The Oly Encyclopedia 28

An Analysis of the Six Phases of the Jerk

The technique of the jerk, like that of snatch and the clean, can be broken up into six phases: the start (the motions the lifter makes and the position the lifter assumes prior to bending or "dipping the legs to thrust the bar overhead); the initial dip: the braking portion of the dips the thrust; the unsupported part of the squat or split under, and the supported phase of the squat or split under. M was the case in the analysis of the snatch and clean, these six phases exclude the recovery from the receiving position of the bar in the jerk (e. the split position). Although there are important differences between the phases of the pull and the jerk, in some respects the six phases of both movements have much in common. Both the similarities and differences will be explained below.

The same caveats that applied to the description of the snatch and clean also apply to the description of the jerk. In brief, they are: a) the analysis, in the main, ignores the recovery of the body to a standing position once the bar has been fixed; b) the segments analyzed are somewhat arbitrary, but they are the segments upon which the greatest amount of data has been gathered; c) the analysis describes what the lifter is doing but not necessarily what he or she is thinking or feeling, and d) the descriptions are of what is being done by high level athletes today, not necessarily what athletes should be doing.

In both the pull and the jerk, the alignment of the body at the start has an important influence on the performance of the subsequent parts of the movement. The pull and the jerk share a preliminary phase of motion in the snatch and clean the bar moves up during that phase, in the jerk it moves down) followed by an amortization phase that brings the body and the bar into proper position for the important final explosion that imparts the majority of the force needed to lift the bar to the proper height. Finally, two phases of the squat under in the snatch, the clean and the jerk have characteristics that cause the bar to be lifted higher than the bar velocity at the end of the explosion would suggest, characteristics that enable the athlete to fix the bar in preparation for a recovery to the final position of the lift.