Strength by Mark Ripptetoe.

Thanks!

[Batman4life]

Awesome thread helped me alot thanks

[OriginallPoster]

Do you pull up with your arms at all? That part confused me. It might be mentioned somewhere in this thread but there's five pages.

[GetHimABodyBag]

I also agree that there is NO jumping in weightlifting.

The e-coaches that have helped me, along with some of the best WL coaches in the US confirm that there is no jumping. The head coach at OTC, Coach Zygmunt aka "Ziggy" (who was a Polish gold medalist in 1972 Olympics) even said so himself "there is no jumping."

Jumping is a bad cue. STAND UP HARD is a pretty good cue to get the lifter to properly extend.

When you jump, as in athletic jump like playing basketball, the shoulders will be forward of the bar and when the lifter finally "jumps" the hips will end up 'banging' the bar sending it forward instead of 'slicing' it upward, and the lifter will either miss the catch because the bar got away from him, or the lifter will jump forward to catch the bar, which is very inefficient and incorrect.

Don't jump; STAND UP HARD!!

How come the coaches at Cal Strength do not fix Rhino's jumping? Just curious, for someone who competes and trains at a high profile gym Rhino always jumps. Always.

[Fury22]

How come the coaches at Cal Strength do not fix Rhino's jumping? Just curious, for someone who competes and trains at a high profile gym Rhino always jumps. Always.

Same reason they let the others guys do the "hip" style (bent arms/pulling with the arms into the hip -- like Hisaka and Blackwell). But if it works, it works. You see guys at the Olympics with a jump and you see guys that barely lift their heals off the floor.

My issue with saying "jump" is that most people do just that. It's like saying the clean is a deadlift with a jump and a shrug. In some ways this is correct, but when you say that people tend to do that exactly, which isn't correct. The pull from the floor to the hip is different (Staying over the weight/leverage), you don't just jump up (extend the hips) or do a shrug (sometimes this is taught, but the cue should be to shrug to pull UNDER the bar, not to pull the bar higher).

EDIT: Sometimes certain style fit certain lifters better. The basic mechanics will generally all be the same, which slight variations in torso angles, pulling styles and how far the lifter comes off the floor.

[JichaelMordan]

Would it be ok to do power cleans and then rows afterwards to hit the back properly? On SS

[NoSoupForYou83]

I want to learn cleans but my gym doesn't have a rubber floor or shock pad to drop the bar. I'm stuck with bent over rows.

[JonathanCSmith]

I have seen some scary examples of people doing this, and it makes me cringe when I see it done incorrectly. The long term effects of bad form can make the simplest things feel incredibly painful. Thanks for the write up, Great Post!

[PokLim]

bump

[CrystalB2011]

Nice thread, thanks!

[JordonMaur]

Just started doing power cleans as they are part of the texas method, this was very helpful. Thanks.