Crossfit Armoury - October 11, 2017: Olympic Lifting - drills and skils

Wednesday; October 11, 2017 @ Crossfit Armoury - West

Coach:  AJ Facendi

Thoughts:
I normally take a day off in between Olympic lifting class.  Just how my body reacts to the training.  However, decided that I was going to do a crossfit class.  Just as I was about to sign up, I took a look at the olympic lifting and the drills.
There something about lifting that makes me happy.  That and the fact, I see being consistent is paying off.   I'm seeing progress!!    

To the surprise of my coach, I showed up to do the Oly class back to back (in days); this time at the West location.   One of the more elite athletes, Moe wanted to partner/share the bar with me.  He wanted to focus on improving his olympic lifts (instead of his own programming).
An additional bonus of this, is that he actually helps motivates me to go beyond the safety bubble that I'm always holding myself back when the weights gets too heavy.  This is more applicable on when we are working to a Heavy or Max weight.

The weights that I used, is light to medium for him.  Again, I think it's good weight for him to use to practice those techniques.

OLYMPIC LIFTING (OLY):  OCT 11, 2017

SNATCHES: [160]

===============

1 Power Snatch + 1 Full Snatch + 1 Overhead Squat

6 Sets to find a heavy/max

*must complete 6 sets

ie.   75

       95

      115

      125

      135

      140

CLEAN & JERK [215]

===================

Every 2-3 minutes:

 3 Cleans + 3 Jerks

  60% = 130

  70% = 150

  75% = 160

  80% = 170

  85% = 185

  ***OPTIONAL

Snatches:
Despite coming in with some pre-calculations; I wasn't sure on where I was going to do the small increment on weight, the 5 lb.  Just to ensure that I meet the criteria of doing 6 sets.  Again, all 6 sets has to be completed or you have to redo your last set.   My Power snatch at 135 lb was a bit rough, ended up pressing up the weight as oppose to a proper power snatch.   And with that, the 140 lb would prove to be too heavy.   I failed on my last set, but took a few minute to rest before retrying again.   Technically, I failed on my second attempt when I tried to do 140 lb Power snatch (heaviest is the 135 lb), but instead I went to the Squat snatch and Overhead Squat.     Yeah.    uhm... I decided to move on.    Next time, I'll keep it at 135 lb as my heaviest.  

Clean and Jerks:
Coach explained that we could drop after our cleans.  I wasn't reading the board which I thought we should do squat cleans vs power cleans.  The other thing too, was when coach came around.  We could do the clean from the hang position.   That made it easier, although; I always doing squat clean to work on my weakness, or build up on them.  The initial weight was done as hang power clean.   
Calculation called for 130 lb as my 60%.   We were too lazy to find all the plates to make it 130 lb and opted to stick 135 lb on there.  Plus, it'll be easier for the other weights afterwards.   Again, this is where Moe provided the additional inspiration, as well as motivation when lifting.   

Moe suggested that on the third clean, we keep the weight on our shoulder and then punch out to a jerk.    That will help with the remaining two jerks.  
Coach came by and gave me cues to stick my head forward once in the split jerk position.  It's a weakness that I have, but afterwards; it was much easier (comfort) with the weight is slightly behind me (cue with head forward).  Felt way more stable.  

Although, I do need to focus on keeping a wider stance when coming out of the bottom split jerk.  Otherwise, as demo by Coach AJ, that I could be tippy.  Yup, I've experience that before.

Areas to work on:
 - pushing my head forward thru the arms at the bottom of the split jerk. 
   Forcing the weight to be more directly over the body.  
 - maintaining a wide stance on the split jerk, especially when coming out of it.
 - maintain a vertical stance when pushing the weight up as you move into a
   split jerk position when the weight gets heavy.  Coach caught me rounding 
   forward.

The 85% was optional, and I felt good enough to go for it.   The cleans were critique by coach, I need to fix those and use more of a shrug at the end.  I'm losing power.   Again, focusing on bringing up my elbow fast at the bottom of the squat clean.  The transition to the split jerk on the third clean was good.   
But I was feeling the load.   Dropping the weight to my shoulder at 185 lb, was heavy.  It was almost crushing... and I had to re-adjust.   Took a few breaths and popped it up on the split jerk.  It's started to get a bit shaky at this point.
My last rep of the split jerk was 99% complete.  I had to drop it at the end as my rear foot position gave away, and like a domino effect.. it started to crumble.  I opted to drop it at that moment as I lost core, and was too exhausted from the lifting.   Any other time, I might had tried to save it, muscle it... but in reality; when in doubt.. drop it...    I was done...