Starting Strength, 3rd Edition - Mark Rippetoe [124]
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 should be in the stance used for a flat-footed vertical jump, for the same reason. We are going to rapidly transfer force to the floor, and this stance, heels 8–12 inches apart, is the best for this purpose. Toes will be pointed out for the same reasons they were in the deadlift: femur and torso clearance and the involvement of more adductor and external rotator muscle mass. Some very tall individuals with wide hips and shoulders will need a stance wider than this, but not many and not much wider. If wider hips seem to make a much wider stance necessary, try using a wider toe angle first to see if it produces the needed accommodation. Too wide a stance dilutes the ability to jump, as is easily demonstrated by vertical jumps with different stance widths.
Figure 6-19. The stance and grip for the power clean.
The bar will be in position right over the middle of the foot, as in the deadlift. All major standing barbell exercises depend on this position for balance and for force transfer to the floor. Lining up the stance with the bar forward over the ball of the foot creates a situation that will have to be corrected after the bar leaves the floor, because the bar wants to ride the vertical line over the mid-foot. If the bar doesn’t leave the ground from this position, you will have to expend some energy to get it back there, or the bar will be forward of the balance point all the way up. And if it is forward on the way up, you will need a backward pull at the top to get the bar onto your shoulders. Most lifters who chronically pull with a backward curve in the bottom of the bar path cause this to occur by using a stance that is too far from the bar, or by dropping their hips and thus pushing the knees, shins, and bar forward. If the most efficient bar path is a straight vertical line, using a start position that enables this to happen close to the body makes for the most efficient pull. Keep the bar close and don’t drop your hips.
The hook grip is recommended for power cleans as soon as the movement is comfortable, as noted earlier. When using it, start with the warm-up sets and use it all the way up to the work sets to desensitize your thumbs to the pressure. Very heavy deadlifts – 800+ pounds – have been pulled with a hook grip, so power clean loads will not be a problem. Athletic tape may help if the discomfort is distracting or if many accumulated workouts tear up the skin of the thumbs.
People with longer forearms might need to use a wider grip because the proportions produced by a long forearm and a short humerus make a high elbow position impossible with a closer grip. The bar must rest on the shoulders in the rack position so that heavy weights can be used; if the forearms are too long, the bar will rest in the hands because the elbows cannot come up enough to let the bar down onto the deltoids (Figure 6-20). The only way to functionally alter these proportions is to widen the grip spacing to create a “shorter” forearm, in the same way that the snatch grip or the sumo stance shortens the functional length of their relevant segments. Some people with exceptionally weird proportions may find the clean impossible to rack. If this is the case, a lifetime of