One of our favorite steel club patterns lately is something we’ve been calling the clean into a mill.
It combines a ballistic club clean with a traditional mill to create a simple, flowing movement that works especially well when you start using a heavier club.
Start With the Ballistic Club Clean
The clean starts with the club out in front of you. Swing it back between the legs using a hinge, then drive it forward and bring it into order position.
If you’re familiar with kettlebell training, the movement should feel somewhat familiar. Instead of muscling the club into position, you’re using momentum from the swing and controlling it as it comes up.
The clean is a worthwhile exercise on its own. With a heavier club, you’ll get plenty of work through the hinge along with your grip and arms as you control the weight.
Turn It Into a Mill
Once the club reaches order position, instead of stopping the rep, take it directly into a mill.
The pattern looks like this:
Clean → Swing Behind the Head → Front Portion of the Mill → Drop Into the Next Clean
After each rep, clean the club again and reverse the direction of the mill.
That gives you two distinct swings during every rep: the ballistic clean and the swing incorporated into the mill.
A Great Pattern for Heavier Club Training
We especially like doing this two handed with a heavier club.
The clean brings in the hips and hinge before transitioning into the rotational movement of the mill. Put everything together and you have a dynamic pattern involving the hips, trunk, shoulders, arms, and grip.
There aren’t any hard rules about how you have to perform it, either. The clean itself can be done two handed or one handed, and you can experiment with different swing positions and variations.
Learn the basic movements first, then play around with the pattern and find a rhythm that works for you.
Check out the full video to see the ballistic club clean and clean into a mill in action.