I’m a “keep it simple” type of coach that focuses on the meat and potatoes. Once the Weightlifter gets a better understanding of positioning than I’ll start to add a few accessory movements as needed. Once the Weightlifter is prepared and the Coach believes this movement is beneficial, it could be a great movement to add in for a few reasons:
- Variety
- Unload the body if injured or beat up
- To work on positioning
With that said I feel too many people jump into this exercise without fully understanding the movement. The purpose of any auxiliary exercise to have translation to the given lifts (snatch and clean & jerk) the high pull is no different.
The pull positions should mimic the snatch or clean pull, I particularly feel that the third pull is the biggest benefit of this movement. The pull should mimic the position by having the chest up bar tight.
The common errors I see for the high pull:
- Pull position is changed maybe due to not fully paying attention or giving the lift as much respect as the classical lifts
- Bar swinging out
- Over pull of the bar
- Timing of the pull under or 3rd pull is off (if you execute the high pull in the manner as I state).
- Going to heavy too early. you must first learn the correct positing & timing before you go too heavy. Yea its fun to do heavy weights but why go through all that work if it has minimal translation to the snatch or clean? I’m a coach that focuses on positioning first before strength or power.
Stay strong,
Team Fusion Weightlifting