United Kingdom Kettlebell Union

Top 10 Tips to Improve your Snatch for long cycle Kettlebell Lifting

When doing Kettlebell Snatches for the first time most people tend to get sore forearms and sore hands. This is because that they are inexperienced and try to muscle the bell overhead with improper technique. But through repetition, proper practice and coaching from a qualified and experienced Kettlebell coach your blisters will soon disappear as your technique becomes more proficient. So how do I avoid getting blisters and sore hands when snatching?

Firstly ensure you get a qualified Kettlebell coach to look at your form.
This will help you understand where you are going wrong. For most people they tend to learn from You Tube or a Kettlebell DVD, and they muscle the bell overhead and go out hard as if they were sprinting a 100m dash. Do this over and over again you will soon consume a lot of ATP and burn yourself out! Believe me when I first started doing snatches about 3 years ago, I tore up both my hands due to using a very aggressive technique- and you know what?? I lost about 3 weeks training time because I ripped up my hands. It’s not tough and it’s not clever!

So before you start inflicting pain think about your technique first!

The ‘Hard Style’ Kettlebell Training way will force you to burn yourself out and you won’t last very long. So think of a ‘marathon runner’ and train like a marathon runner and remember to be efficient.

So how do you become efficient?

Ok as the Snatch uses the whole kinetic chain to execute the lift, then you need to be excellent at every component of the snatch.

Yes you should be excellent, to make yourself efficient to avoid burning yourself out and getting injured.

So bare these simple rules when snatching:-

1.Develop a powerful hip snap. Use a very heavy Kettlebell that you can swing with perfect form over 10 times. Maybe use this as a strength day. Do 10 x 10 sets with 30 seconds recovery. This will condition your hip thrust and enable you to gain maximum power from the legs, core and hips when snatching.

2.Strengthen your core by doing Turkish Get Ups, Windmills and Slingshots. Yes you can do these exercises back to back to develop core strength.

3.Improve your Grip Strength by using grippers, doing Bottoms Up Cleans, Bottoms Up Presses Hot Potatoe or Farmers Walks. Train your grip at least 1 x a week; this will help you get strong forearms and grip for the Snatch.

4.Condition your aerobic fitness by training for TIME not ripped hands! So maybe do a 6-10 minute snatch test at least once a week using a light weight. For guys use a 12/16/20kg and girls use 8kg/12kg and do 10 minutes of snatches but with alternate arms, changing after every minute. Don’t count reps. Aim for time, that way your strength endurance will improve and it will teach you to slow down and be more efficient.

5.Practice a maximum snatch test 1 x a week without alternating arms on a weight that you feel comfortable with. Ensure you have excellent form.

So what is excellent form?

Well as there are 3 components to the snatch, The POP, The PULL and The Punch, train these 3 different moves on their own.

The pop being one arm swings. So when doing one arm swings use the index finger and thumb and grip the Kettlebell on the knuckle of the bell.

Then The Pull is the second part of the Snatch where you are doing a HIGH PULL.

The third part of the snatch is the ‘Punch’ known as the ‘Military Press’.

So maybe do 5 sets of 5-10 reps of these 3 components 1 day a week as well.

6.Remember to ‘wrap’ the bell around your hand using a ‘corkscrew technique’ in the lockout phase of the Snatch. (This is where you are holding and wrap the bell around your hand and hold the bell overhead position). What you should do is to use a slight flick of the wrist to ensure the Kettlebell travels outward wrapping around the wrist without any impact to your forearm. It’s a much more efficient way to perform the Snatch and gets you moving like a marathon runner-getting more reps in without overloading your body and your flexors and extensors in your forearms!

But inexperienced Snatch enthusiasts will usually use the flip method, with a slight pull to decelerate the bell onto the top of the forearm- eventually banging and bruising their forearm. This is not good when doing high reps as you will fatigue very quickly and get a nice purple lump on your arm and it will you’re your recovery put a set back to your training time.

7. Avoid pinching of skin between the handle and palm. When the Kettlebell is in the downward phase some people pinch their hand and eventually ripping their hands up. This can be avoided with a technique called the ‘OK GRIP’.
The ‘OK GRIP’ is achieved by holding the Kettlebell handle by the knuckle- using the index finger and thumb.

When the Kettlebell is over head in the ‘Press Position’ it is given a little momentum upwards and the Kettlebell moves away from the body. It is then possible with proper timing and good judgment to rotate the handle using the ‘OK’ grip. The Kettlebell is then cushioned and lands comfortably with thumb pointing back ready for the next Snatch. This method again allows for more reps by not pinching the skin and aggravating any blisters that may be present.

7.Protect your Hands. Use Red Indian Oil/ hand cream to keep you hands supple.

8.Soak your hands in warm water for 10 minutes 2 x a day.

9.Try to use climbing chalk to allow the sweat to be absorbed and so that the bell can glide through your hand.

10.Practice Safely. Ripped up hands east into your precious training time!

To Your Success!

Jamie Lloyd
Kettlebell and Strength Coach
http://www.russiankettlbellsuk.com
http://www.jlpersonaltraining.com
http://www.russiankettlebellsuk.ning.com