Comparing Cleans & Deadlifts

[Black Knight]

This is aimed particularly at those of you who perform Olympic style 'Cleans' and conventional Deadlifts. I'm interested to know how your starting position in these two lifts varies i.e. where is the bar in relation to your toes? How high are your hips? Where are your shoulders in relation to the bar?

I'm trying to work on form in my deadlift. I think I'm probably addressing the bar as though I'm about to clean it with shoulders over the bar and Im not leaning back enough. This probably explains why my deadlift has stalled badly yet my Powerclean has improved steadily. The clean feels a lot more natural to me and I tend to get onto my toes too much in the deadlift.
Help!

[GoldenArrow]

I think I have the same problem. I know I start a clean with my ass higher though.

Today I had a couple of deadlifts pulling me forward too.

I also tried sumo deadlifts, maybe they're the answer? Seemed like I might be able to pull more that way, will probably stick with conventional though as it seems like cheating, you only have to move the bar about a foot and a half!

[help]

clean: shoulders above the bar, knees in frfont

DLs: shoulders above/behind, knees behind

[Robert]

clean: shoulders above the bar, knees in frfont

DLs: shoulders above/behind, knees behind
I am sorry to disagree on this help, but it IS NOT possible* to have both the shoulders and knees behinmd the bar. All my DL's start with my shoulders inline/in front of the bar and i don't pull backward that much. The bar doesn't touch my shins either.

*For me at least.

I read Dave Tate's article on Deadlifting and TBH unless you have seriously long arms i think its a crock of sh1t. There is no way on earth i can get my shoulders behind the bar on either a DL or clean.

[help]

if your trying to do it your arms will always be above the bar

when you shrug your supposed to try and touch your traps on you ears according to some, can you do it?

[Black Knight]

It seems that deadlifting technique can be a very personal thing.
What are the advantages of lifting sumo style?
On the only time I tried, it did feel that I was pulling back more than comventional style, though it felt awkward on the heavier weights.
Why would you choose Sumo over conventional? Perhaps it would be worth my while to percevere with sumo style so that I get away from the 'clean' approach completely?
BTW Ive got long legs relative to my height of 6', is this significant?

[help]

your just gonna have to decidee which is best for yourself

try sumo DLing for 8 weeks and max on the 8th week. if its significantly greater then sumo will suit u better

[Black Knight]

your just gonna have to decidee which is best for yourself

try sumo DLing for 8 weeks and max on the 8th week. if its significantly greater then sumo will suit u better

I'll give it a go, Help. However, as you might have seen from my journal I'm returning to training after an injury so I'll be starting off real light; could be a good time to learn a new technique from scratch.

[Man of Steel]

Sumo tends to use your legs more while conventional uses your back more. Your better switching between both types now and again to avoid developing weaknesses.