Tall snatch vs muscle snatch
The tall snatch runs at 40–50% of your squat snatch and the muscle snatch at 55–65%. Both train getting under it. Here they are moving next to each other, with everything snatchlike prescribes each one for.
Tall snatch
Up on the toes, then pull under and catch it where it meets you.
Up on the toes, bar at the hip, then pull yourself under it and catch it where it meets you. Pure turnover speed with the legs taken away.
Watch for: How quickly the elbows come round once the heels leave the floor, and a catch that is locked as it lands.
Muscle snatch
Pull it all the way up and turn it over. No re-bend, no dip.
No re-bend, no dip, just pull it all the way up and turn it over. Light, and it will still humble you.
Watch for: The knees staying straight after the finish, and the elbows going high and outside before the bar turns over.
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 muscle snatch is the heavier of the two: its whole band, 55–65%, sits above the tall snatch's 40–50%. 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 tall snatch · the muscle snatch
What each one trains
| Both | Only the tall snatch | Only the muscle snatch |
|---|---|---|
| getting under it | nothing the other does not | where the bar goes |
The faults each one fixes
Pulling with the arms · both
Long arms until the hips finish — the elbows are the last thing to move, not the first.
Slow under the bar · both
Elbows around and punch — the fastest part of the lift is after the bar stops going up.
The bar swings out · the muscle snatch
Brush the hip on the way past — the bar stays against you until it leaves.
Where the planner uses each
- The tall snatch: primer at 27% of your snatch in a snatch session for a slow turnover.
- The muscle snatch: accessory at 48% of your snatch in a snatch session for a slow turnover; primer at 36% of your snatch in a snatch session for when your squat is strong and the lift leaks.
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
- Snatch balance vs heaving snatch balance
- Snatch-grip Romanian deadlift vs snatch deadlift