Clean & Jerk Training with Max Aita

April 25, 2016
Written by Team Juggernaut

In the continuation of our controlled practice session with our JTS sponsored lifters we worked on the Clean & Jerk. Several athletes had their own planned programming coming into the training session so Max offered some queuing and corrections as they went through their training programs. With the athletes that had nothing planned for the day Max took them through the paces and watched how their technique unfolded with bigger weights.

Andrew Kong was working up to a maximum single the Hang Clean and Jerk. He was able to keep the bar close and transition into the squat under phase very well on the Clean portion of the lift. In the Jerk phase we spent some time addressing his hip position as he dipped. Its important for the hips to stay in the proper position during the dip. The main cues that he needed were to set his hips back a little bit and visualize them staying in place as he dipped. He ended up making PR 155kg weighing about 85kg.

Jamie Hagiya spent time working on keeping the clean closer to her body after the explosion phase of the pull. One of the cues that helped was to have her try and “lift” the bottom of her shirt up as the barbell passed it. On the Jerk she worked with stepping in with her feet after the recovery of the clean and distributing her bodyweight in the middle of her foot.  Additionally a common issue with many lifters is setting the hips in the proper position prior to dipping for the jerk and we worked on this with Jamie.

Vanesa Long worked on 2 cleans + 2 Jerk. Some minor adjustments to her receiving position and recovery from the bottom of the clean was one of the focuses for her today. Mainly though we addressed her Jerk positioning like both Andrew and Jamie she worked on setting her hips in the proper position before initiating the dip.

James Townsend worked on the clean only. He does a few things very differently than most lifters. For one, he bends his arms considerably during the initial phases of the pull. This causes him to make his explosion at his hips in the same place as his snatch. It ends up creating a situation where he doesn’t utilize  his leg strength to the greatest degree. He is a unique case as  even with this situation he has done a 193kg power clean at 89kg bodyweight and slightly less without a hookgrip. Its more involved process to change these things and its unlikely something you can undo very quickly. But nonetheless getting James to use his legs more was the focus of the workout.

Jason Carroll was actually Snatching during the Clean and Jerks and was doing some EMOM type work. He worked up to a near maximum weight but was unsuccessful at the top set. As he worked through the session fatigue accumulated and it made it hard for him to keep his back tight at the start and subsequent first phases of the pull.