Front squats are either successful or failed based on the athlete’s ability to get out of the “hole”. The hole is the point at the bottom of the squat where you change direction from going down and going up (the “eccentric” phase vs. the “concentric” phase).

One way to improve your ability to get out of this hole is to practice the front squat from the “isometric” phase. This looks like setting up the J-hooks near your hips and taking the bar from the bottom of the squat to standing. Many coaches will call this a bottom-to-bottom squat, simply because you are starting and ending the rep at the bottom.

Here’s a short video that goes into more detail about the in-the-hole squat, or bottom-to-bottom squat.

Tyler