New kid on the block

Went for my first session at the Lost Battalion Hall Weightlifting Club. It's an amazing place nestled in the corner of the basement of a NYC Parks building out in the heart of Queens. Coaches, six platforms, a bunch of functional bars and stacks of bumpers. What more could you ask for? And how is it that it took me this long to head out to LBH???

I was quickly introduced to Coach Artie, who I believe wrote the classic Weightlifting Encyclopedia. He told me to do what I've been doing in the gym, and he would watch to get a sense of how I lifted. I was pretty nervous, as there were lifters at all the platforms doing their thing, and I had no idea what I was doing. Fortunately, a nice gentleman named Stan let me work in. I completely spaced out and forgot to write anything down. Plus, I was all confused converting kilograms (I know, I know, it's sad), so here's just a quick summary. Warmed up with hang power snatches, then power snatches followed by squat snatches. Never got much weight on the bar and bailed multiple times on 45-50 kg. Then triples of the clean at 60 kg. Then split jerks from the rack at 40 kg.

Coach stopped by between sets to point out correct positioning and ways to fix issues. The most outstanding of the day were:

1) Bottom position of the snatch is wobbly. Coach prescribed overhead squats every session to get comfortable in this position.

2) First pull in the clean (and likely the snatch too) was inconsistent. My lower back isn't arched enough and my chest isn't expanded ('big chest'), and I'm not patient enough setting up my initial position to be the exact same each lift. Coach also noted that I'm not consistent with getting my knees out of the way of the bar by pulling my knees back.

3) During the jerk, I was landing with my back leg too extended, with too much of my weight on just the big toe of my back leg. Turning my back foot inward slightly, to distribute the weight more evenly over the other toes and the ball of the foot resulted in instantly improved stability. Also, I wasn't using my legs as shock absorbers (as evidenced by the very loud sound I made landing). One of the lifters made the analogy of jumping off of a four foot box and landing. Which way would you land, quietly or loudly? Coach noted that landing with the back leg bent gives a margin of error for heavier lifts; if the bar doesn't get enough elevation, you can essentially get lower in the jerk rather than pressing the weight up, which would result in a no-lift.

I went at it for about one hour and forty five minutes before I had to run. My homework is: overhead squat every session; squat twice a week at the end of each session, alternating front and back squats; power snatch if it's too hard to deal with the full squat snatch (ie, if I am limited not by weight but by my squat stability).