Teaching Through Feeling: Coaching the Person, Not Just the Lift

To improve in weightlifting, we need to improve all qualities of weightlifting, including our technique.

No one will ever have perfect technique, but we can always try to improve, and we do that by learning to feel the correct positions, not just by sitting and explaining the technique.

As a coach, many people I work with need to improve their technique. Many of them may have started in CrossFit, and generally, CrossFitters have technique imbalances due to the speed at which they perform the lifts before focusing on the technique itself.

Of course, we can’t work on everything at once because we will end up working on nothing. Every coach likely has a different approach and biased opinions on what they believe the person in front of them needs to work on first. 

My Approach as a Coach

The first thing I ever do is understand the person in front of me and learn everything I can about them. So when assessing someone’s technique, I just watch them lift and we have a nice chat.

I will make them build in weight. I won’t cue them or give them any indication of what I am thinking about in regards to their technique, but just get to know the person in front of me who has come asking for help.

I do this mostly because I know very little about them, and I want to see how they naturally move without my own opinion in their head just yet.

I want to know who I’m working with, how they move, their technique issus, any mobility limitations, any structural issues, what they may understand about the technique, and what they may not, etc.

I want to know what they’ve previously worked on either by themselves or with another coach. I want a good picture of what their training has looked like before. 

Identifying and Addressing Technical Issues

Once I decide on what direction I want to go, I will work from the bottom up. So I think to myself, okay, how is the setup? Are they balanced across their whole foot, and can they maintain mid-foot pressure throughout the lift? Do we have good tension throughout the body in the setup, and can they maintain that tension throughout the lift, etc.?

If the answer is no, the next step is deciding, where does the technique break down? Is it a matter of awareness or a matter of strength?

Let’s look at an example: A new client who has some experience weightlifting, but is struggling with jumping forward in their lifts and has constant lower back pain after the snatch and clean no matter what they have done or been told to do, nothing changes.

After assessing their lifts, I immediately notice their hips shoot up when they start the lift, and because I am talking to them and asking questions, they told me, “in class, they are always told to keep their chest up throughout the lift.” 

My process will start from there, I notice they jump forward because their hips shoot up as they come off the floor, and the chest is now pointed downward, meaning the hips can only travel in one direction, forward.

Now, there are many variations I can add to someone’s program to place a constraint on the movement to teach the quality I want. The issue may also need a few different variations over a couple of blocks before I start to see progress, of course, depending on the person and their training age.

Constraints in Training

A constraint refers to any factor—whether technique, range of motion, equipment, or strength—that influences performance. Using constraints in training helps guide the lifter toward the position we're aiming for. These constraints can be applied in various variations to help the lifter feel and understand the right mechanics.

Using Variations to Improve the Lifts: 

For the sake of the example, we are going to say there are no structural issues or strength issues in place, but this person simply doesn’t understand how to push through their mid-foot coming off the floor because they have always been told to “just keep your chest up.”

So, the first goal for this client is to teach them to drive with their legs. This is how I would do this:

Warm-up and Accessories:

• I can add such things to a warmup, like a counterbalance squat. Also, utilize their accessories to help teach the same thing. An accessory could be an RDL where they have to maintain mid-foot and a constant back angle.
  

• If it happens in both the snatch and clean, then pick some variations across both lifts and find out at which loading they can maintain the quality I am looking for in the variation.
  

Variations I may use:

• Clean/Snatch lift-off: They will lift to the front of the knee, and I will get them to pause in their setup position, so they have to feel everything correctly in the setup and a pause in front of their knee where they have to feel the correct position further up as well, and of course, they control it to the floor in the same way because at this point, I am using every opportunity to help teach this new feeling. This way, I am teaching the correct balanced position, and they get a good opportunity to feel the correct position. The lift-off is good because I can generally go a bit heavier with it, but I will only load to where they can maintain the quality I am looking for.

• Power position Snatch/Clean: Keeping the bar in the hip, they will perform a dip and drive, maintaining an upright torso position before pulling themselves under the bar. Yes, I did come to the conclusion that this person is shooting their hips off the floor, but that doesn’t mean that once I fix that, everything will be perfect. I also need to challenge them in different positions of the pull because this person has always lifted like that and jumped forward. So it is likely that they also don’t understand how their body needs to move when going into the second pull. So I can use this to help reinforce that and also help this person utilize their legs. It is a great teaching point on to push through midfoot as they extend.
  

• Floating Clean/Snatch: I still want to give them an opportunity to do the lifts but in a manner that can produce teaching them the same feeling. Now, the floating variation, I will get them to lift to their hip and then focus on being balanced across midfoot, lowering the bar down and maintaining the good torso position I want. Sometimes, starting from the hip and lowering down is a good and simple way to teach someone where their body needs to be. The goal from there, once they lower to where I want them to, is that they try to mimic those same positions on the way up. Doing the floating variation, I won’t have to load it as much to create a stimulus, so I won’t be as stressed about them lifting it incorrectly off the floor when they go to bring the bar to their hip.

For this person, I chose those three exercises, but there are so many other variations I can use to place a constraint in their program to help teach them the new technique. I could go with blocks, different hang positions, deadlift variations etc. 

Adapt the stimulus: 

After a few weeks of being able to increase the load or volume and being able to maintain that quality, I will do one of two things:

• Decide if I believe they need a different variation to keep working on the same thing, or

• If I think it has been long enough on variations, I will get them to Snatch and Clean for a couple of weeks and see if the variations made a difference in the technique, and if so, great, move on to the next thing while still implementing this new technique quality quietly in their program. If I watch and see that they still can’t maintain it to the standard I am asking for, then I go back with a different or same variation and continue to add constraints to their training to help them understand what I am looking for.

A cue is NOT a teaching point

If I just had this person doing the full lifts off the floor and just sat there and kept telling them, “keep your hips down,” “chest up,” “push the floor away,” “tight off the floor,” or any other cues, I probably would never see any impactful change. 

A cue is only relevant once the person has been taught and felt the quality I’m looking for, and the cue can be anything that is specific to the person to remind them of that quality. 

I’m not saying I never talk to my clients or just add a constraint and expect them to figure it out—far from it! I probably talk too much, haha. But I believe the best way to improve is by feeling the correct position and repeating it. That said, I like to explain the technique so they understand why it works. If I just say, 'Do this because I said so,' I’m not being a great teacher. 

By understanding the individual lifter's needs and employing a variety of techniques, we can effectively address any issues and help them achieve their full potential.

Remember, the journey to improvement is a process that requires patience, persistence, and a focus on quality over quantity.

-Coach Sebb