Starting Strength

internal rotation and screaming at yourself “Elbows straight!” and maintain your pulling speed until you “trip the trigger” at the jumping position. Be sure to WAIT until the bar touches the jumping position to jump.
     

    Figure 6-15. If you hit the jumping position correctly, the bar rises in an efficient vertical path. If you are impatient and fail to wait until the bar gets up to the jumping position, i.e. if you jump from too low on the thighs, the bar will travel forward. This occurs because the back angle has not become sufficiently vertical to allow the force of the jump to be directed vertically.

    After you do this movement from just below the knees a few times, we’ll introduce the third step of the movement. From the hang position, lower the bar down past your knees to the mid-shin. This is the position the bar will occupy against your leg when the bar is on the floor and loaded with plates. Slide the bar down the same way as before, by shoving your hips back and your shoulders forward, keeping the bar against your thighs, and now against your shins as well, all the way down. As the bar passes your knees, let them bend a little to drop you into what is actually the starting position of the deadlift. Make sure the bar is low enough, actually in the position it will be in with plates on the bar – the tendency here is to fail to get low enough. From there, slowly drag the bar up the shins, past the knees, to the jumping position, and then jump and catch the bar in the rack position. Don’t try to pull the bar from the bottom up the legs any faster than a slow deadlift right now – there will be time for that later. Right now, concentrate on keeping straight elbows and waiting until the bar gets to the jumping position. The instant the bar touches the jumping position, the jump is triggered, and not before.

    Figure 6-16. Eye gaze direction should be precisely controlled. It facilitates balance and a safe position for the cervical vertebrae during the pull.

    This phase of the pull is where impatience rears its ugly head. Most people will be anxious to clean the bar, and one of two things will happen: the bar speed will increase beyond a manageable speed; or the jump will happen too early – that is, it will happen too low on the thighs, before the jumping position is actually reached. If the bar is moving too fast at this stage in the learning process, bar path problems will arise. It will be hard to keep the bar in contact with the legs, and therefore in balance over the mid-foot. Move the bar slowly now so that you can correctly move it fast later. And if the jump occurs too early, the bar will travel forward instead of straight up. This error will cause you to jump forward as you catch the bar in the rack position; your feet will move forward instead of staying in their same horizontal position. Since jumping forward is inefficient, don’t pull early. Wait patiently until the bar touches the jumping position and then explode into the clean. Incorrect eye gaze direction can contribute to problems here, so check it repeatedly. Do a few reps from this depth with the empty bar.
    Adding weight to the bar
     
    When the movement is correct from the jumping position, from below the knees, and from the mid-shin, you’re ready for the next phase of the teaching method. Load the bar with regulation-diameter plates that are light enough to clean from the top – not so heavy that there is any problem with the weight at all, but heavy enough that the bar is perceptibly loaded. For most guys in a well-equipped gym, this will be the bar and 10 kg bumper plates. Kids and women will need lighter plastic training plates. You will now repeat the learning sequence from the top down. Deadlift the bar to the hang position, drop down to the jumping position, and jump and catch the bar in the rack position. At this point, you will see the whole purpose of this exercise: the bar is now heavier, so what do you have to do? You jump harder. This is why we clean.
    After you clean the bar from the jumping position, drop down to below the kneecaps and clean it from there. Again, the bar never leaves the skin during the slide down and back up, and it leaves the thighs as it touches the jumping position, not one centimeter or tenth of a second sooner, and with no hesitation when it gets there. After this, drop down and touch the floor with the plates and immediately start back up the shins to the jumping position without