The Importance of the First Pull
For those not familiar with Olympic weightlifting you’re about to be educated. The first pull is the distance a bar travels from resting on the ground to the centre of the knee.
While the first pull is only a short distance (generally 30cm or even less), it has the ability to make or break a lift from the get-go.
Let’s have a look at the mechanics of the why this is. The most efficient way to pick up a weight is to keep it as close to the invisible line that is your centre of gravity as possible (roughly somewhere over your heels/mid-foot). Unfortunately being human we (in general) all have knees, and when a lifter sets up to lift a barbell off the ground, their knees must come forward over the bar (i.e. forward of their centre of gravity) in the "Lift-off" position:
As the lifter tenses and begins driving through their heels and lifting the bar off the ground, in order to keep the bar as close to this efficient centre of gravity line, they need to move/pull their knees backwards out of the way as they rise upwards.
The first pull is completed once the bar reaches the knee or just above, with the hamstrings very much engaged, the knees pulled back, the shins as vertical as possible, and the traps engaged to "pull" the bar back towards their thigh. At this stage the largest hinge point in the body (at the base of the spine/at the hips) is the furthest away from the centre of gravity, with the lifters torso cantilevered, or leaning over the bar.
This leaning over the bar is what I call the weakest link in the whole lifting chain, as it puts the most pressure on the lower back (as the weighted bar is being acted on by gravity and trying to pull the lifter down and forward) This is common for any Olympic lift (Snatch and Clean), and for power lifts such as deadlifts. If the lifter didn’t do this, they would need to drag the bar out and around their knees on the way up, increasing the distance from their centre of gravity and result in a much less efficient bar path.
Pulling the knees back in the first pull makes or breaks a lift because it sets up the bar path for the transition into the second pull, or the explosive power phase, by keeping the bar nice and close to your body (and hence centre of gravity).
It’s the little things that add up to help improve your lifting (in the case of the first pull, only the distance from your mid-shin to your knee!). To help strengthen this phase of a lift, grab some time during open gym time and have a go at these exercises:
- Pause snatch or clean first pulls (pause at the knee for 3-5 secs)
- Pause full snatch or cleans (pause at the knee for 3-5 secs)
- Bent-over rows
- Weighted good-mornings
- Tempo deadlifts (a slow draw up from the ground past the knees)
Happy lifting :)
- Adam
