The second pull is the fast, explosive part of the snatch and clean: once the bar passes your knees and reaches your upper thighs, you drive hard with your legs and open your hips to send the bar up. In elite lifters it is the fastest and most powerful phase of the pull and lasts only about 0.13 to 0.15 seconds. From the side, the analyzer can check how fully you extend and whether the bar path stays close and vertical; the timing is something you'll mostly feel.
Into the power position
Wait. As the bar passes your knees, keep your shoulders over or slightly in front of the bar and keep standing up with your legs. Don't start the explosion until the bar is near mid-thigh.
patient through the knees, still pushing the floor.
Let your hips come forward and your knees move back under the bar. This small re-bend of the knees (the "scoop" or double knee bend) happens on its own when your position and timing are right. Don't try to do it on purpose; forcing it slows the bar and throws off your balance.
your torso getting more upright while your legs stay loaded.
Keep the bar close to your thighs as it slides up. In the snatch it meets your hips near the hip crease; in the clean, usually on your upper thighs. Keep your back neutral and your arms long, elbows pointing out to the sides.
the bar right against you, not drifting out.
Stay balanced over your whole foot. Keep your heels down as long as you can. Rocking back onto your heels with your shoulders behind the bar is one of the most common reasons the finish goes wrong.
Explode up
Drive the floor away with your legs and snap your hips open, as fast as you can. Hips and knees extend together, like the take-off of a vertical jump. Better lifters show a sharp, early burst from the thigh muscles that straighten the knee here.
a jump straight up through the bar, not a swing.
Finish tall. Your torso ends upright or slightly leaning back, with your hips fully open. Your knees straighten hard; on video even elite lifters' knees read about 165 to 170 degrees at the top, so the goal is a fast, complete push, not a locked pose.
Let your ankles finish the push. Your heels come up late, at the very end. Lifters differ here: some rise high onto the toes, others stay nearly flat with only a small heel lift, and coaches accept both. Don't chase the toes; staying flat-footed longer keeps you pushing into the floor.
the push ends through the balls of your feet, not a tiptoe hang.
Speed and completeness both count. A fast pull that stops short, or a full extension that's slow, both limit the lift. Expect the bar to move a few centimetres away from you as your hips open; a big loop forward is the fault.
Arms stay straight
Keep your elbows straight until your legs and hips have finished. Your arms are hooks, not engines.
arms long and loose while the legs do the work.
At full extension, shrug up fast with your elbows still straight. Only when your shoulders reach the top do your elbows bend to pull you under the bar.
Feel it
Patient through the knees, then a sudden, violent jump: legs and hips do the work, the bar stays tight to your body and you finish tall with straight arms. If the bar swings out or feels slow, you probably started the explosion too early, sat back on your heels, or bent your arms before you finished.
Fix-its
- You explode too early (from the knees) Keep your shoulders over the bar and keep standing with your legs until the bar is near mid-thigh. Hang snatches or cleans from the knee teach the timing.
- Too far back on your heels, shoulders behind the bar Stay over your whole foot with your shoulders over the bar into the power position. Snatch or clean pulls with a one-count hold at the top let you check your balance.
- Bar swings out in front Keep the bar close all the way to the hip or upper thigh, and drive up, not forward. A few centimetres away from you at the finish is normal; a big loop is not.
- You bend your arms too early Elbows stay straight and pointing out until you've finished extending and shrugging. Then bend them to pull under.
- Short or slow finish (forced scoop, soft hips) Don't try to scoop the knees on purpose; just drive the legs and open the hips all the way. Jumps, and pulls that aren't too heavy, help you practise a complete, fast finish.
Drill
- Hang snatch or hang clean from the knee: the shorter start makes you be patient and then aggressive. Use the power position (bar at the hip) if your leg drive is the problem, or a hang with your shoulders over the bar if hip extension is weak.
- Snatch or clean pulls at a weight you can still extend fully with. Hold the top for a one-count to check balance and that you finished. If the extension gets cut short, the weight is too heavy.
- Pull plus lift complex: one pull straight into one snatch or clean, so the lift copies the pull's full extension.
- Jumps: box jumps to a box below your max height with full effort, or jump squats, to train a fast, complete leg drive.
- Film from the side at 120 fps or more. The whole extension takes about a seventh of a second, so normal 30 fps video only catches a few frames of it.
Sources
- NSCA / Human Kinetics — Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning, 5th ed.: Power Clean (excerpt)
- Greg Everett, Catalyst Athletics — The Double Knee Bend: It's Not Going Away Just Because You Pretend It's Not There (2016)
- Greg Everett, Catalyst Athletics — 5 Ways to Get A Better Finish in the Snatch (2017)
- Matt Foreman, Catalyst Athletics — Snatch & Clean Pulling Technique: No Laughing Matter (2013)
- Harbili — A Gender-Based Kinematic and Kinetic Analysis of the Snatch Lift in Elite Weightlifters in 69-kg Category, J Sports Sci Med (2012)
- 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.