Why Power Snatches?

Why Power Snatches? This is a very common question I receive from athletes.

And I can understand, because the Power Snatch is not something that just comes to you and can be easily acquired.

It requires a lot of effort and training and athletes experience a lot of frustrations along the way.

However, the Power Snatch has various benefits, that make it worthwhile to invest the time and effort and go through the frustrations.

This video and article discusses

Why power snatches teach fundamental movements
Why power snatches optimally complement sport specific movements
How power snatches enhance stability

Why should you do Power Snatches? The answer to this question is, that the Power Snatch benefits are complex.

Why Power Snatches? Because it teaches fundamental movements.

The Power Snatch teaches and trains a combination of fundamental movements. I have outlined what fundamental movements are and why they are important in the articles

In summary, there are 7 fundamental movements or some people call it primal movements.

Squatting
Bending
Lunging
Pushing
Pulling
Rotating
Gait

In order to perform a Power Snatch correctly, you need to be able

to bend or hinge from the hip properly to transfer the forces in the first pull, transition and second pull
to pull in the second pull and catch phase
to squat in the catch phase and recovery

If you are not familiar with the different phases of the Power Snatch technique, check out

How to do a Power Snatch

Why Power Snatches? Because it teaches vertical stability.

The concept of vertical stability is much less known as the concept of core stability. Over the last few decades, a lot of emphasis and importance has been placed on the so-called core and core stability.

The conclusion was to train the core mainly horizontally, which means the body is either prone (face down) or supine (face up) on the ground, on an implement (stability ball, etc) or supported (planking, bridging, etc), which is classified as horizontal stability.

However, most sporting actions, such as running, jumping, throwing, kicking, hitting, etc require you to stand on both of your feet and require vertical stability, the ability of the body to stay tall without collapsing.

During the catch and recovery, you need to stabilise the weight over your head, which requires vertical stability and has a higher transfer to most sporting actions, than the common horizontal stability drills.

I have outlined the importance of vertical stability in the articles

Why Power Snatches? Because it stabilises the shoulder.

When you catch and stabilise the weight over your head, your shoulders are challenged to keep the bar in the right place, otherwise, you lose the bar.

This can be a good thing and a bad thing because in most cases the shoulder girdle is the weakest link in the entire chain.

What is bad about that?

Well, if you overdo it and your Power Snatch technique is sub-optimal, to phrase it nicely, you might do damage to your shoulder.

What is good about it?

If you train with an appropriate training frequency and you dominate the correct Power Snatch technique, you will reap the benefits of a stronger and more stable shoulder.

What is an appropriate training frequency?

That depends on a couple of factors, I have outlined a few considerations in the article

How many days a week should I Power Snatch

Why Power Snatches? Because it strengthens your back side.

An often overlooked benefit of the Power Snatch is that it strengthen the posterior chain.

As most daily tasks, as well as sporting actions, happen in front of your body, the Power Snatch complements that by challenging the back side.

This is also one of the reasons, why you hardly see any Olympic Weightlifter with the typical hunch back and round shoulders.

If the Power Snatch is done correctly, it can be a very valuable complementary strength exercise for throwing and hitting sports.

To be a bit provocative here, you see a lot of athletes, that compete in hitting or throwing sports, such as tennis, volleyball, handball, the list could go on and have a dedicated theraband routine, that is carried out day in day out with the same intensity and same set and rep ranges.

I am asking myself, how much does that do compared to an adequately loaded Power Snatch that is trained progressively with an appropriate training frequency?

What is adequately loaded?

Again that depends on the individual, I have outlined a few benchmarks in the article