Characteristics of successful snatch in female weightlifters

Summary of an article looking at snatch characteristics in women compiting in Olympic weightlifting.

Who

10 female athletes competing in 69kg class at the 1999 USA men’s and Women’s Weightlifting Championships.

Design

Analysis of video recordings from the 1999 USA men’s and Women’s Weightlifting Championships. All attempts were analysed: successful and unsuccessful; 3 best attempts were used for horizontal displacement analysis.

Outcome measures

• 2D analysis of snatch performance:
  • displacement in the first and second pull (towards/away from the imaginary vertical line drown from a starting position of the bar)
  • drop time - time from maximal vertical bar velocity at the end of second pull, to the bar stop at catch position
  • drop-under - vertical drop of the bar from maximal hight after second pull to the hight of catch position
  • maximal bar velocity
  • load
  • total power, 1st pull power, 2nd pull power

Main results

• 16 out of 30 snatches were successful.
• Avarage load lifted in snatch in 69 kg class was 80.66 (±13.81) kg (calcuated only for successful lifts).
• Average displacement in the first pull was 1.97 (±2.61) cm in “toward” direction (toward athlete’s body), and -1.47 (±6.64) cm (in “away” direction) in the second pull.
• bar was pulled on average to 101.53 (±7.40) cm. Average drop was 20.78 (±5.92) cm in 0.469 (±0.095) seconds.
• maximal vertical velocity was 164.82 (±19.11) cm/s.
• The successful lifters added 3 (±1) kg between lifts (ranging from 2.5 to 5 kg).
• total power was 1,312.57 (±317.52) Watts, while power in first pull was 1,459.55 (±508.01) Watts, and in the second pull was 2,491.69 (±902.02) Watts.

Take home message

Original article

Hoover DL, Carlson KM, Christensen BK, Zebas CJ. Biomechanical analysis of women weightlifters during the snatch. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2006 Aug 1;20(3):627.