Starting Strength

warm-up sets. The bar should be slamming into the rack with light weights, and you should be visualizing the bar moving past your chest like a blur. This phase of the pull is where you will learn how explosive an athlete you can be. Proper focus on this acceleration teaches explosion that carries over into athletics. The barbell is a marvelous concentrator of focus because there are no other factors to distract your attention – no opponents to hit you, no ball to catch or hit, no field of play to deal with. There is only the bar and your ability to pull faster than you did last time, and thus to clean heavier weights.

    Figure 6-18. The power clean.

    A few notes on this teaching method
     
    Several things about this method make it an efficient way to quickly learn what is usually regarded as a complicated skill. It is possible to build into a teaching progression several movement details which – although usually regarded as necessary to enumerate and teach – can happen reflexively within the movement if they are embedded in the larger pattern. The shrug is usually coached in most power-clean teaching methods; notice that this is the first use of the word in this chapter. The shrug is a reflexive action that occurs as a result of jumping with the loaded bar in the hands. In an attempt to protect the shoulders from the load in the hands, which would otherwise pull the scapulas down as the body goes up, the traps fire into a concentric contraction. This shrug has been taking place since you started jumping with the bar, but it has demanded none of your attention. Later, you can focus on the shrug to help you rack very heavy weights, but right now, it’s already in the movement without your having to think about it. This method allows you to focus on developing the correct straight elbow position, jumping high, and keeping the bar close – the more important things for a novice learning the clean.
    Another movement considered important for an efficient clean is the “double knee bend” or the “second pull.” Figure 6-18 illustrates the sequence of the power clean. Note the knee position in the first five frames: as the knees extend in the initial pull from the floor, the shins become vertical, placing the knees back far enough to allow the bar to come up in its vertical path. After the bar clears the knees and as it slides up the thighs, the knees will come forward a little to a position under the bar as the hips extend. This motion puts the back in a more vertical position to facilitate the jump with the bar hanging from the arms. Then the jump occurs, and the knees and hips extend explosively. So the knees actually extend twice – once off the floor and again at the top during the jump – allowing the quadriceps to contribute twice to the upward movement of the bar. Olympic weightlifting coaches refer to this movement as the “second pull,” although “second push” (against the floor) might be more descriptive. This movement will occur as a natural physical consequence of your getting into the jumping position and of having the bar touch the thighs as you jump. When you heed the reminder to touch your thighs with the bar at the jumping position, you are re-bending your knees to do it. So instead of thinking about a sequence of events sometimes considered too complicated to even try to teach, you accomplished this double knee bend by merely touching your thighs with the bar. The more steps that are built into the method that require no conscious direction, the more time you have left to focus on the foundation of the movement – jumping and catching the bar.
     
    Correcting Problems
     
    The power clean is simply a deadlift that accelerates into a jump, after which the bar is caught on the shoulders. The things that make for a good deadlift must also occur in a correct pull from the floor. At the mid-thigh, the jump occurs, and for the barbell to fly up to the rack position with optimum efficiency, the bar path must be as vertical as possible and directly plumb to the balance point over the mid-foot. The elbows do not bend until after the jump has occurred. And since the whole purpose of the exercise is power production, the movement must be done explosively.
    Stance and grip
     
    Stance is chosen to maximize the force that can be applied to the floor, while the grip is chosen to maximize racking efficiency ( Figure 6-19 ). The stance should be the same as that used in the deadlift. Your feet