Olympic-weightlifting coach Mike Burgener says the three snatch positions are the high hang, mid-thigh and floor.
While the weight is somewhat balanced in the foot in the start position, the weight moves back toward the heels very quickly after the bar breaks the ground.
“The knees start everything, and the weight, in my opinion, should be 55 (percent), 45 (percent) and then shifted back immediately once the bar is lifted,” he explains. “By shifting back, that forces me to stay back.”
Moving the knees out and back off the floor and bringing the bar with them is key, Burgener emphasizes.
“As I’m pulling that bar, as it’s coming up, I gotta sweep it back,” he says. “Otherwise, if I don’t sweep it back, look at my arms—they’re automatically gonna hang here, and that’s automatically gonna pull me forward.”
In the first position—the high hang—the objective is “to learn to go down and up and shrug, finish under the bar,” Burgener says. In the second position—mid-thigh—it’s to “shrug your body right into the overhead squat.”
The third position stresses the importance of the previous two.
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Additional reading: Fix the Feet by Bob Takano, published April 4, 2012.