Starting Strength, 3rd Edition - Mark Rippetoe [141]
Figure 6-52. The hang position.
The internally rotated elbows are important. They are your reminder to keep your arms perfectly straight during the pull. When you set your grip, set your arms into position by rotating them the way you would if you were standing with your palms facing the floor, and then pointing your thumbs down at the ground. Later, when you rack the bar at the top, the racking motion will involve rotating the arms externally, the opposite direction. This rotation provides much of the “snap” that is characteristic of racking a snatch.
The next position is the rack position. The snatch racks overhead, just like the top position of the press but with a wider grip. The bar is in balance when it is directly over the shoulder joints, since that is the point at which no moment arm exists between the load and the point of rotation. The rack position has nothing to do with your head or your neck, especially considering the fact that your neck can move around quite a bit under the racked bar. In this position, the bar, the shoulder, and the mid-foot will be vertically aligned, something that is very important when the weight gets heavy.
Figure 6-53. The rack position in the power snatch. The bar is supported overhead by the shrugged traps, which support the scapulas and thus the arms.
Get the bar in position over your head with your snatch grip any way you have to, and don’t let go of your hook. Your arms must be perfectly straight. They will go from internally rotated in the hang position, to externally rotated overhead. If you point the palms of your hands directly at the ceiling, you will produce this position. Holding onto the hook prevents the bar from rolling back into the fingers to make a long moment arm between the bar and the wrists. Some leverage is inevitable, but the hook keeps it from getting excessive.
Figure 6-54. The correct grip (A) will hold the hook in place with the palm of the hand facing up. Attempting to hold the bar in the web of the thumb (B) prevents the load from being correctly supported by the arms and places the elbows in a potentially dangerous internally rotated position.
After the bar is in position overhead, make sure it is in balance over the shoulder joints. Push the bar back a little to feel the posterior extent of your balance; then bring it forward until you feel the weight start to pull the bar forward. The balance point is right in the middle, where the rotation force on the shoulders is neutral. For most people, this position will be a little behind where they think it should be, especially if they have been told to keep the bar over the top of their head. During this process, the elbows remain perfectly straight.
Figure 6-55. The bar in balance overhead will be vertically aligned with the glenohumeral joint. Any distance forward or behind this point will be a moment arm that will have to be handled.
Once the balance point has been identified, the final part of the rack position is added. Shrug your shoulders up, like you are reaching for the ceiling with the palms of your hands. Shrugging the traps in the rack position recognizes their anatomical role as the main supporters of the scapulas, and thus the bar. Think of it as though the delts and triceps are holding the arms straight and the traps are holding the bar up. The shrug also allows the rack position to be met with a solid base of upper-body support; instead of just holding up the bar with your arms, you’ll be supporting it with the strongest muscles in your upper back. Remember that your palms are pointing at the ceiling, your elbows are perfectly straight, and your eyes are looking forward and slightly down.
Lowering the bar from the rack position correctly at first is an important way to teach yourself more about the bar path in the snatch, starting from the very beginning. Just