Kettlebell Competition

Kettlebell Competition January 10th World Gym Fairfax.   The list of events is as follows: AKA Rules.   http://gsplanet.com/rules_ranks/ Weigh In Friday 6-9 pm Saturday 7-8 am Rules 8 am 9 am  female 8 kg long cycle 8 kg snatch 8 kg biathlon male 12 kg long cycle 12 kg snatch 12 kg biathlon Awards Approximately 10:30 am female 12 kg long cycle female 12 kg snatch female 12 kg biathlon male 16 kg long cycle male 16 kg biathlon male 16 kg snatch Awards Approximately 12 noon female 16 kg long cycle female 16 kg snatch female 16 kg biathlon male 20 kg long cycle male 20 kg snatch male 20 kg biathlon Awards Approximately 1:30 female 20 kg long cycle female 20 kg snatch female 20 kg biathlon male 24 kg long cycle male 24 kg snatch male 24 kg biathlon awards Approximately 3:30 female snatch 24 kg female biathlon 24 kg female long cycle 24 kg male 28 kg snatch male 28 kg biathlon male 28 kg biathlon female 28 kg long cycle male 32 kg snatch male 32 kg long cycle male 32 kg biathlon Awards Approximately 430 Relays Optional after awards.   Rules of competition. Best overall lifter will be designated by male 24 kg 28 and 32. Female will be 16, 20, 24 and 28 (long cycle). In the category of event. There will be best overall lifter for 16, for 20, 24 and 28 and 32. We will not cross over events that differ in weight used. So there will be best lifter in several event categories. In Russia this was done(coefficient) strictly with 32 kg. Coefficient per category is the weight x reps/bodyweight. We want to make it as professional and as fair as we possibly can to recognize the achievements across the events for lifters. Good luck and see you at the competition. Kettlebell Lifter.   Kettlebell event

kb long cycle $55.00 USD kb snatch $55.00 USD kb biathlon $55.00 USD

Kettlebell weight used

8 kg 12 kg 16 kg 20 kg 24 kg 28 kg 32 kg

Female Body Weight

47 kg 53 kg 58 kg 58 + kg (junior) 63 kg 68 kg 68+ kg N/A

Men Body weight

48 kg 53 kg 58 kg 63 kg 68 kg 73 kg 78 kg 85 kg 95 kg N/A

Men Bodyweight continued

105 kg 105 kg + N/A

Kettlebell seminar
Technique and programming(unique)

Epiphany

Learned something that clicked.   We will see if it works out the way I hope.   I had an epiphany with kettlebell jerk.   For Kettlebell snatch this is true for a couple students.

:)

Here is a 24 kg Kettlebell juggling link for fun.

24 kg juggling double flips and double helis

Consistency: Expectatoin aka being honest with yourself

Taking notes this weekend:

 It was a pleasure to see Coach Rudnev work with some of my students and

myself before going to UA (Underground Athlete) for a training day.  He really is the "Yoda", Charles Xavier of Kettlebell and physical culture.   

His approach was very succinct and applicable to get points across in record

time.  

Forever The Student:

In this blog I want to make a point about consistency in doing anything or

any activity for fun or otherwise despite what I like to call ADHD marketing has us

believe.  In the "fitness" world, most people want progress without

consistency.   The buzz word is "variety" and while balancing training is

important, training without a goal is "hard work" when it doesn't have to

be.   Losing weight , and looking good are poor choices for goals unless you make it quantifiable and measurable.  Progress, quantifiable is enjoyable whether one competes or not in anything.  Its why kettlebell sport can be done for fitness, it means work for less time or lighter weight or don't but you will gain fitness benefits that complement your current regimen.  

As a swimmer dropping time is exciting on a side note and quantifiable.  

Sometimes with regard to the masses, there is a high turnover rate in the fit biz. 'Here is the magic answer".  "I don't want consistency, I want variety"  (subconcious)

Learning  "boring" consistency when you can have variety and "choices".  

The underlying principle is

consistency of activity generally (x per week) and specifically (performing

the activity itself).  Someone said.  "You have to sweat" and people don't

want to because its effort based and not "easy". 

Consistency  occurs in a general activity of exercise (how many x per

week/month etc) and also the actual activity(biking twice per week etc). 

People actually believe and argue for skill-less-ness and marketing has

capitalized on it.  The trainer is there to tell me etc.  I don't need to "think", just do.  Yes in the right context but typically that takes time.  Thus the person is being provided for rather than learning to fish.  Empowerment occurs with the latter though I'm not discrediting learning from a trainer/coach.  I'm discrediting not paying attention in doing so.  

