Ladies and gentleman please...dear god...accelerate your damn barbells.
This is the following reaction I have to slow bars...
Sorry to be blunt (not really) but a slow bar is a bad bar and people... SPEED KILLS!
In both of our lifts we have to identify and respect the speed curves of both lifts!
I first tell people that we need to not only understand that acceleration has to occur but also when that itself has to occur.
The snatch is a longer more "spread out" lift and requires more patience before the explosion... I like to tell my beginners think of this as a commercial plane taking off... its building up speed as it goes down the run way and then at the very last second the pilit cranks back on the stick and the plane seperates from earth (AKA you get the hell off earth too!)
Then for our clean and jerk we have to actually understand that because the relative weight of the bar is heavier to maintain posture and technique we have to be more controlled off the floor (I don't say slower) then violently explode once at the very last second... I give you your typical "Jet off an aircraft carrier" example. We dont have much time to develop that explosive power but if we do it right and get to the "sweet spot" we can be extremely violent and get the job done effectivly.
**HEADS UP LOUD VIDEO** but you can think of all that sound of the jet engine loading up as the tension you need for a REALLY good clean!
Long story short yall acceleration is key to being a successful lifter...the lift CANNOT stay the same speed throughout the whole lift and the following is a VERY EXTREME example of acceleration at the end of a very patient pull but still proves my point.
Hope you all got something out of this and if you work patiently on your pulls and FEEL where and how these things should be timed, i assure you your lifting is going to be soooo much better and efficient.
- Coach Matt