Various Barbell Drills Plus Quality Time with Xibalba

I'm still waiting on pictures from Valkyrie Photography for the CrossFit Open, but in the meanwhile, there are a few drills I have been doing for my Olympic weightlifting training.  Today was a mostly snatch focus after spending Friday working on my snatches with somewhat disastrous results courtesy of an unwanted genetic condition. 

I started with snatch pulls.  I'm definitely no Lu Xiaojun, Shi Zhiyong, or Li Dayin!  I'm still trying to remember to NOT pull the bar into myself but rather get my hips to the bar / get my chest up.  The best part is actually hearing Coach J's voice in my head with the "chest up" and "squeeze everything" cues. 

For fun, I thought I'd try a 2+2 that consisted of two snatch (high) pulls and two snatches.  Things are getting a little bit better, but I have a lot of work on my form still.  

I also worked a bit on my snatch balances (not shown) and tempo overhead squats.  Overhead squats are easily one of my favorite accessory lifts, but I think a lot of it is because I love sitting at the bottom of the squat, and there's something strangely comforting about that overhead position if I can get there. 

I also got a bit of core work done, including some work on hanging knee raises.  I'm not a huge fan of hanging anything, but I do need to develop this as a CrossFit athlete, plus a lot of the gymnastics translates extremely well

Also, yesterday was an official rest day, so I spent a bit of quality time with Xibalba and experimenting with my form a bit. Based on some insights I've gained in Olympic weightlifting and CrossFit in general along with what I've learned from archers such as Khatuna Lorig, Crispin Duenas, and Kisik Lee many years ago, I made a few subtle changes to my shooting form, including taking that open-ish stance again as well as incorporating a bit more of that power position from a very high hang.