Articles
Fix The Lift by Finding The Limiter
April 1 2025
April 1 2025
Every time I do Q&As, I inevitably get the question How do I make my [snatch/clean/jerk] better? Of course, this is an impossible question to answer in the way that’s apparently expected—if there were a single simple answer to that question, I would quite literally be out of a job.
The only simple—or at least concise—answer to that question that’s actually correct, is that you improve your lifts by determining what the limiters are and then resolving the problems. In broad strokes, for example, is the problem a lack of strength, technical proficiency, or mobility? Whichever one of those is the bottleneck is the one that when corrected will provide the biggest improvement in the lift.
If you deadlift 250kg but you can only snatch 60kg, I can confidently assure you that strength isn’t the problem, and time and effort invested into building more is going to return little if any progress in the snatch. If you move like rusty garbage tumbling down a hill, improving your technique is going to allow you actually apply that strength, and you’ll see progress in the lift.
The obvious question then is how do you diagnosis the limiters?
Narrowing it down to a category—ie strength, technique or mobility—is relatively easy. If your Olympic lifts are very high percentages of your basic strength lifts like squat and deadlift, more strength will help you improve. If instead you have large gaps between the two, you have more of a technique and/or mobility problem. See this for a table of normal lift ratios.
To help distinguish between technique and mobility, consider the basic related positions. If you struggle to sit comfortably into a stable, full-depth overhead squat, your mobility will be a limiter for your snatch. The same can be said for the front squat in the clean, and the rack and overhead positions for the jerk. Even if you have solid technique to get to those receiving positions, the positions themselves will prevent bigger lifts. If instead your positions are rock solid in isolation, but a total mess during an Olympic lift, you know the problem is how you’re getting there, ie technique.
Being able to diagnose the source of technical problems will be the most difficult because it requires a solid understanding of lift principles and technique models and benefits from more experience both lifting and coaching. You have to know what should be happening and why to recognize where and why things are going wrong.
There really isn’t any trick to making this process easier—it requires an investment of effort and time along with the intention to learn these things. Spend time reading and watching quality content to learn more about lift technique, observe more elite lifters performing the lifts to build technical models in your mind, and pay attention to how coaches correct their lifters when possible (assuming those coaches are successful in the endeavor).
The only simple—or at least concise—answer to that question that’s actually correct, is that you improve your lifts by determining what the limiters are and then resolving the problems. In broad strokes, for example, is the problem a lack of strength, technical proficiency, or mobility? Whichever one of those is the bottleneck is the one that when corrected will provide the biggest improvement in the lift.
If you deadlift 250kg but you can only snatch 60kg, I can confidently assure you that strength isn’t the problem, and time and effort invested into building more is going to return little if any progress in the snatch. If you move like rusty garbage tumbling down a hill, improving your technique is going to allow you actually apply that strength, and you’ll see progress in the lift.
The obvious question then is how do you diagnosis the limiters?
Narrowing it down to a category—ie strength, technique or mobility—is relatively easy. If your Olympic lifts are very high percentages of your basic strength lifts like squat and deadlift, more strength will help you improve. If instead you have large gaps between the two, you have more of a technique and/or mobility problem. See this for a table of normal lift ratios.
To help distinguish between technique and mobility, consider the basic related positions. If you struggle to sit comfortably into a stable, full-depth overhead squat, your mobility will be a limiter for your snatch. The same can be said for the front squat in the clean, and the rack and overhead positions for the jerk. Even if you have solid technique to get to those receiving positions, the positions themselves will prevent bigger lifts. If instead your positions are rock solid in isolation, but a total mess during an Olympic lift, you know the problem is how you’re getting there, ie technique.
Being able to diagnose the source of technical problems will be the most difficult because it requires a solid understanding of lift principles and technique models and benefits from more experience both lifting and coaching. You have to know what should be happening and why to recognize where and why things are going wrong.
There really isn’t any trick to making this process easier—it requires an investment of effort and time along with the intention to learn these things. Spend time reading and watching quality content to learn more about lift technique, observe more elite lifters performing the lifts to build technical models in your mind, and pay attention to how coaches correct their lifters when possible (assuming those coaches are successful in the endeavor).
