Thanks for the warning, will heed it. Can you tell me what goes thru your head when you're going into the rep? Talk/walk me thru it if possible. My depth for FS is good, my depth for BS is not haha, it's just below parallel, which is actually ok with me, because I do my fs's deep so hopefully i'm not missing out on much there. I actually prefer it this way because it places the brunt of the work onto my quads which is what I need.
Honestly, I don't think that my squat form is anything amazing but this is what I do: I don't really think about my depth. I just go as far down as I can while maintaining a neutral spine; being safe is always the most important thing for me. If my flexibility increases over time I can go lower. Anyway, as far as my mental process, I really try to keep it simple. On my first warm-up reps I don't do anything explosively at all. I just use them to try and achieve my desired range of motion, so I go pretty slow. Once, I'm feeling pretty good with really light weight (obviously this depends on the individual), then I start doing the reps a little more explosively. As far as cues....all I'm ever worried about is having my back straight. If my back is straight and I'm as upright as possible I have no fear to explode and really go to work in the squat, so both my cues are centered around that. THe first thing I do is to get my hands as close as possible without discomfort in my elbows...this makes my upperback really tight and that in turn makes my chest pop out. Also, I engage my lats by pulling my elbows down really hard and trying to crush the bar (I think some people like the elbows up and back, but that doesn't work for me). The other cue that helps me is something Lance said in my journal. He said to use the hip flexors to pull yourself into the squat. This second cue helps me with my lumbar spine. When I engage the hip flexors in this way it really helps me keep the back straight. I think that is why you think my squats are so concentric driven, because all I'm really thinking about is my back. So, when I descending I'm just thinking about the 2 things above: (1) Upperback tight, pull down elbows; (2) Pull myself down with hipflexors to keep lower back tight. Once I hit my depth and I have done these things, I feel so tight and wound up like a coil, that I just explode out of the hole. IDK, thats the only way I can describe it. At the bottom of the squat everything is really tightly contracted...my upperback, my lower back, my quads, my glutes....It kind of makes me feel like a spring, and as long as my back is straight I can destroy the weight. Idk, if any of this helps you, but thats usually what I think. Oooo, and obviously the knees need to be pushed out, but I don't really think about this as much because it is usually not a problem (every once in a while it will creep into my form though so I stay conscious of it).
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