Coach Burgener Teaches the Snatch Part 1

We pulled Olympic lifting coach Mike Burgener aside during the lunch break at a recent CrossFit certification seminar to teach Pat, of CrossFit Virginia Beach, to snatch. Pat's a very good athlete but has limited exposure to heavy Olympic lifting, especially snatching. Burg started him with PVC, expecting to breeze right through, but Pat made several little errors that needed fixing off the bat and was inconsistent in his movement. Burg rode him hard about them, making several essential coaching points along the way, including that athletes need to be ridden hard to nail technique from the beginning. He gets Pat through some basics on footwork and positioning, plus the Burgener warm-up in this month's video. Next month, Part 2 in the series will continue the lesson.

Mike Burgener, a.k.a. "Coach B" or simply "Burg," is the owner of Mike's Gym (a CrossFit affiliate and USAW Regional Training Center), a USAW Senior International Coach, former junior World team (1996-2004) and senior World team (2005) coach, and the strength and conditioning coach at Rancho Buena Vista High School in Vista, Calif.