Starting Strength, 3rd Edition - Mark Rippetoe [128]
Jerking the bar off the floor is a common problem for people not using this method of learning the power clean. From the starting position, many people bend their elbows a little and then jerk the slack out of their arms in an attempt to get the bar moving rapidly as it leaves the floor. This jerk is often accompanied by a passive knee extension and a shift to a horizontal back angle. This error must be identified and dealt with the first time it happens. Pay close attention to the sounds you hear as you start the pull: if the plates and bar rattle, you have jerked it. Several things work to fix this. Think about “squeezing” the bar off the floor. Or think about “long straight arms.” Or just “slow off the floor.”
Figure 6-26. Preparing to squeeze the bar off of the floor (A) versus preparing to jerk the bar off of the floor (B). The bent elbows and incorrect back angle ruin the pulling mechanics, and the jerk that follows as the slack comes out of the elbows worsens the situation (C).
Make sure that your eyes are looking forward enough and not straight down, since eyes-down is often associated with hips-up. The correct eye gaze direction – 12–15 feet ahead on the floor – makes a correct floor pull much easier. Your perception of back angle is affected by the positional feedback you get from the stationary reference point you are staring at on the floor ahead of you. This eye-gaze point on the floor gives you real-time “telemetry” info that makes balancing much easier. Many poorly positioned starts have been corrected quickly and easily by a cue about the eyes.
Through the middle
The part of the pull that encompasses the transition from the basic floor pull – essentially a deadlift – into the actual clean part of the power clean has the potential to cause the most form problems. Errors that start on the floor get magnified in this range, and there is plenty of potential here to start brand new ones. Let’s examine some general principles of force transmission and see how they apply to the power clean.
It has been mentioned several times, to the extent that you’re probably sick of hearing it, that the elbows must stay straight until the jump occurs. The earlier advice to internally rotate the arms as a reminder to keep them straight was given for this reason. You should know not to bend the arms early, since you have learned this in the deadlift, and the lower part of the power clean is a deadlift. So another reminder: the function of the arms is to transmit the pulling power generated by the hips and legs to the bar. Power is transmitted most efficiently down a non-elastic medium, like a chain, as opposed to a medium that stretches, like a spring. A chain transmits all the power from one end to the other, while a spring absorbs some of the force as it stretches.
Figure 6-27. Bent elbows just absolutely suck. They are one of the most persistent, hardest to correct, and most detrimental of bad habits that a lifter can acquire. Make it a priority to learn and keep perfectly straight elbows.
When the bar is pulled from the floor with bent arms, the bent elbow is essentially a deformable component, a thing that can straighten out, thus creating the potential for some of the pulling force to be diverted from the bar. Little variances in the degree of elbow bend result in a slightly variable amount of force transfer to the bar and in an unpredictable bar path. The best clean is a highly reproducible clean – exactly the same each time, with each rep a perfect example of lifting efficiency. If the bar path varies with each clean, bent elbows are often the problem. And once elbows