Set up for a Squat Clean

• Begin with your heels hip width apart.
• Bar is on the ground and hands are in a hook grip just outside of your shins.
• Shoulders are at or just over the bar.
• Back is flat and tight.
• Chest is up.
• Core is tight.
• Weight is in balls of feet.

Points of Performance for a Squat Clean

• Push your knees back as you stand the bar up from the ground, keeping the hips and shoulders rising at the same rate.
• From the mid thigh, pull the bar into the body and aggressively jump, extending the hips, knees, and ankles (triple extension).
• With a big shrug of the shoulders, elbows come high and outside the bar then back around while pulling yourself under to receive the weight.
• Receive the bar in a full front squat so that it rests on the shoulders with the elbows up.
• The bottom of the squat is with the crease of the hip below the knee.
• Drive through the heels back to a standing position.
• The clean is completed when the knees and hips are fully locked out and open at the top.

Tips and Tricks

• Think about driving through your heels.
• Speed under the bar is the key.
• The power from this lift is initiated in the hips.
  • Think about 2 speeds; slow and controlled off the ground, and explosive from the top of the knees to the hips.
• One continuous pull from the ground to shoulders.
  • Stopping or hesitating at any point in the lift is only going to stunt the momentum created from the floor.
• Pull with long arms.
  • An early arm bend will only dampen momentum created from the floor.