I am an imperfect coach.

I don’t know everything and I don’t pretend to.

One of the most admirable qualities I think any coach should possess is having a modicum of humbleness that acknowledges their “gaps.”

 

Some coaches are stellar at teaching the “big 3” but are unable to break down sprint mechanics.

Others are nutrition nerds and can break down the Kreb’s Cycle by heart, yet have limited experience coaching the nuances of the Turkish Get-Up.

And then there are those who feel the kipping pull-up is a good exercise:

 

I keed, I keed[footnote]It’s a joke obligatory CrossFit defender guy. Relax. Here, I made you some organic, grass-fed sweet potato pancakes. BFFs again?[/footnote]

As coaches we can’t be everything to everyone. However, that doesn’t mean we should avoid making our coaching gaps less “gappy” altogether.

Throwing myself into the fire I’ll be the first to admit I’m garbage when it comes to coaching the Olympic lifts. In fact I wrote an entire article on why I don’t use them in any of my programming.

A few weeks ago I had a client ask me if I could coach him up on the ballistic KB movements: I.e., kettlebell cleans and snatches.

[Cue crickets chirping]

I was honest.

I told him I could probably finagle my way through it and demonstrate a competent clean and snatch, however I knew he’d benefit from keener eyes on the matter. So I set my client up with a few sessions with Coach Justice Williams, a local StrongFirst certified coach here in Boston.

To that end, I wanted to narrow my own coaching gap and asked Justice if he’d be willing to film a few videos with me breaking down the clean and snatch.

He enthusiastically agreed.

Today is video #1….breaking down the swing/hip snap. Because, first and foremost: if you don’t own the swing/hip snap, you will not own the clean or snatch.

In this short tutorial we go through his coaching tips as well as common mistakes people may make along the way.

Enjoy.