The #1 Mistake People Make Teaching The Deadlift

This is the biggest mistake that I see people make when trying to teach someone how to deadlift, when the client or patient has never deadlifted before. 

A lot of people like to teach the hip hinge and deadlift with a PVC pipe. 

Which is 100% fine!

It teaches the client to weight shift back. You can even give them a target with a wall behind them and tell them to "push the hips back towards the wall."

However, that is more of an RDL than a deadlift. 

So when you put the athlete out in the open and picking up an implement from the ground it may not actually carry over.

Furthermore, the implement many coaches choose to use is a light kettlebell.

The problem with this is that the kettlebell is the lowest implement to the ground. Making the required mobility to perform the task the highest. Often times people just learning the hip hinge or deadlift have mobility limitations as well. 

To keep the back in a nice position, using a implement that is higher up off the ground makes it easier to learn the movement, brace, and train the movement before starting to lower them down closer to the ground as able.

Moral of the story is consider the height of the implement when teaching the deadlift and don't make this simple mistake that is easily correctable and leads to less frustration for you teaching the movement but also the client accomplishing the movement successfully.