A snatch session for a weak overhead
Your ceiling is overhead. The bar is not the problem — holding it is.
Today is about owning the bar overhead. Every rep pauses one second in the bottom — if it drifts, the set is over.
The session, in percent of your snatch
| Block | Drill | Reps | % of snatch | Why it is there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warm-up | Warm-up to overhead squat | a ladder | up to 92.4% | Empty bar upwards. Not optional, and not the place to save four minutes. The empty bar first, then the rungs coaches commonly call out, stopping below the main lift's working percentage. |
| Primer | Sots press | sets of 3 | 19.5% | Press it out from the bottom of a squat. Deeply unglamorous, extremely effective, do it with an empty bar first. |
| Main lift | Overhead squat | singles | 92.4% | The ceiling on your snatch, sitting in plain sight. You cannot catch what you cannot hold. |
| Accessory | Snatch balance | sets of 3 | 80% | Bar on the back, dip, drive, and ride it into the bottom. The fastest way to stop being frightened of the hole. |
The percentage is of your squat snatch, not of the drill: each drill's working weight is a share of its own usual band against your snatch. These intensities are conventional coaching margins, reasoned from practice and not fitted to anybody's data — a starting point, and the bar in front of you is the authority. How many sets each block gets depends on the minutes you have, which is what the calculator below is for.
Load it for your max and your minutes
Type your snatch and the session is loaded in plates. It runs in this tab — nothing is sent anywhere.
When you are short on time
The session is cut to the minutes you have, never stretched past them. When it does not fit, the accessory (Snatch balance) goes first, then the primer (Sots press). A block that cannot get two working sets is dropped rather than done once, because one set of anything is a gesture. The warm-up and the main lift, Overhead squat, are never dropped: a session with no warm-up is how people get hurt, and a session with no heavy lift is not why anybody came. Whatever is cut, the session says so.
Is this yours?
Two numbers will tell you. The ratios that point here when they are out of their band:
- Overhead squat to snatch ratio · 1.05–1.35
What usually sits behind it, from the inside:
- 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.
- Wobbly overhead
The bar drifts forward in the bottom, or you fight it for a second before standing. Heavy singles get lost in front.
Or tell the planner your snatch and the lifts you already know, and it names the one actually capping your squat snatch and writes its session. A lift you have not tested is left out rather than guessed. There is nothing to sign into.
Read all my numbers in the planner →
Film the main lift
The camera's read is written for the squat snatch, so film one of those and it reads it for the faults on this page, in this browser tab — the video never leaves your device. Anything it says about the bar is the path of your wrists: the detector sees hands, not a barbell. A set of the main lift can be recorded too, and it counts as proof of work on your week.
Film a squat snatch and the camera reads it → · Record a set of the main lift →