1. The Warm Up process

The 3 basic stages of the Olympic lift process begin with the athlete in a dead lift position. The bar is then raised to the top of the knees as the legs are straightened. The second pull sees the DOUBLE KNEE BEND ACTION as the knees sink under the bar and forward. The angle created should be between 130 to 140 degrees. The upper body becomes upright and the arms remain locked out straight. From this position the athlete performs an explosive shrug and drives up on to the toes.

2. The Jump Shrug

The next stage is to put power through the three initial pulls resulting in the athlete performing the DOUBLE KNEE BEND TECHNIQUE while explosively extending off the floor.

3. The High Pull

After the Jump Shrug the athlete will aim to bend the arms and at the same time drive the body under the bar. As the bar moves up the athlete drives down.

4. The Snatch Squat

This is the position that the bar needs to be caught in after the high pull phase of the lift. Balance, flexibility and technique are crucial to this CATCH PHASE.

5. The Front Squat

This is the CATCH PHASE of the Clean Lift. You will notice that the grip is narrower than that of the Snatch Lift and again demands high levels of balance, flexibility and technique. It is crucial that the elbows stay through and up until the lowest point of the Squat.

6. The Snatch

The snatch is the most explosive movement in Sports conditioning. It is highly technical as it requires the athlete to coordinate different joints in maximum extensions in order to move a resistance from the floor to overhead as fast as possible. The aim is to keep the bar as close to the body as possible, moving it in a linear upward motion keeping the body's coordination chain in sequence and in total control. The Snatch uses a wide grip position.

In second video Anna Fitzpatrick, aged 16 is performing the Snatch.

7. The Clean

The Clean Lift is very similar in functionality to the Snatch. The only difference is that the athlete would use a narrower grip and the bar would be powerfully extended upwards and caught on the shoulders rather than above the head.

In second video Anna Fitzpatrick, aged 16 is performing the Clean.