Power Clean and Snatch

Q: What’s the deal with rising on your toes during the power clean? I hear that the best way to perform a power snatch or power clean is to stay flat-footed.

A: You’d think that by now the weightlifting world would have figured out how to lift, but controversy surrounds the idea of rising up on your toes as you perform cleans or snatch movements. Last year I attended a seminar featuring Michael Vater, an assistant national coach for weightlifting in Germany. He showed us very detailed analyses of the technique of world-record-holding German lifters. Guess what? They get on their toes.

Editor’s note: Charles Poliquin is recognized as one of the world’s most suc-cessful strength coaches, having coached Olympic med-alists in 12 different sports, including the U.S. women’s track-and-field team for the 2000 Olympics. He’s spent years researching European journals (he’s fluent in English, French and German) and speaking with other coaches and scientists in his quest to optimize training methods. For more on his books, seminars and methods, visit www.CharlesPoliquin.net.  IM