Improving the Split Jerk: Enhancing Position, Timing, and Stability
In this blog, we'll cover how to improve your positions throughout the dip, drive, and catch phases of the split jerk, with a focus on better balance, stability, body awareness, and strength.
Additionally, we'll explore ways to enhance your speed and timing in the jerk, especially when lifting heavier loads.
Much of this knowledge comes from my personal experience as an athlete, working through these areas myself, which has paid off significantly. As a coach, I've continued to learn and apply these principles while working with athletes facing similar challenges.
The jerk is one of my favourite movements to teach—perhaps because it’s also a movement I've spent a lot of time working on myself. While many people claim that the jerk is the easiest of the Olympic lifts, I would disagree and say that, like all lifts, it’s highly person-dependent.
Improving Positions: The Dip & Drive
The dip and drive may seem simple, but it’s a critical part of the jerk that often leads to missed lifts. People frequently underestimate the importance of this phase. It’s how we generate the power to accelerate the bar upward and get under it (which we'll dive deeper into later). To generate maximum force, it's crucial that we maintain proper balance and keep our center of mass aligned. Simple, right? Yet, this is often where people go wrong, especially under heavy loads and high speed, both of which require excellent control.
There are various drills to improve your dip position, particularly when it comes to maintaining balance. One of my all-time favourite exercises is the foam roller drill, which I learned from Caity Haniver (@thebarbellosteo). For this, you need a foam roller and a wall. This drill teaches you how to stay balanced, control the depth of your dip, and improve midline stability during the dip and drive phase—an area where most people tend to struggle.
The Catch
When landing in the catch, it's important to be balanced across both the front and back leg. However, many people end up placing the majority of their weight on their front leg. This often stems from poor awareness of foot placement or, more commonly, a lack of control in torso/hip position.
If you’re like I was in the past and used to experience lower back pain from jerks, you’ve probably been told to “push your chest/head forward.” This typically leads to hyperextension in the catch position, causing an inability to maintain a neutral torso angle. Let’s explore a few progressions and regressions to improve torso positioning and body awareness in the catch:
Front Foot Elevated Split Squat
The split squat is a great exercise to teach proper torso and pelvic positioning. However, many people still push the front knee forward in a regular split squat. A better variation when using split squats to support your jerk is to elevate the front foot or back foot, either on a slant board or wedge.
If you always have weight in your front foot in the catch of a split jerk, the front foot elevation is a great variation to help push your center of mass backwards to put more weight in your back leg. Therefore teaching you to maintain a neutral torso position and eventually distributing your weight across both legs.
Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat
If you’re the opposite and all your weight is in your back leg and you struggle to keep pressure in your front foot, opt for the rear foot elevation. Doing so will push your centre of mass forward and teaching you how to maintain contact through your front foot. Again still helping teach a neutral torso angle.
If you struggle with midline control, holding a dumbbell in a goblet position can help reinforce a stacked midline during the split squat. Alternatively, if you still have trouble controlling your rib cage, you can opt for a dumbbell or plate reaching variation. This teaches you to maintain a better torso position while staying balanced across both legs. You can further progress this exercise by lowering the elevation, reducing your reliance on the raised foot pushing your centre of mass.
DB Split Squat (Hands By Side)
If you are someone who naturally your shoulders are rolled forward in your posture, I would recommend using two dumbbells and hold by your side through this exercise. Doing so will help maintain a better posture through your scapular by focusing you pulling your shoulders back.
Jerk Support
Once we have a better understanding of where our body needs to be, we can further practice this controlled position in the jerk support.
This exercise will help increase more stability in the catch and further your body awareness when your center of mass is challenged forward or backward.
The jerk support is an excellent exercise for teaching balance and stability in the catch position. This exercise mirrors the body positions used in the front/rear foot elevated split squat but adds an extra challenge by holding the barbell overhead. It requires additional midline strength to stabilise the bar overhead, and it’s especially useful for athletes who struggle with lockout or maintaining proper bar path during the jerk.
How to Improve Your Acceleration and Timing in the Jerk
When we talk about improving the timing of the jerk, we're referring to two key phases:
The Dip and Drive Timing: This is the transition between the eccentric (dip) and concentric (drive) phases.
The Catch Timing: This refers to the moment after you’ve extended your hips and legs, moving into the catch position.
Both phases are crucial, but most athletes don’t train the dip and drive transition enough. To enhance this, we can use depth jumps, a drill designed to improve rate of force development (RFD). The goal of the depth jump is to step off a box, land on the floor, and immediately jump as high as possible. This mimics the dip and drive’s quick transition, helping to train your body to change direction quickly and produce more force.
I typically start athletes on a 20-inch box and gradually increase the height as they improve. The higher the box, the greater the force needed to change direction, which challenges the athlete to maintain the correct shape and speed.
Many athletes struggle with the dip and drive for two main reasons:
Dipping Too Slow: This causes them to lose the ability to accelerate out of the drive, resulting in rushing under the bar because they can’t generate enough upward force.
Dipping Too Deep: This leads to a loss of position and an inefficient drive.
Everyone’s dip depth and speed will vary from person to person, depending on body types and limb length. But from what I’ve learnt and in my experience coaching many weightlifters, is that a faster dip and drive to the appropriate depth for the person is a more effective dip and drive and produces better outcomes overall in the jerk. Training the dip and drive with exercises like depth jumps can correct these issues by improving the ability to generate force and change direction quickly. In saying that, we need to be able to control the speed, so that is why the balance and positioning is so important. Even though speed is sexy and fun to play around with, it can be dangerous for someone who cannot control their body or is not aware of how to maintain certain positions.
Improving your jerk comes down to mastering balance, timing, and stability across every phase of the lift. Whether it’s refining your dip and drive, achieving a balanced catch, or enhancing your explosive power, the key lies in focused, intentional training. Exercises like split squats, jerk supports, and depth jumps can help you fine-tune your technique while building the strength and control needed to execute heavy lifts confidently. Remember, progress in the jerk is a combination of precision, consistency, and effort—small improvements in position and timing can lead to big breakthroughs.Keep showing up, trust the process, and get ready to elevate your lifting game.
-Coach Sebb
