How To Fix Your Snatch Turnover - Understanding & Exercises


The pull under the bar in the snatch needs to be as active, aggressive and precise as the rest of the lift. This motion has 3 purposes: to change your direction and accelerate your body down into position under the bar; to maintain maximal proximity between the bar and body; and to establish a balanced and stable receiving position.

As you finish extending, continue lifting the bar upward and toward yourself by pulling the elbows up and out and squeezing your shoulder blades back together. This motion changes your direction quickly, accelerates you downward as it helps preserve the bar’s upward momentum, and helps keep the bar and body close.

As the elbows reach approximately shoulder height, turn the arms over to bring the bar overhead while squeezing the shoulder blades and elbows back. This motion maintains proximity and speed, and continues moving the bar and body into the receiving position.

To finish the turnover, punch the arms straight up into the bar over the back of the neck as you sit straight down into the squat. This motion secures the overhead position before the full weight of the bar is pushing down and establishes opposing vertical forces for stability.

To learn and train this optimal third pull, use the following exercises. These can be used alone to address a specific element of the turnover, or as a series in your warm-up to prime the motion in subsequent snatches.

- Snatch High-Pull from Power Position -
Focus on pulling the elbows up and out and squeezing the shoulder blades back to get the elbows as high as possible while keeping the bar against the body.

- Muscle Snatch from Power Position -
Initiate the movement identically to the high-pull, and keep the elbows up as you squeeze back and turn over, keeping the bar as close to you as possible. Punch straight up into the bar over the back of the neck as you finish.

- Tall Snatch -
Perform the exact upper body motion of the muscle snatch from a standing position while lifting and moving your feet into the squat position and sitting into the bottom of a squat as you fix the bar securely overhead.

- Snatch from Power Position -
Focus on a vertical drive of the legs to accelerate the bar, and then execute the same motion as the tall snatch without any hesitation to maintain as much speed as possible.

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