Receive All Snatches in a Full Squat?
If you’re struggling to receive all of your snatches in a really deep squat… stop.
With lighter snatches, complete the full motion of the pull but with less force so you’re not elevating the bar too high. Then pull under with normal maximal speed, sitting fluidly into the bottom of the squat regardless of where you actually lock out the bar.
With lighter weights, we’re trying to reasonably simulate heavier weights without creating bad habits that limit our top weights, like an incomplete pull.
Ideally, we’re always executing the same pulling motion—Graduating the force along with the weights prevents excessive bar height and lets us train a more consistent movement under the bar.
But you’ll still be locking out the bar higher with lighter weights than with heavier weights, rather than just cutting the pull short, bombing into a deep squat and waiting for the bar to fall on you, and then wondering why when weights get heavy, you can’t finish the pull to save your life.
I’ve made a few videos over the years on this topic because it just won’t go away… but also because it’s good to use different examples to illustrate it.
The difference in receiving height from the lightest to heaviest snatches varies among even the best lifers in the world—but what’s universal is that receiving depth decreases as weight increases.
The goal is to maximize consistency, security, recovery and confidence by keeping snatches reasonably similar across weights, but not unnecessarily increasing difficulty by artificially forcing maximal receiving depth.
I think there are two reasons so many people make this mistake:
First, they see videos nearly exclusively of heavy snatches, which are received in a deep squat because they have to be. They then try to mimic that in all of their snatches, including the lightest ones.
Second is one of the reasons people do anything wrong: bad instruction. Often from coaches or other athletes who have made the previous mistake.
One more thing to keep in mind: A commonly overlooked reason you may be struggling to receive your snatches as low as you think you should is that you likely have a surplus of strength relative to your technical ability.
This means your heaviest snatches are not actually very heavy relative to your basic physical abilities. If you can deadlift 300lbs but can only snatch 80lbs, the bar is going to fly in even your heaviest snatch attempts, even with an attempt to control it.
With lighter snatches, complete the full motion of the pull but with less force so you’re not elevating the bar too high. Then pull under with normal maximal speed, sitting fluidly into the bottom of the squat regardless of where you actually lock out the bar.
With lighter weights, we’re trying to reasonably simulate heavier weights without creating bad habits that limit our top weights, like an incomplete pull.
Ideally, we’re always executing the same pulling motion—Graduating the force along with the weights prevents excessive bar height and lets us train a more consistent movement under the bar.
But you’ll still be locking out the bar higher with lighter weights than with heavier weights, rather than just cutting the pull short, bombing into a deep squat and waiting for the bar to fall on you, and then wondering why when weights get heavy, you can’t finish the pull to save your life.
I’ve made a few videos over the years on this topic because it just won’t go away… but also because it’s good to use different examples to illustrate it.
The difference in receiving height from the lightest to heaviest snatches varies among even the best lifers in the world—but what’s universal is that receiving depth decreases as weight increases.
The goal is to maximize consistency, security, recovery and confidence by keeping snatches reasonably similar across weights, but not unnecessarily increasing difficulty by artificially forcing maximal receiving depth.
I think there are two reasons so many people make this mistake:
First, they see videos nearly exclusively of heavy snatches, which are received in a deep squat because they have to be. They then try to mimic that in all of their snatches, including the lightest ones.
Second is one of the reasons people do anything wrong: bad instruction. Often from coaches or other athletes who have made the previous mistake.
One more thing to keep in mind: A commonly overlooked reason you may be struggling to receive your snatches as low as you think you should is that you likely have a surplus of strength relative to your technical ability.
This means your heaviest snatches are not actually very heavy relative to your basic physical abilities. If you can deadlift 300lbs but can only snatch 80lbs, the bar is going to fly in even your heaviest snatch attempts, even with an attempt to control it.
