Teaching the Clean: From A to Z (Part II)

In part I of teaching the clean lift, we discussed the concept of clean movement patterns and progressing your athletes with the proper technique. In this issue, we will focus on hip extension where real power is generated. Once an athlete can hip hinge properly, we teach violent hip extension. The main ways we teach this are through a variety of medicine ball throws and kettlebell swings (Photos 1-4).Once our athletes have demonstrated the ability to squat, hinge, and extend with precision, we move on to our actual teaching of the clean. We use a 3-step top down approach when starting with the clean. We have found that keeping it simple with as few cues as possible is beneficial when first teaching this exercise. Athletes can become paralyzed by too many cues, ultimately failing to master the basic steps needed to safely and efficiently complete a clean. Once proficient in the basics,