Knee Position at Start of Sumo Deadlifts

Someone today saw me doing sumo deadlifts with my shins close the bar and
then rubbing my shins and knees during the ascent.. He was adamant that I
was doing it wrong and that my knees should never be past the bar at start
and that rubbing my chins and knees with the bar was futher proof of my bad
form.

I got my form tips from Stuart McRobert's Weigh Training Technique book
which says "keep [bar] as close to your shins as possible, to reduce lower
back stress" and "absolutely do not let the bar move out from you".
Further, "if necessary, wear something over your shins to prevent
abrasions". These quotes are from the standard deadlift routine, but I
believe the sumo is similar with regard to these aspects.

The only thing I don't specifically see in Stuart's book is: can your knees
be over the bar at the start position? It seems that if your shins are
close to touching at start and you have long-ish legs, then your knees may
stick out over the bar if you want proper shoulder, foot, head alignment?
Please help - is it ok if my knees are over the bar at start? Is it ok if
the bar rubs my shins and knees?

Thanks,
tfe

In article <%gWEe.15647$iG6.7459@tornado.tampabay.rr.com>, "testforecho"
<testforecho.TakeThisOut@volcanomail.com> wrote:

> Someone today saw me doing sumo deadlifts with my shins close the bar and
> then rubbing my shins and knees during the ascent.. He was adamant that I
> was doing it wrong and that my knees should never be past the bar at start
> and that rubbing my chins and knees with the bar was futher proof of my bad
> form.
>
> I got my form tips from Stuart McRobert's Weigh Training Technique book
> which says "keep [bar] as close to your shins as possible, to reduce lower
> back stress" and "absolutely do not let the bar move out from you".
> Further, "if necessary, wear something over your shins to prevent
> abrasions". These quotes are from the standard deadlift routine, but I
> believe the sumo is similar with regard to these aspects.
>
> The only thing I don't specifically see in Stuart's book is: can your knees
> be over the bar at the start position? It seems that if your shins are
> close to touching at start and you have long-ish legs, then your knees may
> stick out over the bar if you want proper shoulder, foot, head alignment?
> Please help - is it ok if my knees are over the bar at start? Is it ok if
> the bar rubs my shins and knees?

As much as possible the shins should be vertical and the bar should be
pulled back into the body. I don't even think of 'lifting' when I do the
sumo. I try and drive my hips forward while keeping my knees out and pop
the bar.

The knees can be forward a bit, but very little. If they are forward too
much the bar path has to go forward, which isn't good. Having said that -
scraping the knees and shins is very common in the sumo. Wear shins pads -
cut a 2 litre bottle of pop into four pieces after cutting the top and
bottom off and shove two of the pieces into your socks.

--
Keith