A snatch session for catching high
You are catching high. There are free kilos in the bottom of the squat.
Catch everything in the bottom today, including the light ones. If you stand it up, it did not count.
The session, in percent of your snatch
| Block | Drill | Reps | % of snatch | Why it is there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warm-up | Warm-up to squat snatch | a ladder | up to 88% | 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 | Snatch balance | sets of 3 | 60% | Bar on the back, dip, drive, and ride it into the bottom. The fastest way to stop being frightened of the hole. |
| Main lift | Squat snatch | singles | 88% | The whole lift, floor to overhead, caught in the bottom. Everything else on this list exists to make this one heavier. |
| Accessory | Overhead squat | sets of 3 | 84% | The ceiling on your snatch, sitting in plain sight. You cannot catch what you cannot hold. |
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 (Overhead squat) goes first, then the primer (Snatch balance). 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, Squat snatch, 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:
- Power snatch to snatch ratio · 0.78–0.88
What usually sits behind it, from the inside:
- Catching high
You receive it standing and then squat it, or you power snatch everything and only squat when it is truly heavy.
- 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.
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
Film one squat snatch and the camera 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.
Film the main lift and the camera reads it →