Intermediate · Movement lesson
How to Do a Kettlebell High Pull
Learn the kettlebell high pull as a higher-floating swing with a subtle pull at the top.
Trevor · Founder & head coach · 6 min read
Full video · 3:07 · Trevor
Key takeaways
- Create height from legs, hips, and core.
- Use the arm to guide, not yank.
- Use it as a bridge toward the snatch.
What it is
The high pull is a swing that floats higher, with a subtle pull into your body at the top. It bridges the swing and the snatch by teaching the timing and path to bring the bell up cleanly.
How to do it — step by step
- Start with a single-arm swing, but drive harder from the legs, hips, and core to float the bell higher.
- As it reaches the top, subtly pull it toward you — the arm only guides, the hips do the work.
- Lead back with your elbow, keeping the elbow in line with (or above) your wrist — do not let it drop.
- Let your free arm whip back as the opposite reaction, keeping you balanced.
- Follow the bell back down into the next rep.
Common mistakes
- Muscling the bell up with a shrug or hard arm pull.
- Dropping the elbow below the wrist at the top.
- Letting the free arm hang instead of using it as a counterbalance.
Muscles worked
- Glutes, hamstrings, and hips — the driving power
- Upper back and rear delts — the pulling finish
- Core — bracing and anti-rotation
- Forearms and grip — guiding one arm
Variations and alternatives
- Two-hand high pull for an easier entry point.
- Progress toward the snatch once the timing is smooth.
How to program it
Use high pulls to build power and the path toward the snatch. In the app they appear in conditioning blocks and as a snatch progression.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a high pull and a snatch?
A high pull floats the bell to about head height and pulls it into you; a snatch continues all the way to a locked-out overhead position. The high pull teaches the timing you need before snatching.
Video transcript
Read the video transcript
Alright, let us learn how to high pull. So this looks like a pretty complicated movement, but it's not that complicated, okay? So think of it like this. Let's break it down. So what we're doing is we're basically floating the kettlebell higher than we would for a normal swing, right? So normal kettlebell swing, normal single-handed swing, we're floating the kettlebell floats to about your chest level, right? With the high pull, you're essentially just trying to float it even higher.
So give it a little bit more juice from your legs, hips, and core. Let that kettlebell float high. And that's how you can first start learning this movement. Simply just do that. Right? And just get used to and comfortable with the kettlebell falling from that distance. And then at the very top of the movement, you can subtly pull the bell into you, not that much force, not using your arm that much.
Your arm is just guiding the bell just like with all the movements, right? All the force and power is coming from your legs, hips, and core. You're just kind of guiding that kettlebell into you, right? The key thing with this is where most people may mess up, is they'll drop their elbow as they pull the kettlebell into them. So they'll kind of do something like this. And then the bottom of the kettlebell starts coming up.
It gets all wobbly. So what we want to do is lead back with the elbow and try to keep that elbow in line with our wrist, right? Almost like you're elbowing somebody behind you. And then with your free arm, because our free arm is always involved, it's acting like a whip, right? So if you just let your free arm do its thing, eventually it will do its thing because it's just natural how your body moves.
But if you want to kind of force it and mindfully work on what your free arm should do, is it's the same thing as a single-handed swing, same thing as your jumping forward, except on the way up, the kettlebell and your hand split apart, almost oppose each other directly, like you're elbowing two people behind you, as this just helps your body generate more power this way. And it also balances you out so you're not pulling yourself to one side.
And I'll show you in just a second. But that's basically it. So you're just floating the kettlebell higher, like a higher swing. And then you're just subtly pulling the kettlebell into you, keeping your elbow in line with your wrist, not dropping the elbow, leading back with the elbow and letting that free arm act like the whip that it is, like this. And that is it. Hope that helps. Peace.
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