How To Ballistic Kettlebell Snatch

How To Ballistic Kettlebell Snatch:

By the time you begin practicing the ballistic snatch, you should already have learned the deadlift, kettlebell swing,and kettlebell clean&press. It’s important that you are able to load the lat in the overhead position and that you feel comfortable holding weight there. If you are experiencing tightness that is preventing you from raising your hands overhead without arching your back, or any other postural deviation, you should not attempt this lift quite yet. Depending upon the issue, you may be able to perform stretching and DROM (Dynamic Range of Motion) exercises to fix the problem. Other issues may require a knowledgeable physical therapist.

The ballistic snatch is an upward acceleration of the kettlebell from a backswing to the loaded lat position in a single exertion. The end of the snatch is a deceleration of weight by your hips as you load the weight into the glutes and hamstrings, creating elastic tension to aid the acceleration of the next snatch.

Start the first swing with the bell out front, sit back into your hips and keep your back flat from your hip to your head. Pull your shoulder down and back into your engaged lat. Begin with a backswing, loading the elastic tension into your glutes and hamstrings, use that tension to accelerate the pendulum as the bell gets behind you.

Remember to:

• Use your hips to drive the bell up, this is an acceleration not a jerking movement.
• Drive your hips forward and engage your core tightly.
• Shrug the shoulder back, not up, to pull the bell close to your body.

At the point of maximum power, your shoulder will be slightly behind your hip from the profile view, at this point of hip extension, your abdomen should be tightly flexed. It would be very unsafe to allow your back to extend (arch) at the point of hip extension. Your shoulders must move behind the hip by way of hip extension, not extension of the spine. Moving your shoulder behind your hip combined with the backward shrug will tame the arc of the bell and keep it closer to your body. Remember, you want the bell to be moving upward, not forward, at the point of maximum exertion.

Remember to:

• Develop the hook-grip to spear hand.
• Feel the bell roll onto your wrist without banging as you punch through the bell.
• Load the lat in the overhead position, feel the bell in neutral lockout every time.

It may take a bit of practice to get these down without banging your wrists, I recommend short practice sessions with relatively high frequency. This approach will maximize your ability to create new motor patterns and learn the movement with minimal bruising to your wrist. Try doing these twice a day for five to ten minutes each time. You will be amazed by your ability to perform better with each session, and you will stay fresh.

As you begin the drop back down, roll the bell forward slightly and control the downward arc of the bell. Next, decelerate the bell with your hips and use the elastic tension to accelerate the bell back upward. Make sure to keep the bell up high in the backswing, don’t let it drop down to your knees.

There is a certain fluidity to this lift when you learn how to do it properly and it will probably feel better than any other lift you have done. The snatch is my favorite kettlebell exercise, either ballistic or from dead. I will discuss the dead snatch more in the future as you learn to develop that acceleration from your hips without the assistance of the elastic tension from the previous lift.

Today’s practice is ten kettlebell snatches per hand. Start with your non-dominant hand, perform all ten snatches, swing-switch, then perform ten more on your dominant hand. Come back to this practice two or three times daily to learn the movement. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do, I know you will feel the benefits immediately. You can expect to be sore in your glutes, hamstrings, upper back and abdomen. You may also get a feeling like you are standing up taller and straighter, which is probably because you are. Keep practicing and join me on Friday for a longer practice session using this exercise. Thanks for training with me today,

Peter Hirsh