Snatch balance
Bar on the back, dip, drive, and ride it into the bottom. The fastest way to stop being frightened of the hole.
Bar on the back, dip, drive, and ride it into the bottom.
Embed this drill
Writing a program, or running a club site? Paste this into your page beside the line that names the drill, and your readers get it moving, with its band and the fault it fixes, and a link back here for the rest. No video, so nobody's face. To show the band in loadable weights, add ?snatch=80&units=kg to the address in it, with your lifter's snatch. Coaching a squad? Read the whole team sheet at once, with a link for each lifter.
How heavy
95–105% of your squat snatch — see it in kilos. That is a band, not a prescription: where in it you work depends on the day. It is a conventional coaching band rather than anything measured here — treat it as where to start on a drill you have never done, then let the bar tell you the rest.
It trains catching low, holding it overhead.
Faults this drill fixes
Catching high
You receive it standing and then squat it, or you power snatch everything and only squat when it is truly heavy.
Meet the bar in the bottom — pull yourself down to it rather than waiting for it to come to you.
Pressing it out
You catch with soft elbows and grind them straight. In a competition that is a no-lift; in training it is a warning.
Punch into the lockout as the bar passes your head — arrive locked, do not lock on arrival.
Wobbly overhead
The bar drifts forward in the bottom, or you fight it for a second before standing. Heavy singles get lost in front.
Armpits forward and bar behind your ears — put your head through the window.
Side by side
- Snatch balance vs overhead squat · against 100–110%
- Drop snatch vs snatch balance · against 50–65%
- Snatch balance vs heaving snatch balance · against 85–100%
Find out whether this is what caps your snatch
Tell snatchlike three numbers you already know and it will name the thing actually capping your squat snatch — then write you a session that fits the time you have. There is nothing to sign into to use it.
Find out whether this is what caps your snatch →
Film a set of it as proof of work →
More from overhead position and mobility
You cannot catch what you cannot hold. These build the lockout and the bottom position before there is any speed involved, and most of them are light on purpose.
- Snatch-grip press · 25–40%
- Behind-the-neck snatch press · 30–45%
- Sots press · 25–40%
- Overhead squat · 100–110%
- Paused overhead squat · 85–100%
- Heaving snatch balance · 85–100%
- Drop snatch · 50–65%
- Snatch-grip push press · 45–60%
- Pressing snatch balance · 40–60%
- Snatch balance with a receiving pause · 85–95%
- Tempo overhead squat · 75–90%
- Overhead hold in the squat · 80–100%