Olympic Lifts

A couple hours before the Women’s finals of the 2008 CrossFit Games, Gillian Mounsey chatted with Coach Mike Burgener. Gillian was in first place overall, but with only a three second lead over second place Tanya Wagner. The final event, which had been announced the night before, was 30 squat clean and jerks at 100lbs.

The video starts off with Gillian saying she intended to power clean the… Continue Reading

Dutch visited Mike’s Gym in mid-August, 2008. Dutch is a great athlete (finished 7th overall in the 2008 CrossFit Games), with a decent amount of Oly-lifting experience. Coach B put him through a series of strengthening drills, including the Snatch Balance.

After Snatch Balancing 90kg (about 10% more than his Snatch PR), Dutch goes for a 1RM Snatch. He breaks his PR twice, topping out at 86kg. Not too shabby for… Continue Reading

Coach Burgener continues his session with Nick Hawkes on the snatch. In this video, Coach B takes him through the setup position and initial pulls, and a drill called halting deadlifts. Nick was setting up too high and not keeping the bar back in the initial pull. Halting deadlifts are another drill to train proper positioning through the initial pulls. 4min 39sec

Here is the previous entry: Part 1.

Ever wonder what it would be like to train in the gym with of one of the world's best weightlifting coaches? Here's a glimpse. Nick Hawkes went to Mike's Gym thinking he'd never be able to snatch well. This video is the first set of highlights from his snatch session with Coach B.

Coach Burgener teaches the snatch and the clean and jerk, plus supplemental lifts and learning progressions, at CrossFit's… Continue Reading

Mike Burgener continues coaching CrossFitter Pat Barber through an Olympic lifting session. Last month, they worked on the snatch, ending with a new personal- record lift for Pat. This month we see how Coach B gets him up to a PR in the clean and jerk as well.

Coach Burgener teaches the snatch, and the clean and jerk and supplemental lifts, at CrossFit's two-day Olympic lifting certification seminars, where you too… Continue Reading

After working on his own for a few months, Pat Barber, the subject of the last two months' video articles on the fundamentals of the snatch, visits Mike Burgener for a coaching session on weighted snatches and tries for a new PR. It's an informative fly-on-the-wall look into an experienced coach's real-life session with a relatively new lifter.

Pat progressively increases weight with each rep, up to a point. Then, when… Continue Reading

In Part 1 of "Coach Burgener Teaches the Snatch," last month, Coach B worked with Pat, of CrossFit Virginia Beach, on some basics of footwork and positioning for the snatch. In Part 2, here, they walk through a progression of preparatory skill-transfer exercises and then into the snatch from the high-hang position--all still with just PVC:

Overhead squat: The landing position for the snatch. Pressing snatch balance: A slow… Continue Reading

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… Continue Reading