Home / The Jerk / You Default to a Bad Catch Position Under Load
The Jerk

You Default to a Bad Catch Position Under Load

The fault

Technique that holds up in warm ups and reverts to something else when it gets heavy.

Why it happens

Under stress people go where they are comfortable, not where they are correct. If the right catch position has only ever been practiced light, it will not be there at a max.

The fix

Presses from the split jerk catch position. Drilling the correct position under load makes it the comfortable one.

Guest coach
Noah Ohlsen

This fix was filmed with Noah Ohlsen. See every episode they appear in.

About this fix
Originally published as "Jerk Catch Position feat. Noah Ohlsen", 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

I'm a professional. Hey how's it going? Lifting Fixt, Danny there. I've got my buddy Noah here, Noah Olson.

He's at the Caffeine Kiehlos warehouse and we're going to do a little fix for his lift. Yesterday he lifted his first weightlifting e, the Caffeine Kiehlos Imitational and he had a great performance, 6 for 6, qualified. That's the American LB. And so, you know, I'm going to do a little bit of a quick fix for that.

So if he was jerky, the bar is a little out front and it has a really straight back leg here. This is trust. That's what's happening now is trust. A really straight back leg here which kind of forces his body forward, the bar is out front so his arm is a little bit slower than his legs.

Alright, so go ahead and recover. So the reason for that is he's not real comfortable with that side. soft back knee that he should have. So now we're going to do a jerk with that good soft back knee.

Good. So this can be a much better position. His weight split 50/50. All right, between his two feet.

That'll help him get down and locked out better instead of trying to catch a high and press it out. So how we're going to learn this to fix it, he's going to lower the bar, maintain the split. And he's going to do some strict presses. And every time, the bar makes sure it's just behind his head, soft back knee.

That's what we're doing is we're putting his body under stress. This is not an easy exercise to do. As you do a set of five there, I think that's three. Two more, four.

One more, five, and then hold it there and recover. Very good. So what we're doing is we're putting his body under stress in that position. So he's learning, okay, when it feels heavy, when I don't know what to do, this is where I need to go.

Let's soft back me, locked out, click her arms. Bang it. Bang it. Ben Arangit.

Thank you Charlie. Thank you Noah. Arangitani.

More jerk fixes

See all

You Miss Your Jerks Out Front

The bar finishes in front of the body and you chase it forward.

The Jerk1:32

Your Front Knee Lands Ahead of Your Foot

The front knee travels past the front foot on the catch.

The Jerk1:21

You Tightrope Your Split Jerk

Landing with the feet on a single line front to back, with no width between them.

The Jerk1:50

Want the rest of this category?

Every jerk fix I've filmed, one a day for five days, in the order I'd work through them with you. Not the order they got uploaded. The order that actually fixes it.

Plus the snatch pull checklist. One page, nine points, floor to hip.

Free, and these videos are free on this site whether you do this or not. This is just me putting them in the right order and sending them to you, so you don't have to guess where to start.

Or just download the checklist, no email needed.