fwiw i edited these vids so theres not extraneous downtime.

195 clean

205 clean

225 fail

225f (kinda close)

so i think my cleans are not egregiously bad anymore. any idea how to fix jumping forward as it seems i do?

still bend my arms a bit premature, oh well.

probably by finishing the second pull. doesn't look like your hips get fully extended.

that's cuz Vic is a master catapulter

heh, i still havent read that book yet

3 quick problems I can see:
1) Hips rise first, practice pulling off the floor without changing back angle.
2) Bar is too far in front of you.
3) Jumping forward.

2 and 3 are related, and probably both related to 1) too. I'd work on keeping the bar close off the floor with a good back angle and go from there. (You can also rework by starting from hip, then to hang, then to floor, etc.)

Form check on my friends squat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEtTcBOcy7A

Doesn't look like you are shrugging too hard- that really helps in keeping the arms straight. I used to put a piece of tape in the middle of the bar to focus on the path of the bar being as close to the body as possible.

my guess is the bar is closer to HBBS than LBBS. and not hitting parallel by at least 3 inches, which could be caused by rather wide stance, but that's personal preference. if he can't get below parallel, i'd experiment with narrower stance.

thanks dt. i may be misinterpreting how to pull off the floor using the "sweep the bar" cue. the hips rising and back angle will be easy to experiment with as it was intentional.

depth is very poor, esp on the last few reps.

My power cleans have the worst form of all the SS lifts. Im doing them light and consequently the weights have a small diameter, which forces to me to either round my back or start from a squat position (which Rip says not to do.) How do these look?

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

Warmup: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6PiB116BbI

Workset: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6QKrTbjIAw

victor--i'd try and be a lot quicker/more violent/etc on your first pull. it looks like u are being really methodical when u should be going faster. and what dt said.

\\

konrad--your gym doesn't have bumper plates? if no, then you should find some blocks to rest the weights on to get them up to a reasonable height. i would also ditch the belt for these. honestly you are probably better off starting w hang cleans anyway, which would negate the plate-diameter-issue, and work on your lift progression that way.

jsnipes28, my gym only has 44lbs bumper plates which is too much for me to PC at this point. I really like your idea of finding something on which I can rest the weight, so thanks.

Why do you think I ought to start off with hang cleans? Power cleans are my favorite lift from SS and I would like to spend as much time on them as possible.

Oh, I will ditch the belt. This was my previous reasoning (which I now see is wrong): 1) PCs are like DLs (at the start), 2) We use belts on DLs, 3) I ought to use belts for PCs.

Victor,

It looks like your scoop starts prematurely. I think that is why everything comes forward.

You can see that you let the bar ride up higher on the 2nd 225.

Victor,

I would really like to hear the audio on the first 225 fail video.

heh, not sure if can reinsert it since i edited and deleted the original. iirc, there wasnt any auspicious sound. it wasnt painful. i usually yell when catching a clean and groan when coming out of the hole. strangely i make hardly any sound on my heavy regular lifts. seems to help with timing on oly stuff. i cursed after the 2nd one bc i felt i shoulda had it.

the reason i edit the sound is bc i listen to cheesy embarassing music

problem is u have so much going in the full lift its hard to pinpoint exactly what needs to change. like ur lift in the workset is kind of jumbled, for lack of a better word, bc there isn't any clear delineation between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd pull. if u break it down and work on those diff areas u can fix each one and then kind of put them together later (or at least that seems to be the prevailing wisdom). so if u do hang cleans u can work on your 2nd/3rd pull and get better (and better advice at how to improve) and u can also do deadlifts and clean dl or clean pulls to work on ur 1st pull. and once things are smoother/cleaner in those areas work on putting the whole package together.

Squat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFyFTUueQdM

Deadlift: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix-AJgfjvy0

Press: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9UQjJJZITI

240 DL

I'm new here, but I think you're not supposed to bend your knees so much. Your back should be near flat, and your legs should be as close to straight as possible.

So I guess focus on having your legs more like this, rather than how you're doing it now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6aM0CYPh3w

By the time the bar breaks the floor he's in that position. It would be more efficient to begin with your hips there but it's not a disaster if they make their way there after the start.

Squat: Bar position looks a bit high. You're bent over at the top, go ahead and stand up between reps-take a breath-tighten-squat-repeat. Try and get wider angle next time and show feet!

Deadlift: Those were touch n go, make sure you lift each rep from a dead stop on the floor. You're out on your toes on a few reps (u should get some new flat soled shoes in place of the squishy soled ones you got now). Go ahead and stand up at the top of this as well, with a big chest (shoulders back).

Press: First couple reps your fingers were off of the bar, you need to squeeze bar firmly, along with tightening up your core and glutes, and press- this will make things easier. Just remember the three T's, tight/tight/tight! And dont shove your head down at the top of the rep, just get it under the bar as soon as it passes your face.

Overall they dont look that bad, just keep working on em, and working on staying tight on everything.

I completely lost focus on form because this was my first time shooting video at the gym. Still, I didn't take these videos for nothing. In the clean, I know I completely forgot to think chest up. In the squat, I don't know if I'm going deep enough, but I walk on the ball of my feet so honestly, that's about as far as I can go down and it's miles further than I could March 1st when I first went to the gym. The press... I've been stuck at 85 for a bit. Pisses me off.

Squat - 205

Press - 85

Clean - 125

Get your elbows out in front of the bar.

Aha! I knew there had to be something wrong with it. I was stuck on rips "Elbows under the bar" when getting it off the rack, rather than him like 5 seconds later saying "Elbows in front of the bar" when doing the press. Thanks!