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Off the Floor

Your Stance Is Too Narrow and It Pulls You Forward

Coaching by Danny Lehr with Alec Smith1:48
The fault

Getting dragged forward on heavier lifts because the pulling stance is too narrow.

Why it happens

Foot width sets how much room the hips have to sit back and how much support the torso gets. Too narrow and the lifter has to lean over the bar more to reach it, which is fine until the weight is real.

The fix

Widen the pulling stance. Alec Smith kept his chest up at heavier weights by moving his feet out, which gave the hips somewhere to go instead of forcing the torso forward.

Guest coach
Alec Smith

This fix was filmed with Alec Smith. See every episode they appear in.

SnatchCleanOff the Floor
About this fix
Originally published as "Correct Foot Position feat. Alec Smith", part of The Lifting Fix, the free weekly technique series Danny Lehr started filming over a decade ago. He gave every episode away then, and they are still free here. Danny Lehr competed in Olympic weightlifting from 2010 to 2019 and won the 2019 Masters World Cup. More about Danny Lehr.
Transcript

Yeah, flashin for good earlier and we were talking about some different things that would really help them out. So go ahead and do a snatch and then we'll talk about what we're going to fix. So, you can see that he's not going to be able to do that. longer pull so it starts to pull forward as the weight goes up.

It's not that he's not strong enough to keep his chest up, it's that some little thing in there is kind of prohibiting him from doing that. He's clean, very 155 pounds. He's strong enough to pull on the bar, he's just getting pulled forward because something's off. So we're just going to shorten the pull a little bit.

So we're going to move his feet out just a hair. Just maybe one or two inches each foot and you kind of slowly do that. Now as his hatch is there, it's going to shorten the pull and he's going to help keep his chest up, give him that heavier weight. Yeah.

It's 135, it's pretty minor, but you can't see it. It does shorten the pool a little bit, allows them to stay back and keep his chest up. So instead of just yelling at somebody, keep your chest up, keep your chest up, keep your chest up, sometimes it helps to figure out why the athlete can't do that and then allow them to fully use the strength they have. Thank you all.

Thank you. Thank you. Sean. unbearded, sir.

More off the floor fixes

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Your Back Lights Up When You Lower the Bar

Pain or a hot, fatigued low back on the way down rather than on the way up.

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Your Hips Rise Before Your Shoulders

Off the floor the hips shoot up first and the shoulders lag behind.

Off the Floor2:31

Your Upper Back Is Loose at the Setup

No tightness through the upper back before the bar leaves the ground.

Off the Floor1:54

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