3 Tips To Improve Your Split Jerk

The split jerk is a complex movement that can take time to perfect. This can be frustrating because you may feel like you should be able to move more weight and as we know, technique is key to moving more weight. So here are 3 tips to help improve your split jerk.

Rack position

Having the ability and mobility to create a “shelf” on your shoulders for the bar to sit on is an important point to help maintain bar path through the movement. This allows the bar to stay over the midfoot so when we drive the bar upwards it means it moves in a nice straight line staying central.

Perfect the Dip

The two most common errors we see here are the elbows dropping and our weight shifting forward on our feet.

Elbows dropping - This can often easily be fixed with a simple cue of ‘Keep the elbows up’ think back to point 1 and that front rack position, maintain the same position as you dip.

Weight shifting forwards - This can be related to the elbows dropping, but it can also just be an error in movement. When performing the dip, make sure your weight is in the midfoot (Keep the whole foot in contact with the floor) Think about bum going backwards and chest up.

Practice this by adding a pause in the dip to help dial in the correct position.

Body Position

Here we are talking about the receive position of the split jerk (when the bar is above our head) Here we are looking for 4 things:

• 50/50 weight distribution between front and back legs.

• Knee above the heel on the front foot

• On our toes on the back foot, and aligned with the knee

• Bend in the back knee

Following these points will help make sure the bar is in the most ideal position.