Weightlifting skill drills

Matters most for: Powerlifting, Olympic lifting, General strength

Setup: An empty bar or about 50% of your working weight.

1. 1. Five seconds down, two seconds paused at the bottom, then stand normally.
2. 2. Keep the bar over mid-foot the whole way — film from the side to check.
3. 3. Brace before you unrack, not on the way down.

Volume: 4 × 3

Coaching point: The pause removes the bounce. Whatever position you're in at the bottom is the position you actually own.

Make it harder: Add weight only once all reps hold position, then shorten the pause.

Matters most for: Powerlifting, General strength

Setup: A bar you can control for triples, and a rack with safeties.

1. 1. Lower to the chest and hold for a full two seconds, still and tight.
2. 2. Keep the shoulder blades pinned back and down throughout.
3. 3. Press without letting the bar drift toward your face.

Volume: 5 × 3

Coaching point: Stay tight in the pause. Relaxing at the bottom is where both the press and the shoulder go wrong.

Make it harder: Lengthen the pause to three seconds before adding weight.

Matters most for: Powerlifting, Olympic lifting, General strength

Setup: A loaded bar at about 60%.

1. 1. Take your stance, grip, then pull your chest up to take the slack out of the bar.
2. 2. Hold that wedged position for two seconds before the bar leaves the floor.
3. 3. Lift, then reset completely — no touch-and-go.

Volume: 6 × 2

Coaching point: Hear the bar click into the plates before you pull. Yanking a loose bar is how backs get hurt.

Make it harder: Add weight once the setup is identical on every rep.

Matters most for: Olympic lifting, General strength

Setup: An empty bar or a broomstick.

1. 1. Press or snatch the bar overhead with a wide grip.
2. 2. Lock the elbows, push the head slightly through, ribs down.
3. 3. Hold, then walk ten steps without letting the bar drift forward.

Volume: 5 × 20 seconds

Coaching point: If the bar sits in front of your ears you're holding it with your shoulders instead of your skeleton.

Make it harder: Add a light load, or hold in a quarter squat.

Matters most for: Olympic lifting

Setup: A barbell, light. A rack helps.

1. 1. Bar on the back, snatch grip, feet in pulling position.
2. 2. Dip and drive the bar up while dropping fast into a full overhead squat.
3. 3. Stand up under control with the bar locked out and stable.

Volume: 5 × 3, adding weight only when all three are caught in the bottom

Coaching point: You are practising the SPEED of getting under the bar, not the strength of pressing it up. If you press out, it is too heavy.

Make it harder: Move from a heaving balance to a pause version, or start from a dead stop with no dip.

Matters most for: Olympic lifting

Setup: A barbell in a rack, moderate weight.

1. 1. Take the bar on the shoulders, elbows slightly in front, weight in the middle of the foot.
2. 2. Dip a few inches straight down, keeping the torso vertical, then drive hard.
3. 3. Stop at full extension — do not go under the bar.

Volume: 6 × 3 dips

Coaching point: Straight down and straight up. Any forward lean in the dip pushes the bar out in front, and no jerk recovers from that.

Make it harder: Add a pause at the bottom of the dip, or complete the jerk once the drive is consistent.

Matters most for: Olympic lifting, General strength

Setup: A bar at roughly 70% of your clean.

1. 1. Pull to just above the knee and stop dead, shoulders still over the bar.
2. 2. Hold for two seconds, feeling the weight in the middle of the foot.
3. 3. Finish the pull with a hard hip extension, or lower and reset.

Volume: 5 × 3

Coaching point: Shoulders in front of the bar at the knee. Let them drift back and the bar swings away from you.

Make it harder: Raise the halt position, or take the pause out and go straight through.

Matters most for: Powerlifting, Olympic lifting, General strength

Setup: Nothing, or a light belt.

1. 1. Breathe into your stomach and sides, not your chest.
2. 2. Brace as if about to take a punch, without letting the air out.
3. 3. Hold the brace for ten seconds, then breathe out and repeat.

Volume: 3 × 5 breaths

Coaching point: Pressure goes 360° around the trunk. Sucking the stomach in is the opposite of a brace.

Make it harder: Practise it under a light bar, then at your working weight.

Matters most for: Powerlifting

Setup: Your normal working sets, plus someone to call commands — or a timer.

1. 1. Squat: hold the bar racked and still until the 'squat' call, then again at the top for 'rack'.
2. 2. Bench: pause the bar motionless on the chest for a full second and wait for 'press'.
3. 3. Deadlift: hold lockout until 'down', and control it back rather than dropping it.

Volume: Every top set of your last three weeks before a meet

Coaching point: More lifts are lost to commands than to strength. Waiting is a skill and it has to be rehearsed under load.

Make it harder: Have the calls delayed unpredictably, so you hold longer than feels comfortable.