The first pull takes the bar from the floor to just above your knees in the snatch and clean. You stand up with your legs while your back angle stays about the same, your shoulders stay over the bar and the bar stays close. Get here in the right position and the explosive second pull has something to work with; rush it and the bar drifts or hits your knees.
Break the floor
Start from your start position. Bar over the balls of your feet about 3 cm from your shins, shoulders over or just in front of the bar, arms long with elbows pointing out, back set flat and braced.
Push through the floor with your legs to break the bar off. Your knees and hips extend together. Treat it like a squat: hold onto the bar and stand up.
squatting the bar up, not yanking it.
As the bar leaves the floor, let your balance settle back from the balls of your feet to the whole foot. By the time the bar reaches your knees you want the whole foot loaded with only a very slight bias to the heel. Don't rock back onto your heels.
flat, planted feet.
Keep your back angle
Keep the angle of your torso to the floor about the same until the bar passes your knees. Your hips must not rise before, or faster than, your shoulders. Keep your back neutral the whole way.
chest and hips rising as one.
Expect a small change, and keep it small. Almost every lifter's back angle shifts a little here, and longer-legged lifters shift more. In one small study, lifters with a steadier trunk here tended to lift more for their bodyweight. Just off the floor your shoulders are over the bar, at the knee they are over it or very slightly in front, and by mid-thigh they are in front of it.
Don't pull your shoulders back or open your hips before the bar passes your knees. Opening early drags the bar back into your knees. Stay over the bar; the hips open in the next phase.
Keep it close
Let your knees move back by standing up. Don't shove them back. Keep them pushed out as they were in the start until the bar passes them, then let them come back to their natural position. Don't push them farther out during the pull.
Keep the bar as close to your shins as you can as it rises. It travels up and slightly back toward you; in a study of elite junior lifters it moved about 6 cm toward the lifter in this phase. Close, but not dragged hard into your legs.
the bar skimming up past your shins.
Keep your arms straight with the elbows pointing out. They are hooks holding the bar, not levers pulling it.
Finish the first pull just above your knees, without locking them. With the bar at knee height your shins still lean slightly forward. The phase ends when your knees reach their straightest point so far and your shins are about vertical; in elite junior lifters that was still a clearly bent knee (about 145 to 150 degrees). From there the transition and second pull take over.
Feel it
An unhurried stand-up: legs doing the work, feet flat, shoulders staying over the bar and the bar skimming past your shins. You arrive above the knees still leaning over the bar with your knees soft. If the bar bumps your knees or swings out, your hips or shoulders moved before your legs did.
Fix-its
- Hips shoot up first Your legs straightened while your chest stayed down, so the back angle tipped forward. Check your start (shoulders over the bar, not far in front) and push the floor with your legs so hips and shoulders rise together. The pause pulls below build this.
- Shoulders pull back or hips open before the knees This drags the bar into your knees; your knees aren't the problem. Keep your back angle until the bar is past your knees and think 'stand up', not 'lean back'.
- Bar swings out in front of your knees Usually the hips rose too fast or you started with your shoulders too far forward. Set up with the shoulders over the bar and keep the bar as close to the shins as you can.
- Rocking back onto your heels Balance should move from the balls of the feet to the whole foot, with only a very slight heel bias. Practise slowly and pause at the knee; if you can't hold the pause without tipping, your balance was off.
- Knees locked out early If your shins are already vertical with the bar at your knees, you straightened your legs too soon and have to lean far over the bar. Stand up with knees and hips together and keep a slight forward shin angle at the knee.
Drill
- Segment first pulls with a light bar: pause 2 to 3 seconds just off the floor (about an inch), again at the knee, and again at mid-thigh. At each stop check that your shoulders are over (or, at mid-thigh, in front of) the bar and your feet are flat.
- Slow first pulls: lift the bar slowly from the floor to just above the knees, then lower it and reset. Go slow enough to feel your balance and correct it.
- Slow-pull snatches or cleans: a slow first pull, then the normal fast second pull and catch. Keep the load light enough that the slow part stays in position.
- Film from the side at hip height: check that your hips and shoulders rise together, your back stays flat and the bar stays close to your shins. If your back rounds, lower the weight.
Sources
- NSCA / Human Kinetics — Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning, 5th ed.: Power Clean (excerpt)
- Greg Everett, Catalyst Athletics — Getting the Bar Past the Knees in the Snatch & Clean (2018)
- Harbili & Alptekin — Comparative Kinematic Analysis of the Snatch Lifts in Elite Male Adolescent Weightlifters, J Sports Sci Med (2014)
- Kipp, Redden, Sabick & Harris — Weightlifting Performance is Related to Kinematic and Kinetic Patterns of the Hip and Knee Joints, J Strength Cond Res (2012)
Last checked 2026-10-26.