I first heard about the continuous snatching - with frequent hand switches - from Vasily Ginko when he came to Sydney to conduct his seminar. At the time OTW crowd dismissed multiple switches as useless, but - as always is with extreme view - this is incorrect.
There are two major physiological components that need to be developed for snatching: cardiovascular and local muscular. Cardiovascular refers to the ability of the heart to support muscular work for prolonged periods of time. That's where VO2 Max comes into play. Muscular component reflects the efficiency of muscles to utilize whatever is needed to sustain work and is better determined by lactate threshold. There are plenty of good sources of info on these parameters, and I am not going to discuss them. In short though, VO2 Max can be improved relatively quickly by high intensity training, while lactate threshold benefits more from slow sustained loads and takes much longer to get to the athletes maximum. Apparently many young cross-country skiers have the same VO2 Max as older record holders, however their times are far behind.
In order to improve cardiovascular endurance for snatching you can run. Alternatively you can snatch for long periods of time, and it may even be more useful because of specificity. One way is to snatch intermittently. The problem with this way is that after a while you become good at it and need to either increase the cadence or the weight of the bells. Snatching at high speed is a problem because first, it ruins the hands and two, it may lead to the deterioration of the technique. Besides, if the goal is GS it feels better if the set is contimuous.
This may bring us to OTW. The problem with OTW snatches though is that your hands is going to give up relatively fast, thus limiting the total number of snatche and the duration of the workout. Snatching with multiple switches eliminates this problem. By switching every 10 reps - for example - will allow you to specifically address cardiovascular component of performance.
So what about local muscular endurance? Multiple swithching improves that too. How? By switching hands the load on the hands is imtermittent, akin to interval training for these muscle groups. Even though one arm rests while right one snatches, the rest is not enough to allow for full recovery of muscles, and this is especially beneficial for lactate threshold improvement. So with continuous snatching you get the best of both worlds: continuous cardio and intermittent loading of the arms.
This is the basis for snatch progression used in Russia. I came across it a few times on the discussion boards.
Start snatching with switches every 10 reps and aim to achieve 200 to 300 of reps in one set. Alternatively it is ok to choose the number of reps required for the ranking of choice and add 25-30% to it.
When this number of total reps is reached, increase the number of reps between switching. So the progression will look like this:
Switch every 15 reps
Every 20
Every 25, 30 and so on.
Or,
Switch every minute, every 2 minutes, 3 minutes and so on, until 5 minutes per hand (or longer if you wish).
As soon as one can do the desired number of snatches with one switch, the next goal is the increase in cadence. This is done from the beginning: the pace is set higher than in the previous macrocycle and the sequence is repeated from the very beginning: switch every 10, 15, 20 and so on.
One problem with this method is that it is hard on the palms. One way to overcome this is to do snatches in gloves. Plain cotton gloves are best. Doing so not only saves the skin, it also makes the handle of the bell slippery and increases the load on the grip. It also forces you to use better technique because of the grip fatigue.
In order to improve cardiovascular endurance for snatching you can run. Alternatively you can snatch for long periods of time, and it may even be more useful because of specificity. One way is to snatch intermittently. The problem with this way is that after a while you become good at it and need to either increase the cadence or the weight of the bells. Snatching at high speed is a problem because first, it ruins the hands and two, it may lead to the deterioration of the technique. Besides, if the goal is GS it feels better if the set is contimuous.
This may bring us to OTW. The problem with OTW snatches though is that your hands is going to give up relatively fast, thus limiting the total number of snatche and the duration of the workout. Snatching with multiple switches eliminates this problem. By switching every 10 reps - for example - will allow you to specifically address cardiovascular component of performance.
So what about local muscular endurance? Multiple swithching improves that too. How? By switching hands the load on the hands is imtermittent, akin to interval training for these muscle groups. Even though one arm rests while right one snatches, the rest is not enough to allow for full recovery of muscles, and this is especially beneficial for lactate threshold improvement. So with continuous snatching you get the best of both worlds: continuous cardio and intermittent loading of the arms.
This is the basis for snatch progression used in Russia. I came across it a few times on the discussion boards.
Start snatching with switches every 10 reps and aim to achieve 200 to 300 of reps in one set. Alternatively it is ok to choose the number of reps required for the ranking of choice and add 25-30% to it.
When this number of total reps is reached, increase the number of reps between switching. So the progression will look like this:
Switch every 15 reps
Every 20
Every 25, 30 and so on.
Or,
Switch every minute, every 2 minutes, 3 minutes and so on, until 5 minutes per hand (or longer if you wish).
As soon as one can do the desired number of snatches with one switch, the next goal is the increase in cadence. This is done from the beginning: the pace is set higher than in the previous macrocycle and the sequence is repeated from the very beginning: switch every 10, 15, 20 and so on.
One problem with this method is that it is hard on the palms. One way to overcome this is to do snatches in gloves. Plain cotton gloves are best. Doing so not only saves the skin, it also makes the handle of the bell slippery and increases the load on the grip. It also forces you to use better technique because of the grip fatigue.
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