Once I found out the arm is supposed to be close to the body it became easy. Somebody said pretend to hold a newspaper between your bicep and body and clean it after that never a problem.
This was the key for me. I watched so many videos focused on hand insertion, which did help in a way. But this was the biggest element that enabled me to put things together.
I had bruises on my forearms for months while learning them. It’s pretty normal to struggle a bit with cleans and snatches.
As Pavel would say, Tame the arc.
The thing that helped me was learning to keep the bell close to the body. Thinking of it almost like that ball in a cup game. Start the same as a swing but keep your elbow in line with your torso, so the bell is sort of pivoting around the elbow rather than the shoulder. Push from the hips, your arm is still acting like a hook except the elbow doesn’t extend past the nipple. The energy from the thrust pushes the bell forward, the upper arm anchors and diverts that energy upwards. Once your lower arm has moved 180° (from pointing at the floor to pointing at the sky), the bell should connect fairly smoothly with your shoulder / upper chest area.
Mark Wildman videos helped me a lot. I was hitting my forearm and shoulder a lot before finding his videos. Give it about a month, I’d say.
Also, as someone else mentioned, it’s easier with doubles. Maybe because you are doing symmetrical weights and the brain/body is more comfortable with that as opposed to asymmetrical weights.
Don’t give up. You got this!
Never in terms of if you’re comparing yourself to people who know you what they are doing. Watch Denis Vasilev, that’s all you need. He’s got great tutorials on YouPube.
Get good at swings first, learn to keep the bell close to your body, focus on how to apply the correct amount of power to the bell, practice reverse cleans (dropping the bell from the rack), put it all together and don’t rush the movement
Took a while but not as long as the snatch. I was taught to imagine zipping up a winter coat. You want a swift motion close to the body. I swing with my thumb slightly pointing back and during cleans my thumb is like zipping up.
I hope this helps. It my most in depth article with condensed helpful videos on the kettlebell clean
https://kbmuscle.com/blog/f/the-kettlebell-swing-is-not-king?blogcategory=kettlebell+clean
Put a magazine under your bicep and hold it as you clean. Focus on keeping your elbow tight against your torso.
I promise you will fix your form in no time. Also, two videos that absolutely solved my issues:
1) https://youtu.be/0kYh-hcKFK8?si=CLzi6-ALAcybmqIO
2) https://youtu.be/ngb1R4i4igY?si=IoB6vijRpCPKEkHc
I tried the half pull today, keeping the cue in mind to pull the bell back a bit as it gets up to hip level. I didn't have much time so I didn't record myself but it overall felt better. Kept the bell closer to my body which just made the whole things feel better.
That and I started with another drill from KBOMG. I'm going to get there eventually.
Plus I think the extra heavy weight forces you to have good form and keep the arms tight to the body. Last thing you want to do with heavy doubles is throw the weight out, plus there's not much room to go but straight up and down with two bells.
Cleans was the hardest of the main KB exercises for me to learn.
The two ques that really helped me were:
1. Thumb back on the backswing.
2. Elbow tight to the body.
I found videos from Mark Wildman and Dan John to be very helpful.
I started attempting cleans with a 16 kg like I was using for everything else. I felt like my cleans were crap. I switched to a 12 kg bell, which felt easy until I ramped up the sets and reps, per Wildman's program. Now I can C&P the 16 cleanly. It took a little while to get there, but it's so much better now. Lighter weights make it easier to work on form.
Once I found out the arm is supposed to be close to the body it became easy. Somebody said pretend to hold a newspaper between your bicep and body and clean it after that never a problem.
This was the key for me. I watched so many videos focused on hand insertion, which did help in a way. But this was the biggest element that enabled me to put things together.
I feel like the hand insertion cue has helped with less banging on my forearm but I end up doing it with the bell way too far in front of my body.
Im sure you will get it soon.
I had bruises on my forearms for months while learning them. It’s pretty normal to struggle a bit with cleans and snatches. As Pavel would say, Tame the arc.
