In this video, I teach a complete beginner the kettlebell snatch. It’s absolutely not recommended for anyone to start snatching before they have mastered the swing, clean, and racking. In this case, I was in a situation where a complete beginner was going to join in on our workout and I had a total of 20 minutes to run him through some things and assess him. He was a quick learner, so, assessing him and teaching some things about the snatch did no harm, I did end up suggesting the clean and press as an alternative for him in the actual workout.
Prior to this, I covered the clean with him so that he was familiar with the grip transition that happens in the snatch.
A quick summary of what I cover with the subject in the video:
- Single-arm swing
- The path of travel
- Don’t power the swing with the shoulders
- How to spot a shoulder powered swing
- The difference between a hip hinge and squat
- A squat for the swing is not bad if one knows the hip hinge
- Hand insertion
- Posture
- Initial set-up
- An alternative/progression for the half snatch
- What to do with the non-working arm
- Break it down and reset on each rep
- Don’t finish the movement if there is no power behind it
When there is a limited amount of time to teach, one can’t keep hammering on a point, so, some of the points that were repeated but not executed:
- Squatting instead of hip hinging
- Coming too low with the kettlebell
- Not enough power
- Posture
- Finishing the movement without power behind it
