If you are not snatching you are not kettlebell training, the kettlebell snatch is the end game of the ballistic kettlebell exercises, it will build killer conditioning, strengthen every muscle from toes to finger tips and burn up to 20+ calories per minute.

The kettlebell snatch also has the steepest learning curve in terms of technique, this however is vastly reduced if you have put in the required practice on 1 hand and 2 hand swings.  Get a good couple of thousand swings under your belt first, then move onto high pulls and eventually snatches.

In this post I want to tell you how my learning curve went and hopefully you can gain some knowledge from this and apply it to your own training. This is how it went for me.

1. Timing of the punch.

When you first snatch a kettlebell over head its a little bit scary, you have little confidence in the movement and the fear of the bell hitting or landing on your head is at the forefront of your mind. This quickly passes as you realise a good strong vertical lockout at the top will ensure that this does not happen. The other issue beginners have is the bell travelling around the hand and bashing the wrist once locked out. This is happening because you are being passive and taking the bell up on a straight arm, the movement has two elements, pull and punch, the pull sets the bell up to float up to slightly above head height at which point the bell is weightless, then you are looking to punch through to the lockout position. Time the punch right and the bell will come to rest on the back of the forearm with no impact. My advice is to drop down to a lighter weight to practice the punch and get your timing spot on. Do not use a mirror, you have to feel it out.

2. Tame the arc

As mentioned in the above point, if you are getting smacked on the wrist you are probably taking the bell up on a straight arm and therefore the bell is travelling to far away from you and this is simply a waste of energy. With the ballistic exercises you always want the bell to take the shortest route, in the snatch the shortest route from point A (the back swing) to point B (the lockout) of course is straight up. To do this imagine a wall is right in front of you, as the bell comes off the back swing and is available to move upwards,  redirect it by starting the pull action of drawing your elbow slightly backwards and taming the arc. If enough power was provided from the hips the bell is now floating up by your head so punch through to the lockout.

3. Use the hips not the upper body 

Its very easy in this movement to rely on the your back to do most of the work but this is primarily a lower body exercise and the prime movers are the glutes and hamstrings. This is why grooving the hip hinge with lots of hardstyle two handed swings first will lead to better performance. This for me was the last piece of the puzzle and it actually took me about a year of training to really get the hips into the movement. The difference in my performance is huge! I can now easily snatch a 24kg kettlebell for 100 reps in about 4 minutes. Before I got this part of the movement down, I would always be really sore in my traps and upper back the day after a hard snatching session, now I have no soreness anywhere, maybe sometimes in the bicep.

Here is a video of me performing the RKC snatch test which is to snatch a 24kg bell 100 times in under 5 minutes. This was an early attempt and although I got the 100 reps it took me just over 5 mins.

There are lots of things wrong with my technique here, the head position is not good, the bell is travelling around my hand at the top rather than a good hard style flip, breathing is off, there is minimal power through the hips and my shoulder is disconnected and is taking a beating every time the bell lands at the lockout.

Below is my latest attempt at the RKC snatch test. This is 9/10 months on from the attempt above. Notice the difference in my technique, all of the above mistakes are no longer there, the path the bell takes is shorter, my hip snap is much more powerful and easily moves the bell over head, my breathing is improved and over all it is much cleaner and stronger.

By focusing on the above technique points I was able to shave a minute off my previous best time, that’s a considerable difference. Of course strength, shoulder stability and conditioning have improved through other kettlebell exercises during this time frame, but you will never get this type of performance without dialing in your snatch technique.

I hope this has been helpful, if you are having problems with your technique leave a comment below or contact me for some one to one instruction.

Pete

So 8 weeks on from the last fitness test and some very impressive numbers being put up. Lots of members moving up in weight which is great to see, Graham Duncan is the first to have a go with a 20kg moving up from the 16kg and lots of the ladies now snatching the 14kg bell. We have had some new members to the club testing for the first time, Chris Coles scores a massive 265 with the 16kg, definitely ready for the 20kg next time Chris! Technique is much improved and clearly strength and conditioning is better too. Great work everyone!

Here is how the leader board looks now.

24kg Category

Conway Leamen – 190
Huw Davey – 141

20kg Category

Grahame Duncan – 183

16kg Category

Chris Coles – 265
Robert Healy – 245
John Bassi – 219
John Burns – 211
Dave Thompson – 210

14kg Category

Paul Doddrell – 221
Neil Crawford – 220
Linda Mcentee – 216
Agneta Forsberg – 215
Ali Cape – 210
Sam Murray – 206
Mike Leigh – 206
Sarah Stribling – 191
Claire Wilson – 165

12kg Category

Vikki Hill – 240
Trineta Watson Tripp – 235
Andy Farqhuarson – 235
Ben Waterton – 225
Tim Bond – 220

10kg Category

Glynis Moss – 227
Kay Rutherford – 223
Annie Smith – 217
Julie Haydon – 214
Jane Youngs – 210
Jessica Huzzey – 205
Erica Dowdell – 187

8kg Category

Katie Stryjewski – 276
Claire Chisholm – 260
Jane Antrobus – 245
Kathy Burgess – 243
Kristen Beausang – 221
Mary Martin – 221
Julie Baldwin – 219
Claire Bullock – 214
Jenny Kenning – 205
Julie Barrett – 205
Heather Wilmot – 180
Claire Miles – 160

So there we have it, some great improvements. Well done to all who took part. You are now much fitter and stronger than you were 8 weeks ago and this is the proof!

Speak soon

Pete

Another snatch test session today, and Trineta Watson Tripp’s score of 235 has been blown out of the water big time!! Sorry Trin

Here are the video’s

Mike Leigh – 221 using 12kg bell

Glynis Moss – 257 using 8kg bell

Grahame Duncan – 243 using 16kg bell

Claire Chisholm – 260 using 8kg bell

Erica Dowdell – 187 using 10kg bell

Claire Bullock – 214 using 8kg bell

Linda Mcentee – 258 using 12kg bell – Amazing!!

Rob Healy – 238 using 16kg bell – 17 reps more than Saturday’s effort, nice one Rob!

Julie Haydon – 230 using 8kg bell

Katie Strejwyski – 276 using 8kg bell

Kathy Burgess – 243 using 8kg bell

Brilliant effort by all who took part, one more day of testing and then the leader board will go up.

Pete

So you may or may not know that I am currently training for the most prestigeous of kettlebell certifications the RKC level 1. To pass this gruelling 3 day event, trainees have to not only show excellent technique and form in the 6 main exercises, and show competence in instructing others in these exercises but they also have to pass a conditioning test which for men is to perform 100 snatches in under 5 minutes with a 24kg bell. This all takes place over the 3 day certification in which trainees will also under go numerous daily workouts and form critiques. On the last day (if you are still alive) you will go through the graduation workout which I understand is pretty tough. Throughout the course men typically work with 24kg bells and ladies with 12kg and 16kg.

I have tailored my training towards increasing work capacity performing two workouts most days, a strength based session in the morning and a conditioning session in the evening.

Every month or so I test myself with the RKC snatch test. Today I did pretty good

Take away points for me are

Its definitely better to try not to put the bell down and rest in the lockout position if needed.

Breathing could have been better, at the beginning my breathing was all over the place, need to work on that.

Hands/callousses weren’t a problem so no worries there.