Greg Everett is the coach of the Catalyst Athletics weightlifting team and author of the most popular book on weightlifting, Olympic Weightlifting: A Complete Guide for Athletes & Coaches. In this week's technique focus, Everett emphasizes the importance of the first pull in a lift. Having trouble elevating the bar? Everett suggests variations and strength improvements to ensure an athlete practices the best technique possible. 

I can’t think of a time I’ve ever seen a relatively new lifter unable to elevate the bar adequately with the exception of occasional errors. It’s typical for these individuals to be snatching and cleaning fractions of their basic strength numbers, and their pulling strength usually far exceeds their classic lift numbers. 

 

If for some reason you genuinely are unable to elevate the bar sufficiently, then pull variations and strength improvement in general is what you need. High-pulls are not intended to get you pulling the bar higher in the snatch and clean—bar height is not achieved by pulling with the arms. They’re intended to do things like train proper bar/body proximity and strengthen the third pull. You can do high-pulls in addition to heavier pulls, but understand that you’re not trying to high-pull the bar when doing the actual lifts. 

 

Add more pulls to your program and more variations like pulls from high blocks to emphasize the final explosion. You can also try a complex of a pull + lift, e.g. snatch pull + snatch to both strengthen the pull and also encourage a complete pull when actually lifting. Power snatches and cleans and work from the hang or blocks will also help you develop more force at the top of the pull and consequently more bar height.

 

If bar height isn’t really the problem as I suspect, I would guess the issue is more related to your change of direction after the pull and your pull under the bar not being fast enough. The height of the bar doesn’t matter if you can’t get under it in time. Hang and block lifts are great for improving this.

Related Articles:
The First Pull: Make Or Break The Lift
Control Dip For Max Power Output 
Executing The Proper Overhead Snatch 
Correcting Overextension Of The Hips In Your Snatch 
Fixing A Slow Turnover In The Snatch And Clean