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How to grip the bar is one of those fundamental things like squat stance or bracing the trunk that too often gets skipped over, or is taught in breathtakingly silly ways, so I just want to get this on record for those of you are too embarrassed to ask.
 
The biggest mistake is trying to keep the bar entirely in the palm with the whole hand squared off with the bar.
 
Even with the narrower clean grip, the hand needs to pull at an angle with the bar starting at the base of the thumb and moving into the knuckles of the last two fingers.
 
This not only allows the arms to freely angle in toward the shoulders as they need to, it creates a more secure grip.
 
Push the webbing between the thumb and forefinger into the bar and start wrapping the hand, pulling with a little tension to help get the bar hooked into the right place in the smallest fingers.
 
The next biggest mistake is manipulating the wrist away from its natural orientation. Find the right place for the bar in the hand and then pull against it—the wrist will naturally align in the right position.
 
If you feel like you need to curl the wrist under for a more secure grip, you have the bar too far out into the fingers.
 
And I wish it could go without saying, but don’t extend the wrist either…