Developing skill happens whether we want to recognize it or not.  Broad but stay with me.  

ANYONE who pays attention will learn what it is they are doing and be able

to repeat it or take the knowledge for their own if they decide to pay

attention. 

Coach Rudnev's visit

That was my second one on one with my coach exclusive to my knowledge.  Not that many.  I paid attention! 

So one must take advantage and not for granted the lessons being taught listening to every single word and nuance as much as possible.  It saves time and frustration.  

Kettlebell relevance:

With kettlebells, I can almost identify based on the weight where one can see a distinction in mindset as one progresses.  Natural ability as well as lifestyle play a role and vary.   People who start out at 40 have a different ability than someone at 15.  Take into account someone who had been an athlete before and one who had not.  

Fun to Serious 

People who continue to progress to high levels, generally are silent doers but some are not.   It phases in and out.  

Those who are predisposed to a harder sport (heavier kettlebell weight) who announce goal prematurely,

usually shy away from the responsibility have legit excuses because of the subconscious.  

Those who have legit excuses not to train will never make it, because a justifiable excuse

is still an excuse.  It is not a bad thing.  Life happens.  Its not divided into good and bad.  

Its about priority.  

It boils down to becoming honest with yourself.   This is not meant

as belittlement, but meant as a an indicator that people may have life

events or this that and the other and are not willing to sacrifice aspects

of their life to get to the next level.   The hard truth is sacrifice is what it takes;

sacrifice to stick to the plan.  

Sticking to the plan:

Programming is relatively simple if the information between coach and

student is transparent.  Quite frankly, I'm not sure having multiple

"Masters" is a bad thing but its up to the student to be forthcoming and

honest with assessing if "this makes sense" when trying to mix and match?  It depends on what its for and why.   Most athletes have more than one.  

Does the student relay all that they do or do not do, how they feel consistently ?  Or is it I"can or can not" ?

go with the former, be brave and provide feedback to your coach/trainer if you are having too much to do or too little and why.   Otherwise, it defeats the purpose of a coach.  

Undertraining and overtraining are common challenges and are never fully

understood.  It comes down to the individual and monitoring them specifically to make a determination.  

That is the point of competitive sports be it strength sports, speed

sports and endurance sports.   The trick is to take what is working and

improve upon it.  The first step is to identify what is working.

Does the individual continue to improve?   

End rant

KBLFTR

Cold water, Mental toughness and Deep Fried Pretzels with 2 tablespoons of Sugar

At some point or another it is exhilarating to jump in water that makes you feel alive in a way that shocks you.   After about 10-15 minutes, its fun and the inkling to get out cometh.   After 30 minutes, one loses feeling in the toes and fingers.   After that its move or suffer. 

In the situation of 90 minutes in the water 5 days a week, misery begets the individual.  I'm talking about the childhood of swimmers. 

It was tough and /or miserable but at the same time, it was fun.   It was fun to compete, in this case swimming meets.  It was fun to belong to community, in this case a swim team.  It was fun to celebrate after with regard to the success of everyone.  It built character . 

Unfortunate circumstances brought a bunch of us swimmers together recently with the death of a friend who shared our experiences.  The silver lining was seeing everyone and reminiscing about the individual as well as our own experiences we shared.   To a point, the more miserable the experience shared, the stronger the bond it would seem.

 There were 20-30 kids with 3 shower heads after our daily hypothermia of a 90 minute 65 degree pool swim.  It was like a nature show where the Gorillas(bigger kids) were in the shower heads while the smaller primates(I was one) caught the mist off the shower until the manager came to kick us out 45 minutes later.  

Eating 2-3 deep fried philly soft pretzels from the swim club snack bar with two tablespoons of sugar (each) did not affect our "8 pack ribs" status.   

No exaggeration as it was between 60-70 degrees for a sub 80 lb swimmer to swim for 90 minutes in the morning (7:30-9) and before the sun hit the water.  It was not a heated pool.  And swim season started in early June NJ.  The sun came up around 8 am.  Us kids were innovative to the nth degree of ways to procrastinate. 

Mental toughness is variable depending on the background.  Its like an apple and an orange.  Mental toughness at what?  Everyone has their weakness and strength.  But I digress.  

Mental toughness is laughing in the face of misery or crying in the face of misery while pressing on;)  And by laughing I don't say because its mocking, or treating it as trite and trivial but because its so horrible that its either laugh or cry.  And kids did cry.  Every time someone would take a breath while swimming, their bawling face would be seen by all.   It became comical and that comes back to the Peaceful Warrior quote.  "Keep a sense of humor, especially about yourself, it is a strength beyond all measure."   I remember laughing at myself very hard at the situation of misery I would be in here and there.   It was a healthy way to gain mental toughness. 

