Starting Strength, 3rd Edition - Mark Rippetoe [140]
The power snatch uses essentially the same teaching method as the power clean, and it takes about the same amount of time to learn. Again, we learn the movement from the top down, perfecting the jump and the catch in the rack position, and then tacking the deadlift onto the front of the movement off the floor.
So, we’ll start the same way, with the empty bar in the hands at the top of the pull. This will be the hang position, just as in the clean. The hang position will be the default position for holding the bar between reps while you’re learning to perform the movement. Again, a PVC pipe or a broomstick is too light to learn to pull anything with, and you need to have the right equipment if you want to lift weights. Women really should consider the smaller-diameter 15 kg bar if snatching is in the program; their usually smaller hands have a hard enough time making a grip at the angle at which they meet the bar in a snatch. For men, any 20 kg bar will do for right now. It is true that Olympic weightlifting bars are better for the snatch and the clean and jerk at heavy weights, but for novices learning the movement, most any bar will work well enough.
The snatch grip has been described by many authors as being derived from some percentage of arm length, with measurements taken and the bar marked. The reality of the situation is that everybody will adjust the grip to a position that works for them, no matter how much precision was used in originally determining the grip. And what works will be determined by where the bar strikes you as you jump. If your grip is too narrow, you lose the advantage of using a wide grip (duh), and if it’s too wide, you hit yourself in the hip pointers. So the optimal grip will place the bar somewhere between the anterior superior iliac spine (ASIS) and the pubis for everybody (Figure 6-50).
Figure 6-50. Grip width places the bar above the pubis and below the ASIS (the hip pointer).
The best way to set the grip is to stand up with the bar and slide your hands out wide (and obviously overhand) to a point near the sleeves where the bar rests against your lower belly, just below your hip pointers and just above your pubis. This placement gives you a range of a couple of inches on your belly, and about an inch either way at the hands. When in doubt, go wider, since the point is to shorten the bar travel. After setting your grip, refer to the bar markings and spot your position so that you can duplicate it quickly and precisely every time.
Figure 6-51. The grip at the proper width will leave the hand at an angle that minimizes the contact between the ring and little fingers and the bar. The hook is the primary holding mechanism in the snatch.
Go ahead and use the hook grip you learned earlier in the clean. This grip width will result in a rather acutely angled hand position on the bar, so that the thumb, index finger, and middle fingers do most of the gripping, with little contribution from the ring finger and little finger. This angle makes the use of the hook grip more important for the snatch because fewer fingers must do most of the work of holding the bar. You already know how to make the hook from doing it for the clean, so you should not have a problem adding it now. Chalk is important, too, and any gym that lets you snatch shouldn’t have too big a problem with a little judiciously applied MgCO3.
Once your grip is set, note the position of the bar against your belly. It should be in contact with the skin when you are standing erect, with chest up, elbows straight and internally rotated, knees and hips extended, and eyes looking forward and slightly down at the same point 15 feet away