Closer Look at the 3 Positions of the Clean Pull

Hey guys, just thought I would put together a post highlighting the three position pulls we have been working on in Olympic Lifting this week. Check out this video of American Weightlifter, Caine Wilkes from the Arnolds this year…
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBR_aGm3KgY]
Let’s take a look at his Clean and Jerk of 220kg (485lbs), which starts at at 7:26.
Here is his floor position…

Chest is up, back is straight, head is up, knees and shoulders are slightly in front of the bar. Solid floor position.
Here is his launch position…

Notice his back angle is the same as it was from the floor, shoulders are still in front of the bar. His knees are back so the hamstrings are loaded. He has a slight early arm pull, which we will forgive him for as this is more weight than 99.999999% of the world will ever be able to clean.
Now let’s take a look at him in the high hang…

This is after the ‘scoop’ portion of the lift. The hamstrings have been unloaded so the bar is starting some serious acceleration. Notice, his knees are bent and have passed underneath the bar, his chest is up, and his heels are grounded. This is the high hang position we want to hit in the clean and the snatch. When we hit this position, we allow for maximum upward acceleration of the bar as the hips, knees, and ankles reach full extension. This also minimizes the effect of slowing the bar down and knocking it forward when it his the quads. When we do a high hang pull, this is the ‘down’ position we are aiming to hit every single time we clean so that we allow the barbell to accelerate close the body. This position should look the same whether we are pulling from the high hang, the launch, or the floor and Caine shows it really well in this lift.
Hope that makes some sense!
Happy lifting 🙂