I'm looking to improve Leg Drive with an up and coming Rugby game with sir in September and had thoughts that Power Cleans may be a good way forward in addition to my current routine.

Any of the Power Boys have tips for technique and general approach?

Power cleans are excellent as you get 3 full extentions (the ankle knee and hip).

Watch this bud: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I8bXE9k5BU

Im sure you probably all ready know this, but arms straight and locked at the start or you loose leg drive. Id also recommend warming the calves up a little before starting, few times ive gone up on my toes with cold calves and felt them pull quite sharply.

Hows your clean grip? i dont do powercleans much as although they are awesome and i like them, i have no clue what to do with the bar once its up as my clean grip is terrible

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHwulCpi ... re=related

Looks like pretty solid form

The reason he says it's awful is that he has a slight early elbow bend and a slow rack, which is caused in part by the early elbow bend. There's not a great deal that looks bad about it in the video, but take it from me, when you clean in this way you will realise why it's bad form. It's a subtle exercise in that respect. The bar is also a little far from his body.

Knowlesja is a cool guy though.

Power Cleans will defo help increase leg drive. Probably worth using different variations: from the floor, to hanging just below knee, to hanging just above knee. The latter will of course be less leg drive but it will ensure your strength through the entire range of movement is good & strong.

You might wanna look at exercises that increase your sprinting speed: so anything that works the VMO (teardrop muscle on quad) is a winner. Variations of squats will do this. You might like to try Split Squats or Bulgarian Split Squats. Splits are very good at hitting the VMO. In fact, perhaps trying lunges (reverse too) would be good, as there you have more explosiveness involved in order to get back to the starting position.

http://www.aceathlete.com

An awesome series of videos IMO, including a cracking little plyometric session.

Remember - "When the elbows bend the power ends"

that url redirects to: http://www.aistselect.com/ and requires a login

health4ni wrote:that url redirects to: http://www.aistselect.com/ and requires a login

my bad

http://www.aceathlete.com/hatch/video.htm

You could just do clean pulls - they will devlop power too. But the advantage of doing power cleans over pulls is that you have to really go for it on a power clean and keep your speed up at the top of the pull - It's easy to slow down doing just the pulls!

A combination of both is quite effective - Do your power cleans and then finish off with some sets of clean pulls with 10 - 20Kg extra on the bar.

On those youtube links, both guy were finishng badly -they had obviously pull the bar towards them which meant they had to eithr bend or step back on catching the weight - Neither is good for your back especially the bending back technique - Ouch!

This is a good thread. Power cleans and hang cleans are two of my favourite exercises for the traps, core and back. They are tough to 'find the groove on' though and i agree that small inefficiencies in technique can cause you to lose a lot from the movement. When you hit them spot on though the bar almost seems to weigh 20kg less!

I like to concentrate on keeping the bar close to the body during the entire movement. This seems to help me with the explosive element and allows me to coordinate the dip and drive best.

^^ agree

I haven't done any for nearly 2 weeks now. I need to do them not in the morning as I just don't have the explosiveness then; I guess my CNS hasn't fully woken up yet.

We're getting a Powerlifting Platform at the gym soon (so I'm told) and can't wait to start using it with things like high pulls.