What goes wrong
Described by how they feel, not by how they look on video — because you are the one under the bar and there is usually nobody filming. One cue each, because one cue is all anyone can hold onto under a heavy snatch.
Where each one happens: the squat snatch, phase by phase →
Pulling with the arms
The bar feels heavy the whole way and never seems to float. Your biceps are tired after a snatch session, which they should not be.
Long arms until the hips finish — the elbows are the last thing to move, not the first.
Drills: Snatch pull · Muscle snatch · Tall snatch · No-hook squat snatch
The bar swings out
It lands in front of you and you walk forward to save it, or it crashes onto your shoulders on the way down.
Brush the hip on the way past — the bar stays against you until it leaves.
Drills: Hang snatch, above the knee · Snatch pull · Muscle snatch · No-contact snatch · Paused squat snatch below the knee
Cutting the finish
You are diving under before the pull is done. Misses are forward and the bar never gets high enough to be easy.
Finish tall, then move — you cannot pull under a bar you have not sent up.
Drills: Power snatch · Snatch pull · Hang snatch, above the knee · High-hang power snatch · Snatch high pull
Jumping forward
Your feet travel and you finish a foot in front of where you started. The bar is always slightly out front.
Push the floor straight down — weight through the middle of the foot, not the toes.
Drills: Snatch deadlift · Snatch from blocks (knee height) · Hang snatch, below the knee · No-foot squat snatch · No-foot power snatch
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.
Drills: Snatch balance · Drop snatch · Overhead squat · Tall squat snatch · Power snatch + overhead squat
Slow under the bar
There is a pause at the top of the pull. The bar hangs, then you get under it, and by then it is falling.
Elbows around and punch — the fastest part of the lift is after the bar stops going up.
Drills: Tall snatch · Drop snatch · Muscle snatch · High-hang squat snatch
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.
Drills: Snatch balance · Drop snatch · Sots press
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.
Drills: Overhead squat · Sots press · Snatch balance · Paused overhead squat · Overhead hold in the squat
Ripping it off the floor
It is fast to the knee and then nothing is left. The chest comes up first and the bar chases it.
Same speed to the knee, then explode — the floor is setup, not the lift.
Drills: Snatch deadlift · Hang snatch, below the knee · Snatch from blocks (knee height) · Paused snatch pull · Halting snatch deadlift
Why the cues are all positive
Every cue here is something to do, never something to avoid. "Brush the hip" works where "don't let the bar swing out" does not — under a heavy bar there is no time to translate a negative into an action, and the thing you were told not to do is the last thing in your head as you pull.