

To teach the power clean, a coach may start by having their athletes perform a pull from the mid-thigh, then with the bar at knee height, and finally from the floor. Many coaches believe it’s best to break down the lifts into parts when working with beginners. With that background, here are 11 reasons why many strength coaches and sports coaches like pulls: (Photo by Karim Ghonem, hair and makeup by Day Shimmer Spa.) Shown is Brown University’s Maddie Frey, school record holder in the 200m. Pulls improve an athlete’s ability to initiate and apply force into the ground, critical components in sprinting. More specifically, the ability to initiate force and apply force into the ground. What attracts many sprint coaches to pulls is that they improve explosiveness. More specifically, the ability to initiate force (such as with a sprint start) and apply force into the ground (to increase stride length).

I’ll explain why this distinction is essential in the final section. That is, using the Olympic lifts or their components to improve sports performance. This discussion relates to coaching for non-weightlifters.
#BARBELL HIGH PULL HOW TO#
Sometimes, it’s not by choice-often, these coaches don’t know how to teach the full lifts, don’t have enough staff to teach them (at Brown, a handful of coaches work with 1,200 athletes in 36 varsity and 12 club sports!), or don’t have the facilities and equipment (good barbells, bumper plates, platforms) to perform them safely.īeyond those formidable challenges, there are many other reasons strength coaches have their athletes perform pulls. Many strength coaches have their athletes perform pulls rather than the snatch, the clean, or their power versions. Oh, and weightlifters call these exercises pulls, not high pulls. Done! You don’t turn over your wrists and catch the weight-just let it drop. You stand up quickly, fully extend your legs, rise on the balls of your feet as you shrug your shoulders, and follow through with your arms. To ensure we’re on the same page, a high pull begins with the barbell on the floor, as with a clean or power clean. Another way to phrase it is, “Am I using high pulls to help my athletes get better at the clean, or am I using high pulls in place of the clean?” That is the question strength coaches should ask when deciding whether or not to include high pulls in their program. “Do you lift weights to get strong, or do you get strong to lift weights?
