"super man pull"

I call it the “super man pull”.   In Olympic weightlifting the most famous way of breaking down the pull on the snatch and clean and jerk is “first pull, second pull, and then the third pull” meaning the finish at the top of the lift before you go under the bar to catch the weight.  In the Jon North coaching book I break it down a little different.  I call it the super man pull.  The super man has three steps as well focusing on the positions of the shoulders rather than the bar path.  Here are the three points:
       
          The first point of the super man pull happens right off the floor.  Your shoulders need to be back, not behind the bar but back enough that your chest should be facing the wall.  You should stay that way from the floor to a little bit below your knees. Thats point one.
     
        The second point is right when the bar starts getting closer to your knees you should then push your shoulders over the bar.  This is hard to do, because you have to stay on your heels, but the bar has other plans.  The bar wants to put you on your toes, but you have to fight and stay on your heels the whole time.  If you can stay on your heels and push your shoulders out over the bar at the same time you are putting your body in perfect position for point three, the “finish” the explosion! 
     
        Point three is once the bar is in line with your hips then you pull your shoulders all the way back behind your hips.  When you pull your shoulders back you should push the bar into your hips at the same time, and your hips should come through at the same time as well.  “Bar back hips through!”  This is what I say everyday in the gym. It is what you need for the Mike Tyson finish so you can have time to get under the bar to catch and then stand up, making the winning lift in the Olympics.  That’s the super man pull  Now let me tell you why this way of pulling is the best way to go.
    
        The reason why the super man pull is so effective is because it forces you to stay over the bar!  This is the most important part of the lift.  When an athlete starts pulling back too early, or in some cases pulling their shoulders back throughout the whole pull means they will have no power for the finish.  Don’t believe me? Then try it yourself.  Try jumping as high as you can in the air with your shoulders behind your hips before you jump…  That’s what I thought. You looked like a fish out of water, no power.  Now try jumping in the air with your shoulders over your hips.  Well there you go.  Now you have some good power and jumped higher than Michael Jordan.  Same thing goes with the snatch and clean. You need to push your shoulders back at the same time your hips come through.  As you pull your shoulders back you should be pushing the bar INTO your hips at the same time, and your hips should be coming through at the same time as well for that max explosion, because that’s what you are looking for, explosion to give you time to get under.   It all should happen in the blink of an eye, bam.  You want to push the bar into your hips, and don’t pull up!  That’s what so many lifters do.  Right before the bar is about to make contact with the hips, they start to pull up and this leads to a “brush hit”.  Those are the worst. Don’t pull up, pull back!  Its physics, for example, if two trains are moving full speed at each other and they collide there is going to be way more force then if there was only one train moving and one sitting still.  So the same applies to your hips and the bar, pull back for that force, for that “finish”!  
        
      TRY THIS SUPER MAN PULL, North 2012
   
PS:  You look like super man when you do the super man pull, and that's bad ass.