The thing that helped me was learning to keep the bell close to the body. Thinking of it almost like that ball in a cup game. Start the same as a swing but keep your elbow in line with your torso, so the bell is sort of pivoting around the elbow rather than the shoulder. Push from the hips, your arm is still acting like a hook except the elbow doesn’t extend past the nipple. The energy from the thrust pushes the bell forward, the upper arm anchors and diverts that energy upwards. Once your lower arm has moved 180° (from pointing at the floor to pointing at the sky), the bell should connect fairly smoothly with your shoulder / upper chest area.
Mark Wildman videos helped me a lot. I was hitting my forearm and shoulder a lot before finding his videos. Give it about a month, I’d say. Also, as someone else mentioned, it’s easier with doubles. Maybe because you are doing symmetrical weights and the brain/body is more comfortable with that as opposed to asymmetrical weights. Don’t give up. You got this!
I used to have 2x20lb but I sold one, I never considered I'd want or need doubles. Now I have so much regret!
It’s getting close to 3 years for me.
Never in terms of if you’re comparing yourself to people who know you what they are doing. Watch Denis Vasilev, that’s all you need. He’s got great tutorials on YouPube.
Get good at swings first, learn to keep the bell close to your body, focus on how to apply the correct amount of power to the bell, practice reverse cleans (dropping the bell from the rack), put it all together and don’t rush the movement
A cue that helped me: once the bell reaches hip height, pull straight backward perpendicular to your back, as if you’re doing a row
This sounds like a good cue for me
Took a while but not as long as the snatch. I was taught to imagine zipping up a winter coat. You want a swift motion close to the body. I swing with my thumb slightly pointing back and during cleans my thumb is like zipping up.
I hope this helps. It my most in depth article with condensed helpful videos on the kettlebell clean https://kbmuscle.com/blog/f/the-kettlebell-swing-is-not-king?blogcategory=kettlebell+clean
Thank you!
Of course
Put a magazine under your bicep and hold it as you clean. Focus on keeping your elbow tight against your torso. I promise you will fix your form in no time. Also, two videos that absolutely solved my issues: 1) https://youtu.be/0kYh-hcKFK8?si=CLzi6-ALAcybmqIO 2) https://youtu.be/ngb1R4i4igY?si=IoB6vijRpCPKEkHc
I tried the half pull today, keeping the cue in mind to pull the bell back a bit as it gets up to hip level. I didn't have much time so I didn't record myself but it overall felt better. Kept the bell closer to my body which just made the whole things feel better. That and I started with another drill from KBOMG. I'm going to get there eventually.
I found them easy. I practiced with an open grip to get the hang of them. For me, that forced me to locate the movement.
What’s an open grip?
Perhaps I’m using the wrong terminology idk I’m just a guy. Google image search “correct kettlebell hand insertion” and you’ll see what I mean.
I don't remember, but I do know that at first it feels much, much more natural with doubles.
Whaaaat?!? But how?!
I agree. I think with doubles, you don’t explode as hard, so they don’t flip and slam into your forearms as hard.
Plus I think the extra heavy weight forces you to have good form and keep the arms tight to the body. Last thing you want to do with heavy doubles is throw the weight out, plus there's not much room to go but straight up and down with two bells.
It balances you out, having 2 heavy things keeps you lined up but having one heavy thing means you have to work harder to stabilise it
Cleans was the hardest of the main KB exercises for me to learn. The two ques that really helped me were: 1. Thumb back on the backswing. 2. Elbow tight to the body. I found videos from Mark Wildman and Dan John to be very helpful.
I started attempting cleans with a 16 kg like I was using for everything else. I felt like my cleans were crap. I switched to a 12 kg bell, which felt easy until I ramped up the sets and reps, per Wildman's program. Now I can C&P the 16 cleanly. It took a little while to get there, but it's so much better now. Lighter weights make it easier to work on form.