On the Olympic lifts and the variations built from them, watch peak bar velocity rather than average bar speed. Peak is the fastest instant of the pull. An average covers the whole rep, and the catch at the end drags it down for reasons that have nothing to do with how hard the athlete pulled, which is why every published velocity target for these lifts is a peak number. A barbell velocity tracker records both on every rep. For scale, a power clean at a true one-rep max peaks at about 1.79 plus or minus 0.20 m/s [1]. That is what a maximal attempt looks like, not a speed to chase.
One naming point before the numbers. The two Olympic lifts are the snatch and the clean and jerk. Power cleans, hang cleans, power snatches and pulls are variations, studied and programmed as their own exercises [2], and each has its own velocity profile [3]. There is no single Olympic lift target that covers all of them.
What to look for on each lift
Every figure below is peak bar velocity in m/s, given as a percentage of a tested one-rep max in that same lift. Rows run fastest to slowest, ordered by the 80 percent figure because every row has one. The order holds at 60 and at 90 percent too, so the ranking is not an artifact of the load picked to sort by. Each row lists only the loads its own study tested.
| Lift | Peak bar velocity by load (m/s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Caught overhead | ||
| Hang power snatch | 2.45 at 60%, 2.25 at 80%, 2.15 at 90% | Fastest figures in the table |
| Power snatch | 2.43 at 60%, 2.21 at 80%, 2.12 at 90% | Within 0.05 of the hang version at every load |
| Snatch | 2.40 at 70%, 2.20 at 80%, 2.02 at 90%, 1.89 at a max | Elite lifters, a different study and cohort from the rest of the table |
| Caught on the shoulders | ||
| Power clean | 2.32 at 70%, 2.18 at 80%, 1.79 at a max | Recreationally trained men, a different study and cohort. Read this row on its own |
| Hang power clean | 2.03 at 60%, 1.80 at 80%, 1.69 at 90% | No maximal figure available from the same cohort |
| Nothing caught | ||
| Hang snatch pull | 1.86 at 60%, 1.60 at 80%, 1.50 at 90% | About 0.2 above the hang clean pull at the same relative load |
| Snatch pull | 1.83 at 60%, 1.56 at 80%, 1.47 at 90% | Within 0.04 of the hang version |
| Hang clean pull | 1.65 at 60%, 1.43 at 80%, 1.33 at 90% | Runs 0.05 to 0.10 above the floor version |
| Clean pull | 1.60 at 60%, 1.35 at 80%, 1.23 at 90% | Slowest figures in the table |
Seven of these rows come from one study of trained weightlifters, all measured the same way, so they can be read against each other [3]. The snatch row is elite male weightlifters [4] and the power clean row is recreationally trained men [1]. Those two are marked in the notes and should be read on their own.
Two things set the ordering. Load comes first: a pull is never caught, so pulls are programmed heaviest and carry the slowest numbers in the table. Catch position comes second: among the lifts that do get caught, a bar received overhead has to travel higher than one received on the shoulders, which puts the snatch variations at the top near 2.2 m/s at a working load.
Maximal attempts land in the high 1s across all three studies. Power clean 1.79 [1], hang power clean 1.74 in a separate study of resistance-trained men [5], and snatch 1.89 [4]. The spread between athletes at those loads is 0.2 to 0.3 m/s, wider than the gap between the three figures, so treat that band as orientation rather than a target.
Bar speed also varies enough between sessions that a single measurement makes a weak baseline. That was established in elite weightlifters [6], and it applies at least as strongly to less experienced athletes.
Why these lifts use peak
Average bar speed is the standard in the bench press and the squat, where the rep is one continuous push. In the bench press, average bar speed over the driving portion of the rep tracks percentage of a max almost perfectly [7], which is what makes an average a usable stand-in for load.
The weightlifting movements are shaped differently. The bar accelerates through the second pull, the explosive hip and knee extension after the bar clears the knee. The athlete then drops under the bar, and the bar slows into the catch. An average blends the pull and the catch into one figure, so an athlete who pulls fast and catches low produces a low average that says nothing about the pull. Peak isolates the top of the second pull, which is the part the training is aimed at. The gap between the two bar speed numbers is wider on these lifts than on a squat or a bench press.
