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removed from the lift, since their job of extending the knees has already been done before the bar leaves the floor. If the knees extend before the bar moves, the quads contribute nothing to the first part of the lift. Again, a starting position problem contributes to problems higher in the pull. The back is nearly parallel to the floor, and this position places the shoulders out in front of the bar. When the bar leaves the floor, it swings forward to get in position under the scapulas, leaving it forward of the mid-foot. If the pull is rescued from this mistake, then when the bar gets to the jumping position, the knees are still too straight and the back angle too horizontal for the lifter to jump efficiently, because jumping requires a balance between knee extension and hip extension that produces a vertical bar path. If the lifter’s back is too horizontal, then as the hip angle opens, the bar swings away from the body, in a “loop,” a classic error in which the bar goes out instead of up. This is just one way to loop the pull in a clean or snatch. Catching a looped clean requires jumping forward, which obviously kills your pulling efficiency. You can easily correct the problem by adjusting your starting position: lower your hips, squeeze your chest up, and keep the bar against your shins as you pull.

Figure 6-25. A simple correction for a too-forward starting position (A) is getting your weight back over your mid-foot by shifting the weight back off the forefoot and toes (B).

The point here is that a vertical bar path off the floor reduces the amount of variation in the bar path higher up in the clean. Using a start position that produces a vertical bar path off the floor every time makes for a more easily reproducible pull at the top, because the bar enters the second pull from a position of balance over the mid-foot every time. The correct starting position reduces errors and allows the lifter to focus on explosion instead of on bar path and technique problems, as well as making the pull more mechanically efficient.

These examples represent the extreme variations in starting errors, and define a gradient that will be observed throughout people of differing anthropometry, skill, and talent. Most starting position errors will lie somewhere along this continuum. It is very difficult for the lifter himself to detect the subtle variations in starting position by feel. Even elite weightlifters experience “form creep,” in which a good starting position erodes into a bad one over several workouts. The use of a video camera (if one is available), so you can see the relevant angles, or the eyes of an experienced coach are extremely helpful for holding your clean technique together.

These next comments are possibly the most important to understand in the whole discussion of the pull from the floor. Remember from the last part of the teaching method that the bar accelerates from the bottom to the top, getting faster as it gets higher. This means that the bar starts off the floor slow and gets faster as it comes up. The entire purpose of the lower half of the pull, the deadlift part, is to deliver the bar into the jumping position so that it can be accelerated. It is far more important for the pull from the floor to be correct than for it to be fast, especially at first. Remember this: the bar must be pulled correctly at the bottom and fast at the top. Pull the bar slowly and correctly off the floor, then fast and close at the top. The off-the-floor errors mentioned above usually occur when you get in a hurry and either rush through your start position or get impatient and jerk the bar off the floor. If you jerk the bar off the floor, you jerk yourself out of position. If you’re out of position, you can’t hit the jump. So squeeze the bar off the floor. The bar always leaves the floor more slowly than it moves up the shins and past the knees.

Any position error that is caused by being in a hurry off the floor will be magnified on the way up, as described earlier. Since the movement is so fast, there is no time to correct