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Thursday, September 6, 2012

Call 911... somebody stole your second dip!



I have noticed a common denominator among people that have been lifting kettlebells for a little while now... It happens to all lifters and I am no exception! So any of you "over sensitive" types... I am not directing this at you!

It seems to me that once a lifter gets to a certain level of proficiency with jerks, the second dip starts to disappear. This is not an intentional happening... I think that as people get past the beginner stages and spend some time under the bells a few things happen... First of all, they get stronger and more flexible in the whole shoulder girdle...The rack improves along with the first dip/drive portion of the jerk, this allows the lifter to slowly shorten up the second dip!  Lastly, the lifter has progressed past the feeling of panic during the set and now the focus becomes numbers!

These things happen and while they are good and positive... they cause problems at the same time... And the biggest problem with this is, the vanishing second dip syndrome. So what happens next is, the numbers start to stagnate, feeling frustrated the lifter diggs his heels in further and actually makes further cuts to the already barely perceivable second dip... This continues until something breaks.. usually the mind the lifter!

The way out is to get back to the full movement, force yourself to drop your ass down and back.. quickly! This saves your shoulders and arms and by recruiting the strongest muscles you own to help out, your numbers will start moving the right way after you start dropping under the bells quicker and deeper..
Here is a great clip of a guy that uses a deep second dip!

4 comments:

  1. Of course the faster pace you go, the less of a second dip you can have - that was straight from Denisov at the camp in Melbourne last weekend.

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  2. Yes that is true Nick, but until we get like 14rpms plus I don't think we need to worry about it.

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  3. Nice post, Duff. Haha I told Fed about how you'd said to me after my horrific jerk set in Chicago last year: "Where the fuck'd your second dip go?" and he liked that. Even when Denisov goes 20rpm he has more of a second dip than a lot of people and he said that after a comp not that long ago where he hadn't hit the jerk numbers he was expecting he analysed his technique and found that he hadn't been getting his hips back far enough in some of his reps and that had fatigued him more quickly than usual.

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  4. Nice post. Like you wrote, it seems to be happening to everyone at some point.

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