Snatch, what?

Snatch that weight!  Last week, one of our WODs included 1 rep max weight on the snatch.  I couldn’t get further than 55 pounds.  I knew the reason why:  I wasn’t doing them correctly.  Here’s what I wasn’t doing:

• keeping the bar close to my body
• shrugging
• high pull
• squatting

Wednesdays are open gym days at our box.  You can do gutz, a WOD, power hour or work on a certain technique.  There was already a group of girls working on the snatch technique when I got there.  Our coach, Josh, gave us the following setup to work on with lightweight (trainer bar with 10 pound plates on each side):

1. 2 Snatch Deadlifts
2. 2 Snatch Shrug
3. 2 Snatch Hang Cleans
4. 1 Snatch

I ended up doing the 4 steps with a PVC pipe and then moved to the trainer bar.  Before the night was over, I was keeping the bar close and dropping into a squat stance.  I decided to do some research on the snatch and found this awesome youtube video.  I can’t wait to get that good!  Can we say a goal for 2013???

Snatch It!

A new WOD is posted every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday of each week.  I stalk the RRCF page until the WOD is posted and sometimes I regret even looking and yesterday was definitely one of those days.  I tell myself that it is ok to check out the WOD because it will NOT be a deciding factor on whether or not I go – I decided in December 2011, when I first started CrossFit, that it would be mandatory to do the WODs.  I wasn’t just going to lay out of the workout just because I didn’t feel like it or the WOD was too hard.  I am committed to keeping this lifestyle that has totally consumed me since December.

Well, like I mentioned earlier – yesterday’s WOD was one of those “regret looking at the WOD” days.  I showed up at the box nervous.  As Josh was teaching us the technique of the snatch (with a PVC pipe), my heart was beating so fast.  I just knew that I was going to be unsuccessful and it scared the crap out of me.  One day I hope to have as much belief in myself as my coaches do in me.  It’s almost overwhelming how they know without a shadow of a doubt that if you commit and put your mind to it – you’ll succeed.

Here’s yesterday’s WOD:

WOD 10.1.12

We walk in the box after our technique lesson to actually try it with the bar.  Then, we added the weight. Again, I was super nervous.  My weight ended up being 55 pounds for the snatch and overhead squat.  I was unable to finish all three rounds, but I was able to make it to the 10 overhead squats on round three.  It felt good to as Josh put it “rip that bar off the floor” and succeed.

Here’s a video of my snatch and overhead squat: