The Check List

My take on the Yogi Berra saying "You can't think and hit at the same time" is you can't think and lift at the same time. If you are thinking about the lift or a correction while you lift you will be too slow and not accomplish what you set out to do. You have to tell yourself one thing (at the most) to correct before you lift and then clear your head and get out of your own way.

Here is a checklist of basic items that need to be automated, memorized, internalized for every lift before you set up over the bar

Get Tight, Stay Tight :
• Keep the head in a neutral position
• Use focal point
• Keep the chest up and inflated
• Keep the lower back arched and tight
• Hook Grip
• Keep the elbows rotated out
• Keep the triceps flexed, elbows locked
• Keep the lat muscles flexed
• Keep the wrists curled/flexed

Think critically about the lift after the lift, not before, and only work on one correction at a time. Fixing one thing, like keeping the bar close when it drifted out last time, will often address a lot of other things that went wrong.