Part 2 of 3 Notes from Steve Cotter Master Class

Jerk

Steve talked about efficient movement here as well. He wanted to emphasize leg drive. The body position that he gave us was for our feet to be slightly pointed out so we can get better use of our legs. From steps to get into the right position:
1. Bring bells to shoulder before racking.
2. Handle over handle with a hook grip on the top handle. Try to not let the bells separate. Handles on one plane.
3. Lower elbows to rack position.
4. Feet are slightly open to allow body to drop straight down. Maximum use of legs during the lift.
5. Small squat down, explosive rise, up on toes then for 2nd dip drop heels and shoot the butt back
6. Arms stay close, no rotation in the handles. They go straight up for lockout then drop straight down into rack. Relax the hands to separate them as they go up.
7. During the drop, one hand move slightly earlier than the other to ensure handles land in one plane and back into rack.
8. Legs absorb the bells.

Assistance Drills

Box Jump Squat
Squats with bells in Rack position
One Arm Heavy Jerk
Barbell Squat Jump
High rep Back Squat
Rack hold/Over head hold for time


Long Cycle


Cleaning the bell(s)- Steve talked about keeping the handles straight here during the swing. No rotation needed here similar to the snatch. Minimize movement and use your energy efficiently. Remember the hip drive to accelerate the bells and instead of cleaning the bells to your shoulder each rep, clean them right into the rack. Handle over handle. Then from there perform the Jerk. On the drop no need to rest in rack position just continue back into the swing and rest on the up when you re-rack the bells. From there the Jerk is the same movement as stated above.

Steve made us do some density training and he talked briefly on that. He gave a high set high rep workout. 8 sets 15 reps with a minute or two in between sets. Enough to get our heart rate down to 120bpm. At the end of the set we did a total of 120 reps of long cycle.

Set up of a training schedule. It really depends on the person's schedule and what their goals are. If you can plan when you will be competing you can separate your Jerk and Snatch workouts developing technique and endurance. As competition time gets closer you can begin to combine the two skills. So a split workout week would look like this: Monday and Thursday Jerk emphasis, Tuesday and Friday Snatch emphasis. Take a day to recover and also use different recovery methods. The recovery is very important because it will you allow you to train harder.  I will be discussing some alternative and different recovery methods next!!