TWO MINUTE CLOCK

Hi friend,

I've been swiping back through my lifting video archives after a recent post I made on 'the feet' in weightlifting. It seems that many weightlifters have a form of fetish... Not the 'foot fetish' you're thinking (I mean, whatever floats your boat!)... but I mean a 'FAST foot fetish'! This is in regards to stomping the feet in the catch position of a snatch or clean. Giving the impression of speed under the bar and a sense of aggression.

There's no better sound that a foot stomp on a wooden platform, and that was once a primary aim of mine in my earlier years of lifting, despite not having an understanding of why and if I should even be doing it.

THE FOOT STOMP

Let me embed a few throwbacks here... I'm talking 7-8 years ago now. Back when I my heels had a mind of their own. My thought process post extension in the snatch or clean were to 'lift' the heels and stomp them into the ground, as that's what the top level lifters looked like they aimed to do, as a means get under the bar fast.

The result of this? Through the purposeful rising of the heels as a means to try to produce speed under the bar, it led to:

• Cutting extension short.
• Loss of connection with the bar.
• Lack of active pull through post extension.

It took me a long time to understand and execute this segment of the lift with more efficiency. Especially as I still do technically 'stomp'. But now it's with different intent. Here is a screenshot of a snatch from last year.

You can see in this example, the heels don't raise quite as high, and it isn't necessarily something I am purposefully doing. The intent is purely in the active 'pull under' the bar. The feet lifting isn't the act of jumping, but falling! With this intent, I've noticed objectively that the heels aren't raising excessively in the third pull, but the knees are raising, and the hips are closing aggressively as I fall faster under the bar. Practice 'falling fast' into your catch position without a barbell to see for yourself. Starting by simply standing, to then trying to fall into your catch position.

STOMP OR SLIDE?

You will see some lifters who have an apparent stomp, and those that simply slide the feet out into the catch. The stomp you will see popularised through lifters in Eastern Europe. The slide on the other hand, you will see a more of, with lifters from Asian countries such as China. But which should you aim to do?

If technically speaking, it can be argued that the slide has the potential to maintain vertical velocity and height on the barbell when compared to a stomp. Which you can see makes sense objectively speaking. I'm someone who doesn't like to complicate things too much, and I leave it up to personal preference and what seems to come more naturally to the lifter.

There are many detailed technical aspects of Olympic weightlifting that you can drive yourself insane over if you look too deeply. This I would consider as one of those things... I would suggest to ensure you complete your extension and focus on an active pull under the bar as the main priority.

P.S. Before I sign off, this may or may not be of interest to you. so I'll keep it brief:

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Until next week.

Happy Lifting 😎,

Brandon