That is also why the velocity zone tables built for the squat and bench do not stack against the numbers above. Those zones are average velocity. These are peak.
Check what the device is reporting. Barbell velocity and system velocity, meaning the bar plus the lifter, differed at every load tested in these lifts and should not be substituted for each other [8]. A peak velocity is only comparable to another peak velocity of the same kind, measured the same way.
What a slow rep means
A rep slowing toward the velocity an athlete hits on a true max is at or past their limit for that day, and it tends to end in a low catch or a miss. The comparison that works is against the athlete's own history rather than a group mean, because the spread between athletes at maximal loads is 0.2 to 0.3 m/s [1, 5].
You would not use a power clean to build maximal strength. Heavy loading belongs in the squat and the pulls, which is why the pulls carry the heaviest loads in the table and never get caught. The catch variations are selected for power, and the difference between power and strength is why they sit at 70 to 85 percent rather than at a max, with the 80 percent figure as the column to read.
Numbers do not transfer between variations either. Peak velocity at a maximal hang power clean is a poor predictor of a maximal hang high pull, and the study that tested that pair recommends against the substitution [5].
Using it in a session
Set the baseline first. Take peak velocity at two or three loads the athlete already trains at, on two or three separate sessions, and write the numbers down. Every later session gets compared against those. If the program does not test a max in these lifts, skip percentages and baseline at the working weights already in use.
Then cap sets on velocity rather than by rep count, since velocity loss within a set reflects the fatigue that set produced [9]. The table gives the size of drop that matters. In most rows, about 0.1 m/s separates one ten percent step in load from the next. In the snatch and the power clean the gap is wider, roughly 0.15 to 0.2. When a rep falls by about that much below the best rep of the set, the athlete is moving the bar the way the next load up moves. Treat that as a starting point rather than a rule, and confirm it against what the athlete's own sets do over a few weeks. Reading velocity numbers set to set is the same process on these lifts, applied to a peak figure instead of an average.
An athlete's own trend on their own equipment is typically the most useful number to program from. The table above is there to tell you whether that trend sits in a reasonable range.
Sources
- Haff GG, Garcia-Ramos A, James LP. Using Velocity to Predict the Maximum Dynamic Strength in the Power Clean. Sports. 2020;8(9):129. https://doi.org/10.3390/sports8090129
- Suchomel TJ, Comfort P, Stone MH. Weightlifting Pulling Derivatives: Rationale for Implementation and Application. Sports Medicine. 2015;45(6):823-839. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-015-0314-y
- Weakley J, Wood T, Garcia-Ramos A, Brennan TR, Chiang C-Y, Schultz L, Mann JB, Morrison M, Goncalves Pedrosa D, Creaby MW. The load-velocity profiles and exercise-specific velocity zones for seven commonly used weightlifting exercises. PLOS One. 2026;21. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0352209
- Sandau I, Granacher U. Effects of the Barbell Load on the Acceleration Phase during the Snatch in Elite Olympic Weightlifting. Sports. 2020;8(5):59. https://doi.org/10.3390/sports8050059
- Suchomel TJ, Techmanski BS, Kissick CR, Comfort P. Can the Velocity of a 1RM Hang Power Clean Be Used to Estimate a 1RM Hang High Pull? Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2024. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000004845
- Sandau I, Langen G, Nitzsche N. Variability of time series barbell kinematics in elite male weightlifters. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living. 2023;5:1264280. https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2023.1264280
- Gonzalez-Badillo JJ, Sanchez-Medina L. Movement Velocity as a Measure of Loading Intensity in Resistance Training. International Journal of Sports Medicine. 2010;31(5):347-352. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0030-1248333
- Suchomel TJ, Kissick CR, Techmanski BS, Mann JB, Comfort P. Velocity-Based Training With Weightlifting Derivatives: Barbell and System Velocity Comparisons. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2025;39(2):135-146. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000004962
- Sanchez-Medina L, Gonzalez-Badillo JJ. Velocity Loss as an Indicator of Neuromuscular Fatigue During Resistance Training. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. 2011;43(9):1725-1734. https://doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0b013e318213f880
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