Snatch Balance | Olympic Weightlifting Exercise Library

Exercise Library – The snatch balance is an exercise that trains strength, aggression, balance, timing and confidence for receiving the snatch. Start standing with the barbell behind your neck with a snatch-width grip, the shoulder blades set tightly as they will be overhead, and your feet in your pulling stance. Brace your trunk and ensure even balance over the whole foot. Bend the knees smoothly, maintaining balance and an upright torso, then drive up with the legs to minimally elevate the bar—the goal is to unload the bar to allow yourself time to move under, not to elevate it any higher than necessary. A slower, more controlled dip and drive than you use for a jerk will help. Punch the arms aggressively up into the bar as you lift and move your feet into your receiving stance and squat as quickly as possible into the bottom of an overhead squat. Making sure it’s stable and secure, stand again with the bar overhead. *Notes* If you maintain the hook grip when you turn the snatch over, use the hook grip in the snatch balance. *Purpose* The snatch balance develops strength, aggression, balance, timing and confidence for receiving the snatch. It allows the practice of quick and precise foot movement in the pull under, a vertical punch up to secure and stabilize the bar overhead as will be done at the end of the snatch turnover, and when done with weights around and above the lifter’s best snatch, builds confidence for pulling low under maximal snatch attempts. *Programming* The snatch balance should be performed with sets of 1-3 reps, typically anywhere from 70-100% or more of the lifter’s best snatch—aiming to be able to use more than best snatch is a good way to build confidence for heavy snatches. The exercise is usually performed best in the middle of a training session, after any snatch, clean or jerk exercises that demand more speed and technique, but before more strength-oriented exercises like pulls and squats. They can be performed before snatches with light weights as a technique primer. *Variations* The snatch balance is one of 4 snatch balance exercises: pressing snatch balance, drop snatch, heaving snatch balance and snatch balance. *See More* Pressing Snatch Balance - Heaving Snatch Balance - Drop Snatch - Get Olympic weightlifting programming that’s been used by over 95,000 athletes around the world - Help support my free content - Also follow me here: @catalystathletics