Ask a Dude on the Internet: Fixing the Snatch Drop

Fixing the what??? Seriously, this isn’t that kind of site, you sick freak.

Here’s a question I received from a distance coaching client:

With KB snatches, is there an ideal way to get this back down from the overhead position? I find either I rub away half the skin on the palm of my hand as the handle rotates through, or the bell goes into freefall and jolts a little at the bottom, also less than ideal – which makes me back off the weight rather than trying to beast it.

You see? It’s not at all what you thought when you clicked on the title now, is it?

With the lowering phase of the kettlebell snatch, the lowering portion is one that can cause a lot of trouble for people in terms of keeping the shoulder in position while the weight starts to pick up speed starts to come to the end of the arms ability to control it. If the bell lowers in an arc that’s a bit too far from the body, it can jerk the shoulder and pull you forwards and off balance, which could mean you eating rubber flooring and making a whole scene in the middle of the gym.

This expanded arc usually results from someone flipping the weight over their wrist to enter into the lowering phase, which is a common fault a lot of people tend to make.

Here’s what a good swing sequence should look like:

Here’s what a trainwreck of a snatch looks like:

I wanted to show a simple technique I use when coaching clients to help them lower the weight without flipping the bell over their wrist and causing the arc to expand and throw them off balance.

Note: I filmed the video on my iPad without an external mic, so turn the volume up to hear everything.

So give this wrist rotation a try the next time you’re doing some snatch work in your workouts and see what kind of a difference it makes in your lowering phase.