One of the very best to teach and coach the lifts, Jim Schmitz, has an article over at Ironmind.com on Split Lifting Technique. It's a relatively short article, but packed with great information from discussion of advantages/disadvantages, technique, programming, and his personal experience:
My personal experience is that I was a split lifter from 1960 until 1965 when I finally learned how to squat snatch and squat clean. I was a squat lifter from 1966 until 2010. My knees and shoulders just don’t like the full squat lifts anymore—I can do them, but it takes too many days and too much ibuprofen to recover. Now I’m splitting again, and not lifting as much as I did squatting, but my knees and shoulders feel so much better. The splits just don’t put the same amount of stress on the joints.
Also, a note to those who would contend that the split lifts are a waste of time:
Don’t be a “squat snob”—if you are a competitive lifter, strongman, or highlander, incorporate split lifts into your training from time to time for speed, fitness, balance and athleticism. If you are a strength coach, split lifts have tremendous carryover to running, jumping, and throwing. If you are a personal trainer, split lifts are a great addition to your training tools. And finally, after all the power and squat technique workouts, the split technique is a great diversion, and is actually a lot of fun.
Read the whole article at Ironmind.com.
Finally, from Cal Strength's Facebook page, footage of the man himself splitting in competition in 2013:
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