Clean Harder Than The Jerk?

[Charlie]

I've gotten into the clean and jerk recently. Not really part of my program, but just for fun, because I find it a cool exercise. Anyway, is the clean phase meant to be more difficult than the jerk? Because I can jerk 80 with a squat rack, but I am unable to clean it. Is this normal? I just thought that you would be able to clean more than you can jerk.

[Mehdi]

You can always clean what you can jerk. But you can't jerk what you can clean.

[Mehdi]

big vs. small muscles.

[Charlie]

So this is an odd situation? Unless I am not jerking properly, but still even if you had incorrect technique for the jerk, putting 80kg above your head should still be harder than cleaning 80kg right?

[brentDoesWork]

Charlie
an 80k clean or jerk isn't a significant weight for a male
not trying to put you down, just saying 80k is no where near the level where technique or "balance" begins to matter - you are at the stage where everything needs work. maybe you understand the jerk technique better than the clean, or maybe you have poor clean technique
don't worry about it for now. keep cleaning and jerking

[Charlie]

I wasn't trying to boast or anything (I only just started), I was just wondering why I couldn't clean as much as I could jerk

[brentDoesWork]

that probably came off as really rude, i wasn't saying you were boasting
i was just saying that this is not the point at which you should be worrying about whether you should be jerking more than you clean or vice versa ... they are both going to improve as long as you keep working at it, and when you learn to clean more efficiently it should catch up with your jerk