Dave, one of the reasons we stopped doing snaps in the lower competition
levels was because of seats breaking in the Decathlons and Citabrias. As
with many maneuvers, people are flying their entries too fast, causing
higher forces on the airframes and components, causing things to break.
(Remember the Pitts longeron breaks? Pitts put out a really good report
based on the testing they did to determine why their airplanes were
breaking this way.)
Eric Mueller's book recommends practicing your maneuvers at the slowest
possible airspeed which will allow completion without stalling.
This serves to provide control feedback to the pilot and reduce the
forces on the aircraft.

Dave Russell wrote:
My latest endeavor has been to learn to snap-roll the Super D. A
couple of training flights in an Extra 300 proved that I could learn
to fly them, but transferring that experience to the Decathlon has
been humbling. (As an aside, I *strongly* suggest you do not go fly
an Extra 300 when you own a Decathlon. I *love* the Super D and all,
but Holy Cow, Batman! The Extra is simply an astonishing machine.)
Anyway, my snap rolls suck. The break is mushy, the rotation is
sloppy, my exits are horrible. The rotation is slow enough that I
actually can 'think' while it goes around, but I haven't been able to
get any meaningful acceleration with forward stick.
Any Decathlon instructors wanna gimme a few tips? (And *please* don't
tell me to just trade up to an Extra... poking fun at an addict in
withdrawl is cruel and mean.)
Dave Russell