CrossFit Athletic Group

Yesterday we did a max effort split jerk for the first time in forever. The main thing I was noticing was the disconnect on the timing between the unweight and the lunge, which is going to happen when you haven't done them in forever. I assumed there would be a translation from the cleans you guys have been doing - which are looking very good as a whole re: timing - but I didn't take into account that the fear component is multiplied because the weight is over our heads.

As I wrote about in the workout post, Conor and Mr. Carey were two of the crew that stayed extra to work on their technique. They both ended up getting 2/4 reps with good timing. Here's what their bad ones looked like:

From my viewpoint, it comes down to points of support. To be good at Olympic lifts, you have to remove all points of support completely (feet, shoulders, and hands). Call that triple extension, the second pull, or whatever. We call it unweighting because that's what it is: you are removing your bodyweight. Conor never removed the support from his hands or his shoulders, and this is evident because if he did, he wouldn't be able to push the bar upwards like he did (yellow arrow for reference). He does a great job to unweight the feet, and allows the bar raise up by his face, but his next direction needs to be down. Conor is afraid to fall, plain and simple, and this also shows up in his running.

Mr. Carey is trying to fall. Trying so hard, in fact, that he starts splitting his feet almost immediately after the bar leaves his shoulder (line and circle). If he waited even as long as Conor, then this would look better. But he doesn't want to because that would mean completely removing all support, which, in his words, "is really scary".

Is this picky? Yep. Sure is.

This guy below is Chad Vaughn. This video was taken a few years ago if I recall correctly, but it was just reposted on the CrossFit social media feed and Pat pointed it out to me. The timing on this is very good:

A post shared by CrossFit (@crossfit) on Nov 8, 2017 at 9:43am PST

Here is another good example from 2015. The movement is a push jerk, with is a lot tougher from a mobility perspective, but the principles are exactly the same.

Will somebody please bring Jennifer back in here! Volleyball is over!