Drop snatch vs snatch balance
The drop snatch runs at 50–65% of your squat snatch and the snatch balance at 95–105%. Both train catching low. Here they are moving next to each other, with everything snatchlike prescribes each one for.
Drop snatch
No dip and no drive. Just fall under it and lock.
Snatch balance with no dip and no drive. Just fall under it and lock. Speed, not load.
Watch for: The lockout and the bottom arriving at the same moment, with no press to finish once you are down.
Snatch balance
Bar on the back, dip, drive, and ride it into the bottom.
Bar on the back, dip, drive, and ride it into the bottom. The fastest way to stop being frightened of the hole.
Watch for: How deep you are when the arms lock — the lower the better — and the feet landing flat in the receiving stance.
Each figure is the same six points the video read judges. The disc is the hands: the detector sees hands, not a barbell, so the bar is wherever the wrists are.
How heavy
The snatch balance is the heavier of the two: its whole band, 95–105%, sits above the drop snatch's 50–65%. Both are percentages of your squat snatch, and both are conventional coaching bands rather than anything measured here: where to start on a drill you have never done, before the bar tells you the rest.
In kilos for your snatch: the drop snatch · the snatch balance
What each one trains
| Both | Only the drop snatch | Only the snatch balance |
|---|---|---|
| catching low | getting under it | holding it overhead |
The faults each one fixes
Catching high · both
Meet the bar in the bottom — pull yourself down to it rather than waiting for it to come to you.
Pressing it out · both
Punch into the lockout as the bar passes your head — arrive locked, do not lock on arrival.
Slow under the bar · the drop snatch
Elbows around and punch — the fastest part of the lift is after the bar stops going up.
Wobbly overhead · the snatch balance
Armpits forward and bar behind your ears — put your head through the window.
Where the planner uses each
- The drop snatch is not in any of the sessions the planner writes. It is in the library for you or a coach to choose.
- The snatch balance: accessory at 80% of your snatch in a snatch session for a weak overhead; primer at 60% of your snatch in a snatch session for catching high.
Which one do you need?
That depends on what is capping your snatch, and that is a question your numbers answer. Put in three you already know — your snatch, and any of your power snatch, overhead squat and back squat — and snatchlike names the limiter and writes the session for it. A lift you have not tested is left out rather than guessed. Or film one snatch from the side: the pose model runs in this browser tab and the video never leaves your device.
Put in three numbers → Film one snatch →
More side by side
- Power snatch vs squat snatch
- Hang snatch, above the knee vs snatch from blocks (knee height)
- Snatch balance vs overhead squat
- Muscle snatch vs power snatch
- Snatch pull vs snatch high pull
- Hang snatch, above the knee vs hang snatch, below the knee
- Hang power snatch, above the knee vs hang snatch, above the knee
- Snatch deadlift vs snatch pull
- Tall snatch vs muscle snatch
- Snatch balance vs heaving snatch balance
- Snatch-grip Romanian deadlift vs snatch deadlift