The German Snatch and Clean

Originally Posted on Tuesday, July 31, 2012 5:09 PM

German Clean

A quick update today, and a short story.  The lift I put in this week's workout called 'German Cleans" is a lift with 3-5 pauses in it; if I just say do a "German" Snatch/clean/jerk I want all five pauses.  Here's what the lifts looks like :

German Snatch

German Jerk

A jerk drill with five pauses

Here's the story behind these lifts:  Joe Fondale told me that Joe Hanson came up with these after speaking to Coach Mantek from Germany.  Apparently, Germany pays a lot of attention to the transition areas of the lifts, where the lifts are most frequently missed.  Lacking the sophisticated computer system the Germans used to analyze the lifter, Coach Hansen has his lifters do a "German" lift, with between three to five pauses in key areas.  The pauses for the clean and snatch:  knee, mid thigh, catch, bottom of the squat, and halfway up from the bottom ; in the jerk, pause: at the bottom of the dip; at the catch, front foot, back foot, at the top