I love teaching people how to power clean for a few different reasons. One I like to add it for exercise variance, two it has a high learning curve so there is always something to keep working on, it never gets old or boring. When I teach the power clean in particular to newbies, I notice a few common mistakes. The first one is on the pull off the ground, the second one is on the second pull, the last two are on the catch. I always tell newbies that there is no perfect weight for the clean, only too light or too heavy. We always want to be on the too light side due to the learning curve I mentioned above. Here are the four most common mistakes I see and how to correct them below.
The Mistakes
The butt flight- The hips and butt come up before the bar moves off the ground.
The bar flyer– The bar flies up above the head and crashes down to the shoulders. This is a mistake on the second pull.
The back cracker- This mistake occurs on the catch position. The athlete does not get under the bar properly and defaults to a leaned back position. This puts a lot of stress on the lower back.
The starfisher- This mistake occurs to help get under the bar. The athletes feet fly way out and puts a lot of stress on the inside of the knee.
The Corrections
The butt flight– Pull the bar closer to your shins, try and create more tension by pulling the slack out of the bar and think about your chest coming up first.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDggLvKPDWw
The bar flyer– Generally this means you are pulling the bar with your arms too high. Try and minimize pulling the bar up while flashing your elbows through faster.
Starfisher and back archer- This is a muscle memory mistake. Work with a lightweight and drill the proper hip and foot technique over and over. Too light over too heavy. After the hips open, you should drop into a squat position, the heavier the bar is the lower you go. The feet should never get wider than your squat position.
Bonus Content
A lot of highly regarded olympic lifting coaches teach their athletes to “stomp their feet” in the clean. A know a lot of athletes who do this have had success in olympic lifting. The reason I don’t like to teach this especially in newbie athletes is because the most important part of the oly lifts is to get the hips open and fully engaged. I’m not saying I am right and they are wrong, this is just my reasoning for not teaching it. I also teach all of my athletes when they jump to make a soft landing not to stomp.
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