Snatch balance vs heaving snatch balance
The snatch balance runs at 95–105% of your squat snatch and the heaving snatch balance at 85–100%. Both train catching low and holding it overhead. Here they are moving next to each other, with everything snatchlike prescribes each one for.
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.
Heaving snatch balance
A bigger dip and a harder drive, with the feet left where they are.
A snatch balance with the feet left exactly where they are. Dip, drive, drop — all of it in one stance, so nothing gets solved by jumping.
Watch for: The feet staying exactly where they started, and the elbows locked by the time you reach the bottom.
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
Their bands overlap — 95–105% and 85–100% — so neither is simply the heavy one; where in its band you work depends on the day. 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 snatch balance · the heaving snatch balance
What each one trains
| Both | Only the snatch balance | Only the heaving snatch balance |
|---|---|---|
| catching low and holding it overhead | nothing the other does not | nothing the other does not |
The faults each one fixes
Catching high · the snatch balance
Meet the bar in the bottom — pull yourself down to it rather than waiting for it to come to you.
Pressing it out · the snatch balance
Punch into the lockout as the bar passes your head — arrive locked, do not lock on arrival.
Wobbly overhead · the snatch balance
Armpits forward and bar behind your ears — put your head through the window.
Where the planner uses each
- 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.
- The heaving snatch balance is not in any of the sessions the planner writes. It is in the library for you or a coach to choose.
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
- Drop snatch vs snatch balance
- Tall snatch vs muscle snatch
- Snatch-grip Romanian deadlift vs snatch deadlift