How to Do a Kettlebell Snatch

Let us go over the kettlebell snatch. The king of kettlebell movements. Right? So, and like always, let's try to keep this simple. All right? Don't think about this like a robot. The snatch will take lots of reps. The kettlebell will teach you the snatch. You just have to rep it out lots of times. Right? Number one, you might start getting blisters. This is when the blisters come in with the snatches. So, couple of tips.

First, you can use a pumice stone. You can look that up. P-U-M-I-C-E stone. Pumice stone. Look that up on Amazon or Google. You probably have one in your shower right now. It's the thing that you use to, you know, grind down your feet. Use that in the shower a couple of times per week to keep your hands flat, keep your calluses smooth, and that'll prevent them from bunching up and blistering when you hit the high volume snatches or even just snatches in general.

And then you could also, number two, you could also look up CrossFit gloves. Just look that up. CrossFit gloves and they're perfectly made for snatches, but just know your hands will get used to it. Okay? You'll probably have to deal with a couple blisters here and there. Don't worry. You'll be, you'll be just fine. The boo-boo will go away and you'll be tougher and then you'll never get them again. Okay? Until you move up in weight, then it'll probably happen again, but it's okay.

The Pumice stone is the real trick. You got to keep the hands flat. So, and then to get into the snatch. So think of the snatch guys as almost the same thing as the clean. The only difference is you're going all the way to the top, but it's the same concept, right? So remember what we talked about? You're tight at the bottom of the movement, loose, and I'm talking about your grip, your hand, your arm, right?

Like we're tight here, loose on the way up, tight at the top. Okay? That's what's really important here with the snatches is all the power is coming from your legs, hips, and core. And it's all about keeping loose and fluid through the arm until the top of the movement. And then again, being tight shoulder locked in its socket, knuckles pointing to the ceiling, not your palm knuckles pointing to the ceiling, right?

So our wrist is straight. And that's what a good snatch looks like, right? So all the power is coming from the legs, hips, and core. And we're keeping that arm fluid and loose because all the bad stuff and we got a few more cues as well, it's going to help us get this down. But most of the bad stuff with snatches and with cleans happened because we're too tight through the arm, right?

We're sending too much power through the arm. And that's why people do that with the snatch, right? Because they're gripping the kettlebell too tight, their arm is too tight, and they swing that bell on their wrist and it slams into the wrist. Okay? So keep the arm fluid and loose, like a whip, like you're punching, we're tight, loose, tight, right? Like a ball when you're throwing a ball, are you throwing it like that?

No, you're loose, tight, your arm acts like a whip. Same thing with the snatch, right? And then to break it down further, everything is the same as what we've learned so far with the other ballistic movements, right? We're hinging in the same way that we would if we're about to jump forward, we're exploding, driving through our legs, hips, and core, ending up in that standing plank, fluid through the arm, no hesitation to the top.

And here are just a few more cues with the kettlebell itself to make sure you don't slam your wrist and whatnot, right? So number one is remember we're not going fishing, we're not casting the kettlebell like this. Like I said, keeping your arm fluid is what defeats all of this, but that's easier said than done. So when you implement these cues, it will kind of force the fluidity over time, right? So instead of thinking casting, going fishing, swinging, right?

Think unzipping and re-zipping the jacket, right? Keeping that kettlebell as tight as possible to your body, just like I said with the clean, imagine you're standing like a foot away from a wall, and you cannot hit the wall with the kettlebell on the way down or up. What will that force? It will force that to happen, right? Keeping it tight and force that sort of fluidity through your arm because you have to, you have no other choice.

You can't be rigid and tight while trying to keep it tighter to your body, the kettlebell that is, right? And then similarly to all the other movements we've learned as well, do not stop the momentum of the kettlebell from falling, right? So if the kettlebell is falling, don't do this. See? Don't try to slow and stopping and stop. No, let the kettlebell fall. Use all that momentum for the very next snatch, right?

Think of snatching down to snatch up. Shhh! Loose and fluid through the arm. That's everything with the snatch, is getting that fluidity, which again will take practice hundreds and hundreds of reps. So remember, keep it tight to the body, explode through the legs, hips, and core, stay fluid through the arm, no hesitation, tight at the top, and everything we've learned so far, standing plank, eyes forward, knuckles never passing the kneecaps, you get it.

Hope this helps. Peace.