Roark

[Nathan Say]

With a 2 hand clean or snatch the bar is allowed to touch the body on the way up, but not crash or stop or something. I think. I always see lifters give the bar a little bounce to help it, would that be allowed if a lifter is trying to clean an Inch dumbell or is would there be no touching allowed?

[Roark]

Nathan,

Language changes over time, and some words that are

now considered curse words were actually once acceptable

in society.

Lifting terms are similar in that they also change meaning, but

I was very disappointed to see at the Arnold Classic that so

long as the bar did not rest on the belt, and was brought to the shoulder even by resting or touching other body parts, it

was deemed a 'clean'.

The very distiction between clean and continental was thus

bypassed, and 20 years from now, unless we footnote the results carefully with this explanation, students of the sport will be thinking that several men 'cleaned' the replica, when in fact only two cleaned it.

I know that to many this seems picky, but look at what has happened in powerlifting and how definitions of the squat have changed over the years. Whereas now 'breaking parallel" is a concern, in the old days breaking parallel was halfway on the way to a full squat. (in gripper terms, would breaking parallel get you certified? It may someday.)

So, promoters can allow terms to be altered, but we must be aware that apples and oranges are being compared in some cases.

Rules are altered why? To make the lift easier.

If you care to, have a look at the BAWLA rules posted in my

column at cyberpump. The lifts we continue to call by their

old names are no longer those old lifts, so the poundages cannot fairly be compared. What would the current record in the snatch be if the arms had be remain parallel during the bar ascent, instead of flared almost collar to collar?

Frankly, I am ignorant of the current rules involving the snatch

and how the clean is performed, but if the bar is allowed to touch the body, under the original rules, it would not be clear

(clean) no matter what is now redefined.

[Guest baldy]

The way I understand Olympic comp the bar is allowed to "brush" the front of the thighs, but not "bounce" off of them. Judges then make the call if contact was excessive, I guess. In watching / reading the work of Olympic coaches it is stated that a bounce would actually make one lift less because the bar is no longer in a straight up ascent, but has an outward arc (not to mention resulting in the lifter getting red-lighted), which would take them out of their power range.

I guess that means for someone who really knows what they are doing, because I think I could get more on a clean if I bounced the heck out of it.

[AP]

having just come from an oly meet, i am both enlighted and exhasted. the current rules allow for quite a bit of *pop* from the hips on the way up. the weight does not set on the thighs nor bounce off of them-(where the weight is brought up then down and bounced back up off of the thighs)- this would not be allowed. but there is definite and i would say hard contact with the thighs, particularly with the highly skilled lifters of which i am not. even though this was just a po-dunk local meet, one of the lifters has placed third in the American's and he was a very pronounced "bouncer" leading me to believe that this technique is allowed everywhere.

[BarBender]

Not too long ago there was a post on Old School where J.V.Askem explained in some detail that the rules on cleaning had been relaxed to allow contact with the thighs.

I remember hearing that the clean is called such because the bar is lifted cleanly to the shoulders without contacting any other part of the body. A thigh brush would certainly violate this description.

[Guest Reverend]

I know that to many this seems picky, but look at what has happened in powerlifting and how definitions of the squat have changed over the years.

Nothing picky about it, in my opinion.  In order for it to be fair, we have to make sure we're all talking about the same thing.

I don't think I'm the only one here who's ever talked to someone who claimed he could do a certain weight in the overhead press, and when he demonstrated it, it was clearly a jerk.

The Reverend