Learning the Clean and Jerk with out a coach - a practical solution to a practical problem.

Many people see the sport of weightlifting or see some videos on youtube or people in the gym performing this exercise and think AWESOME I HAVE TO DO THAT!

And that's because the clean and jerk is awesome, it's fun challenging and develops a whole bunch of physical and mental qualities that are desirable in many aspects of sport and life.  However all of the articles on this exercise that have been written almost ever miss one important fact - learning the clean and jerk on your own with no help is F*&KING HARD.

No coach, no feedback, no real idea of how to go about the lift.  These things make learning how to do one of the more complex skill in sport pretty damned hard.

That's why I am going to try and provide you with a practical and hopefully somewhat effective solution.  I will preface this by this one statement - if you have access to a club or coach disregard this article and go and join / learn from a coach as it is far, far more effective.

Phase one breaking it down into positions and drills.

When you first start to learn how to clean you should be able to do two things - front squat to full depth with reasonable form and grasp a bar from the floor with a neutral spine.  If you can do there two things then we are pretty much good to go.

Here is the session I want to perform the 4 sessions you try and learn the drill.

Sessions 1 to 4 getting to grips with the Clean and Jerk.

Dynamic warm up / Foam Roll 

Front Squat Paused in full depth for 3 seconds - 3 sets of 3 (using 20 to 60 kg depending on strength)

High hang complex - Shrug and Pause, Quick Shrug, Shrug and catch (see video below) - 3 reps a set for  10 minuites using 15 to 50 kg depending on strength

Hang Clean to The knee sets of 2 reps for 10 minuites (see video below) - use 20 to 60 kg depending on strength.

Push Press - 5 sets of 3 ramping the weight up as you go (see video below).

After performing these 4 sessions you should have a good general idea of how to clean the bar and have developed the concept of the dip and drive from the shoulders.  Once these associations have been made we can move onto to phase two.

Phase two - Taking the bar from the floor to the shoulders / Learning the Jerk.

The workouts you just performed now become part of your warm up and we will move onto a slightly more complex variations of the lift.  This phase contains 8 sessions (5-8a and 5-8b) to be performed 2x a week or alternated.  

Session 5 to 8a

Dynamic warm up / Foam Roll 

Front Squat Paused in full depth for 3 seconds - 3 sets of 3 (20 to 60 kg depending on strength)

High hang complex - 3 sets of 3 (20 to 60 kg depending on strength)

Hang Clean to The knee - 3 sets of 2 (20 to 60 kg depending on strength)

Squat Clean from the floor for 20 mins sets of 2 with a weight you can move well (see video below)

Split Jerk out of the rack for 20 mins sets of 2 with a weight you can move well (see video below)

Session 5 to 8b

Dynamic warm up / Foam Roll 

Front Squat Paused in full depth for 3 seconds - 3 sets of 3 (20 to 60 kg depending on strength)

High hang complex - 3 sets of 3 (20 to 60 kg depending on strength)

Hang Clean to The knee - 3 sets of 2 (20 to 60 kg depending on strength)

Power Clean from the blocks for 20 mins sets of 3 with a weight you can move well (see video below)

Push Press - 5 sets of 3 ramping the weight up as you go.

After completing this block of work you should now have a pretty well established practice of what a clean and jerk are seperatly so we need to bring them together in holy matrimony. 

Phase three putting it all together now

Again this phase will involve 8 sessions total to be spread out over 2 to 4 weeks they will be a and b sessions like the last block. Sessions 9 to 12 (a) and 9 to 12 (b).

Sessions 9a to 12a

 Dynamic warm up / Foam Roll 

Front Squat Paused in full depth for 3 seconds - 3 sets of 3 (20 to 60 kg depending on strength)

High hang complex - 3 sets of 3 (20 to 60 kg depending on strength)

Hang Clean to The knee - 3 sets of 2 (20 to 60 kg depending on strength)

Clean and Jerk sets of 2 for 25 mins with a weight you can move well but is becoming challenging towards the end (see video below)

Back Squat - 6 sets of 2 @ 80-85%

Power Clean and Push Press - 4 sets of 3 ramping weight

Sessions 9b to 12b

 Dynamic warm up / Foam Roll 

Front Squat Paused in full depth for 3 seconds - 3 sets of 3 (20 to 60 kg depending on strength)

High hang complex - 3 sets of 3 (20 to 60 kg depending on strength)

Hang Clean to The knee - 3 sets of 2 (20 to 60 kg depending on strength)

Clean and Push Press (from high blocks) sets of 2 for 15 mins with a weight you can move well but is becoming challenging towards the end (see video below)

Clean Pull - 4 sets of 2 @ 110-120% of working clean and jerk weight (see video below) 

Power Clean from block and Split Jerk - 4 sets of 3 ramping weight

By the end of these 4 weeks you should be able to perform a clean and jerk with reasonable enough form that you can move on to a programme of sets and reps and begin to train it more like a regular exercise and try to get stronger at it.

Just to clarify here is a typed out plan of how this would work in your week.  All sessions take place on a Tuesday and Thursday in the below plan.

                                    Week 1 - session 1 (Tuesday) and 2 (Thursday)

Week 2 - session 3 (Tuesday) and 4 (Thursday)

Week 3 - session 5a (Tuesday) and 5b (Thursday)

Week 4 - session 6a (Tuesday) and 6b (Thursday)

Week 5 - session 7a (Tuesday) and 7b (Thursday)

Week 6 - session 8a (Tuesday) and 8b (Thursday)

Week 7 - session 9a (Tuesday) and 9b (Thursday)

Week 8 - session 10a (Tuesday) and 10b (Thursday)

Week 9 - session 11a (Tuesday) and 11b (Thursday)

Week 10 - session 12a (Tuesday) and 12b (Thursday)

Self coaching hints and tips

1. Concentrate on how easy the reps feel - the easier the weight feels the more likely you are closer to correct execution
2. Video and watch your lifts back - start to develop a feel for what your form looks like.
3. Watch hours of good lifters lifting - start to develop a feel for what a good lifter looks like when the perform reps so you can juxapose your form and other.
4. Be patient - it's not going to happen overnight losing your temper and not concentrating will just ruin your practice.
5. Use lifting forums - other lifters are on the internet use them as tools to grow.
6. Be realistic your not going to turn into Ilya Ilyin overnight so be happy with the progress you make because after all progress is the name of the game.

I think I will end this tutorial on a high note - 

Marc