A little rant

A teaching method always needs to be flexible to benefit the lifter.  It’s a mistake to follow one rigid model of progression. Or, even worse, to have a coach-centric approach, where you talk in pseudo-scientific slang and mention names of famous lifters, to make you feel important.

The most popular way of correcting mistakes these days seems to be stopping  dead, and having conversation about staying over the bar or activating shoulders (nobody knows what that means anyway, especially not beginners.) Anybody can teach in theory, but to get a real person to actually snatch correctly in a 3-dimentional world, in real time is a challenge.

Get Your Easy Steps

Watch 1-minute video for the 5 easy steps  that I promised. Most ideas here are borrowed (surprise, surprise) from Chinese Weightlifting coaches.

1. Extend knees and hips together, feel glutes engaging at end
2. Go on ball of foot, you don't have to go as high as possible
3. Shrug, arms still straight and relaxed, elbows pointing sideways
4. Elbows straight up and high, make sure chest is still open
5. Shuffle feet sideways (don't pick them up, don't jump) and go down

You can practice at home in front of the mirror, only 5th step you have to do fast, others can be slow.

So, what's the big deal?

Not difficult, right? Steps are easy? And no Chinese Weightlifting Secret Training Methods, either? I'm not trying to be cute in the video, there's one job to do: get them into correct positions.  Holding start at knee looks alright, because we already did a few minutes of adjustements there.

The girl far away is trying weightlifting for the very 1st time, girl in the middle snatches 2nd time, and the closest girl maybe 3rd or 4th time (she trained some squats and deadlifts before, so she's the strongest). Their snatches are pretty decent, who cares that they are slow? You can always add some speed later.

How can I be a better coach?

To learn hands on coaching you need to:

• actually coach more and more people, there's no fucking substitute for that
• if you have a "real" job outside weightlifting, volunteer to coach new employees, doesn't matter what it's about
• observe many developmental coaches in action (easiest place to find them is China)
• don't be afraid to point out mistakes, let lifters quit and go home if they have an ego
• if they can't put it together, let them take a break, or do a fun exercise if they're kids
• if you not sure what the mistake is, or don't know how to fix it - don't say or do anything unless it looks dangerous; record a video for later
• and of course sign up for my free newsletter

Some extra notes

Not sure if you realize, but they're all in front of a mirror, so they can actually see what they’re doing.  They’re little tired, perhaps my style of coaching makes them nervous (it is a little physical.) Their time and space coordination is probably a little off, mirror helps them see the movement in case they cannot feel it.

When you have 3 new people to teach, it's different than 1 on 1. I adjust 1 lifter at the time, but I can see other 2 in the mirror. Crowd controlling technique. I make all 3 lift at the same time, instead one after another, it just works better for me.

When whole internet tells you about rate of force development and "speed kills" - go against it when training beginners. It's ok to teach slow, and hold positions for long time.

Not much talking, please. When lifting or about to lift, athletes can't process your verbal instructions very well,  and they don't understand weightlifting jargon. Just put beginners physically into the right positions. That's the method preferred in Chinese Weightlifting. USAW Manual touches upon this method, but unfortunately the Coaching Course Senior Instructors don't follow through in their actual teachings, they offer only verbal advice  (I have reports from several disappointed USAW Level I and II attendees.)

Using a stick with 3 examples

Use stick mainly as a reminder. For example, once you taught and reinforced opening chest (kids wouldn't understand what activating lats, or pulling scapula together mean), you can gently remind them with a stick tap to upper back.

Of course, you can use the same stick to demonstrate correct movement at any time. Watch Coach Lin  (coach of Kuo Hsing-Chun) in action.

And 3rd example: