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The Split Snatch by Bill Starr, author of The Strongest Shall Survive, Defying Gravity and his massive 725-page fiction, The Susquehanna River Hills Chronicles, is a former Olympic lifter and powerlifting competitor. In 1966 he moved to York, Pennsylvania, where he became the assistant editor of Strength and Health magazine, and later became the strength and conditioning coach for the Baltimore Colts, the Houston Oilers, and at the University of Hawaii, the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins. He currently writes for MILO and Iron Man magazines.
Serious strength athletes are always on the lookout for exercises that will help them to become better all-around performers in their chosen sports. They will try just about anything to improve their coordination, timing, foot quickness, agility, and balance. One-legged squats, hopping up on boxes, running through mazes of chains placed on the floor. The more gadgets and gimmicks involved the better.
This is not a new concept. Strength athletes have been seeking lifts to help them get stronger and faster for centuries, and barbells and dumbbells have always been part of that quest. Unless one has a historical interest in the sport of strength, he will not know that before the International Weightlifting Federation condensed the number of lifts to be contested to just three, there were dozens of exercises tested in strength competitions. The British Weight-lifter’s Association, for example, listed 38 different lifts that could be done to set a new record. At the 1924 Olympics in Paris, the lifts were the one-hand snatch, one-hand jerk, press, snatch, and clean and jerk. But at the next Olympic Games in Amsterdam in 1928, the classic three lifts – the clean and press, snatch, and clean and jerk – were contested for the first time. However, snatching and cleaning from the hang position was permitted
(by 1932 the hang was disallowed). This remained the format until 1972 when the press was dropped from official competition.
From the very beginning up to the present, the two-hands snatch has been an integral part of the sport. It is a very athletic movement, requiring not only great strength to handle big numbers, but an extremely high degree of foot speed, timing, coordination, agility, balance and a large dose of courage. Which makes it the perfect exercise for those wanting to improve those attributes. And in my opinion, the split style is more beneficial to strength athletes than the squat style due to the fact that the athlete has to move his feet a longer distance in the split snatch. That entails greater quickness and overall coordination.
It should also be noted that up until the mid-forties, every competitive lifter used the split style. There were no squat snatchers. Seems odd, but it’s true. The squat snatch was invented by a teenage phenom out of Ohio, Pete George. Just as Dick Fosbury revolutionized the high jump with his unorthodox “Fosbury Flop” at the ’68 Games in Mexico City, Pete George changed the way lifters would snatch in the future.
With Pete’s amazing success in the sport followed by another sensation, Dave Sheppard, using the squat-style snatch, nearly everyone starting out in the sport of Olympic lifting adopted the squat style. But there were still some excellent splitters breaking records on the national and international levels; Stan Stanczyk, Norb Schemansky, and Louis Riecke were all world record holders in the snatch.
Continuing reading to learn the key points of the split snatch.
Warmup
Jump Rope 5 Minutes
3 Sets (10 minute limit)
1 Turksh Getup R/L
10 Ring Push-ups
10 Kettlebell Swings
Lift
2-2-2-2-2
Split Snatch
Work up to a challenging double.
Conditioning
8 Minutes AMRAP
60 Double Unders
60 Burpees