Monday, May 4, 2009

"Snatches tear up my hands"

No.
The way YOU snatch tears up your hands.**

On the Dragon Door Strength Forum, it is a recurring subject: how do I protect my hands while I am snatching?

I have said this for years- the best way to protect your hands while snatching is with your technique.

To me, excessive use of hand protection compounds the problem. It reminds me of some of the escrima guys I have seen with full head-to-toe armor when they spar. It takes away the inherent respect for the stick if getting hit is no longer a hugely undesireable consequence.



No disrespect to the guys in the video, I am just saying this in NOT a real stick fight, and you will fight like you train.

If you need hand protection because you have torn something and don't want to miss training time, that is one thing, but if the only way you can snatch is with some apparatus you need better technique.

In the RKC, principle number one is "The emphasis should be on technique over routines, exercises and workloads. The latter are marginal until technique is perfect." Learn the correct way to snatch. Practice, practice, practice.

This week I will make a couple of video posts on troubleshooting Hardstyle snatch technique.

Stay tuned.....

**Thanks to Dan John for the original version of that quote, regarding squats.

6 comments:

Sandy Sommer, RKC said...

So true, David! My hands weren't an issue once my technique was refined.

mike said...

I've noticed the same. I, however, am not an RKC and find it difficult to effectively express what it is that I do that has helped me stop tearing up my hands. I agree it's excessive use of grip that causes it but could you tell those of us in the back of the class, what exactly we need to do to avoid it.

Randy Hauer said...

Crafty Dog vs Lap Dog...Crafty Dog for the win. Practice + technique + progressive conditioning + maintenance + awareness (quit while you are ahead) all are important.

Rob said...

Right on Dave! Great post, although I'm no great technician I've noted some people tear their hands up big time on a session of 200-300 snatches, whereas others including myself have no probs.
Maybe my technique is not so bad

Regards
Rob

Unknown said...

Randy's equation sums it up well. You need the technique and you need to build up your hands; the best way to do this is practice. A guitar string will hurt your finger until a proper callous is built up and your note will sound like butt until you practice it enough.

Mike Krahling said...

Dave,
What i have found that even after i got my form straightened out (by working with Brian Petty RKC & Jen Morey RKC)i was still killing my fingers. Last year during the 50K snatch race i did over 10K snatches in a month but i used a glove (military wool glove insert with finger tips cut off). All it did was build calouses but i still could not snatch for high reps without the gloves. Just recently i tweaked my GRIP form and now i am finding no pain at all in my fingers, palms or any part of my hand. I used to catch the bell in a hook grip, but with my fat fingers it would make my calouses hurt enough to stop workouts. Now i found that by closing my fingers more before the bell slides across my palm, it gets caught between my finger tips and the top of plam. So it never touches the first 2 sections of my fingers. It is hard to explain but after 30,000 snatches in the last year (i slowed down alot after 25K) i finally figured out what works for me. If you want i can send you a picture of do a video for you to review. Let me know.

PS I was ripping cards with you at the Phily Art Museum workout a couple of weeks ago.