How many of you can say you have completed a full snatch?

There is only a special population who can actually perform the snatch with the right technique. I received the blog off of the CrossFit main site, and hopefully it doesn’t help out people who are just looking to improve their snatch, but for those who have no idea what the snatch is.

As you read on, you will find out that snatch not only increases strength, but other benefits that will increase your athletic ability and every day movements. So no matter what the goal is with CrossFit; be it fat loss, strength gain, increasing performance…when you learn this powerful movement called the “snatch” it will make everything you do much much easier…I guarantee it!

The full snatch is one of the most complicated movements in all of sports. An athlete has to pull a weight upward with force and speed, then completely reverse his mental keys to explode downward under the still-moving bar. To be able to perform a snatch with a maximum poundage is a feat of strength without peer.

Full snatches have value for all athletes because they involve so many of the larger muscle groups in a dynamic fashion. In fact, every muscle in the body is activated during the execution of a full snatch, including smaller groups such as the biceps and calves.

The snatch is a high-skill movement, so every rep requires absolute concentration on the part of the athlete, which means the nervous system receives much more stimulation than when a static exercise is done. Whenever an athlete masters the technique in the full snatch, he has learned to trigger the necessary form cues instantly, and this skill is transferred to all his other athletic endeavors.

In other words, learning how to do a full snatch benefits not only strength but many other athletic attributes, such as flexibility, coordination, foot speed, balance, timing, determination, mental acuity, you name it!

By: Cody B

This entry was posted on June 17, 2010 at 9:46 pm and is filed under Crossfit Philosophy, CrossFit Workouts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.