How it reads your numbers

Power snatch to snatch ratio

Your power snatch divided by your squat snatch. A technically sound lifter usually sits between 0.78 and 0.88. Type yours and it does the division.

The healthy band: 0.78–0.88

It is a conventional weightlifting benchmark. It describes a technically sound lifter, it is not a law, and a lifter can sit outside it and be fine — so what follows is the thing worth looking at next, never a diagnosis. The band is reasoned from coaching practice, not measured here.

It is only as good as the numbers you feed it, too. A power snatch from two years ago against a fresh squat snatch gives a confident, wrong answer.

Below the band (under 0.78)

Your power snatch is a long way behind your squat snatch, which points at how fast you get from the finish of the pull to a locked-out bar.

You are slow under the bar. The pull is fine; the turnover is not. The session for it →

What usually sits behind that, and the drill to start with for each:

• 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.

  Start with Snatch pull

• 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.

  Start with Tall 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.

  Start with Snatch balance

Above the band (over 0.88)

Your power snatch is nearly your squat snatch, so the squat is buying you almost nothing. You are catching high and standing up rather than receiving in the bottom.

You are catching high. There are free kilos in the bottom of the squat. The session for it →

What usually sits behind that, and the drill to start with for each:

• Catching high

  You receive it standing and then squat it, or you power snatch everything and only squat when it is truly heavy.

  Start with Snatch balance

• 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.

  Start with Tall snatch

One ratio is one data point

A single ratio cannot tell you which limiter is yours when two of them are out at once. The planner weighs all four against each other — the overhead ratio counts double, because a lifter who cannot hold the bar overhead also catches high — names the one actually capping your snatch, and writes a session that fits the time you have. A lift you have not tested is left out rather than guessed. There is nothing to sign into.

Open the planner with these numbers, and add the rest →

Your numbers ride along in the link and fill in the form — nothing is sent anywhere until you ask the planner for a session. How the four ratios are weighed →

Wondering how your snatch compares with lifters of other bodyweights instead? That is a different question, and the Sinclair calculator answers it.

The other ratios

• Overhead squat to snatch ratio · 1.05–1.35
• Snatch to back squat ratio · 0.58–0.68
• Snatch to clean and jerk ratio · 0.76–0.84