Need some help!

[super_rice]

I'm on another planned program from my coach, and it's great, but a little weird on the rep ranges and stuff... a lot of crap I'm not used to and especially around competition time (4x3 100% snatch pulls??).

Anyway, I have the distinct feel that power variations are fucking up the technique for my full lifts. It's causing me to pull shorter (not finish), and it just kills my speed when I'm doing a full lift. Since I don't have any strength to begin with, losing speed equates to no lift.

I spent two weeks last month doing full lifts only from the floor, hip, and below the knee, and felt that I got a very good feel for the snatch. Had the power to pull a mac truck it felt like - and I was finishing well, and straight.

When I got back with the new program I started doing power variations again and now my snatch is screwed up.

I don't have enough training background to know whether or not it's the power snatch that is screwing me up or if it is all the external stresses happening right now and straight up overreaching. It's true though that I am extremely burnt out at this time and that I have only put power snatches back in for the last 2 weeks.

It's just that in the past couple of days I feel as if I've lost the feeling again for the snatch, like there's no power in the extension, but I don't get a chance to practice properly. It's three weeks before provincials and two months till national juniors... any advice?

Sorry if this message was a bit... all over the place. Too much molecular biology in the past couple of days

Again, to be fair, I went on a lifting rampage for three weeks hitting all the weights feeling great every workout and lifting in high percentages when I should not have. Then, hitting PR snatches 5 days in a row while squatting and CJing heavy... So maybe all the stresses just compounded and now I'm feeling like shit with 85% weights when I'm supposed to be at 95-100%.

 

[BiggT]

I think the heavy snatch pulls are a good idea since you said an issue for you is brute pulling power.

I like the power versions of the lifts to enhance athletic attributes and to save the legs if you're hammering your squats, but I feel they contribute to a fucked up pull over time too, as you need to pull the bar much higher to catch......you may not be finishing the pulls because you could be getting nervous that you won't be able to catch i quick enough and you just get anxious and want to complete the lift.

The full lifts are very 'practice dependent'......if I were you, I'd drill the full lifts until I was blue in the face, and if raw power is an issue, continue to hammer the snatch pulls from the floor with big weights......

From what you said, I'll go out on a limb and say I think it is probably overreaching/stress from school and a little bit of having to adjust to the power versions. I remember it seems like last week you were making notes like "God, I love snatching". I don't think your form could get fucked in the ass in a few short weeks.

 

[Madcow2]

Pretty much what Biggt said.

I'll add my own verbal diarrhea below.

Anything you do that includes technique goes cyclically. Actually life goes like that because all we are able to sense are differences or variations from habitual (if you only had good days, they would be average and the ones below the average would be bad day).

What tends to happen is you get on a run and start nailing things so you feel really good (meaning better than it was) - then you get used to that feel or maybe even overdo some of the keys that you were working on and it becomes just average again (and remember that confidence plays a huge part, maybe the biggest part as believing in yourself is unbelievably powerful and it's easier to be confident when you feel good and are on an upswing). Anyway, what happens is you go in the shitter again and then go through a phase where you "figure it all out" and it's just gorgeous and perfect - another upswing. You see these cycles in golfers, tennis players, whatever but it's also in lifting. The key is our perception only notices differences and once you get used to something, no matter how good it is, it becomes just average feeling for you. Actually that's the way the mind works, and it's all frame of reference. No hot without cold, no good without bad, yin yang - reference points. I say this not so much to point out the universe but moreso that you understand the nature of the mind and aren't prey to it's bullshit and maybe even grab the bull by the horns.

Backing out of metaphysical BS. You can get away with some stuff in the power variations that you can't in the squat or full lifts. This is why most like to teach the full lift before the power variation as you teach the power first and engrain some screwed up habits that are hard to break. You teach the full lift first and the power comes all by itself. This may or may not be a factor for you. If could be as simple as you not having confidence because you aren't doing the full lifts so you are second guessing yourself. If you have a video camera, I'd set it up and use it to review post workout or even between lifts if you are working on something.

Fatigue is likely also at play, bottom line, you train hard enough for long enough and you feel it. At that point nothing feels really good or snappy. That's universal.

I think this is something you should discuss with your coach at least related to your feeling for the power variations, where you stand, and how you feel. This is the guy who knows what's going on and he knows you, your lifts, and has a plan in mind. Way too much going on and far far too many unknowns to be offering much advice beyond offering some observations and basic thoughts.

 

[super_rice]

Thanks a lot guys.

I just don't know if he's hearing me out on the stuff about the power versions. I guess I just need to work them hard and take them as seriously as the full lifts to get the full benefit.

My coach just says that the power variations are "basic shit" and that they'd teach me some pulling power and speed in extension.. no substitutes.

Perhaps it's time I stopped worrying so much about technique and just lift the freaking weight. I mean, for got sakes I still clean and jerk within 5% of my best front squat (pretty soon 100%).

 

[Madcow2]

At some point you have to kind of go on faith. Bottom line, he knows more than you do. Even if it is true that you are right and there is some negative influence on the full lift, there is a good chance that it would be short-term and easily dealt with in another phase. You can't work on everything at once and there is often a method to the madness despite the fact that you might rather be doing something different right now. But then again, how many guys have come to this forum wanting to train for the pump and burn only to blow themselves away and learn more than they bargained for by taking a chance on a program that looked nothing like the Flex mag programs they had in their head.

For where you are right now, I don't think there is any rational choice to make other than to trust your coach, bust your ass, and see where it falls. Maybe you revisit this with him later but if it's a question of going it alone or under the wing of a good coach, that's not even a question. You'll be stronger and better for shelving your doubt and getting down to business.

 

[coolcolj]

what about from the high hang? you really need to extend fully to get these up

 

[super_rice]

Yep, I do them a lot. Those are all the exercises I put down as "from the hip".

I've snatched 93kg from the hip!