One of the swimmers I saw recently became a Navy Seal.  He made a comment that the cold water was nothing compared to practice :D   Maybe he exaggerated a bit but I would guess that it was God awful.  I forgot to mention that we had practice in the afternoon as well. (1 hour).  It became12.5 hours of swimming per week.  Anyone that was on the team would call me a wimp for posting this but actually its admiration of them and how as a team, people had a good time despite the misery.  Misery loves company (seems self inflicted), but its good to have company while in misery (no choice).  People tell me  "you don't have to swim".   I was an 8 year old kid.   :D  choices were limited but I'm glad I did it.   Somedays its ok to "give up" or "quit" or "fail" that day.   Save your strength and come back stronger another day.  If you must quit, its not the end of the world.  But keep quitting temporary and stay the course for the long haul. 

As kettlebell lifters, most would follow the thought process to train with others making it easier if not manageable, especially for those days when one does not feel like it or is off.  Agreed, as the sport grows I hope that I train with more and more folks as it always seems to mutually inspire.  

Swim Result

Kettlebell Training Camp April 25th through April 27th

We will meet at 6pm Lake Anna 8000 square feet, 9 bedrooms.  The limitation will be my ability to coach and not space.  Its a large place.  

Another Training Camp.  Its closer, more room to train, and more recreation.
We will do warm up, GPP (contextual), SPP,  Kettlebell Lifting and active recovery.  Like last time there will ample opportunity to ask questions and gain insight in how to increase athletics, KB or otherwise.  

Facility is 8000 square feet.  Food will be provided for breakfast and lunch.
This is a no kidding "walk away better" specific instruction to you training camp.

Arrive Friday

at 6 pm.  Directions will be provided the night before to registrants

Dinner 7 pm

Saturday Breakfast 7:00 am - 8:00 am

Warm up 9:00 am-9:30

9:30-11:00 Kettlebell Swing, Clean, Press, Push Press, Jerk
lunch 11:00-12:00

12:00 -1:00 pm warm up plus competition preparation

1:00-2:30 pm Kettlebell snatch training (elements of lifting)

15 min break

2:45-4:00 Kettlebell Long Cycle training (elements of lifting)

break 15 minutes

4:30-? active recovery/ recreation

Dinner 7:30 pm 

Sunday

Breakfast at 9 am. GPP 9-1030 11- Adjourn

Payment information is as follows.
330 April 1st standard price
300 Mar 19th Early Bird

 

Meet your coaches

Marty Farrell

Team Kettlebell Lifter LLC Coach

IKSFA Master Coach, Lvl I, Lvl II, Judge Certified

http://www.iksfa.com/drupal/index.php?q=node/1

Multi National Kettlebell Champion

Best lb for lb Biathlon Lifter North America

US Kettlebell Jerk Record holder Absolute 2013, 2014 (88 repetitions) 71 kg BW
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xvu8L9-xMkw
North American Kettlebell Jerk record absolute 2 24kg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI4U-V1Gq08

NeoCell Sponsored Athlete
https://www.facebook.com/NeoCellCollagen

Lei Zhang

IKSFA Certified Judge

Team Kettlebell Lifter LLC Coach

Candidate Master of Sport, OKC Open, 142 repetitions 28 kg snatch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBPko5Oz2hg

Candidate Master of Sport, IKSFA, AKA Arnold Classic 135 repetitions 28 kg snatch

Candidate Master of Sport, IKFSA, QCrossfit 162 repetitions 24 kg snatch

Hylete Sponsored Athlete

https://www.facebook.com/Hylete

 

Arrive Friday

at 6 pm.  Directions will be provided the night before to registrants

Dinner 7 pm

Saturday Breakfast 7:00 am - 8:00 am

Warm up 9:00 am-9:30

9:30-11:00 Kettlebell Swing, Clean, Press, Push Press, Jerk
lunch 11:00-12:00

12:00 -1:00 pm warm up plus competition preparation

1:00-2:30 pm Kettlebell snatch training (elements of lifting)

15 min break

2:45-4:00 Kettlebell Long Cycle training (elements of lifting)

break 15 minutes

4:30-? active recovery/ recreation

Dinner 7:30 pm 

Sunday

Breakfast at 9 am. GPP 9-1030 11- Adjourn

 

Team Kettlebell Lifter

More and more people are liking(or hating;) ) that Team Kettlebell Lifter is getting stronger. And while this coaching thing is new, I feel everyone is learning coaching as well as lifting including myself. Having a consistent base of several lifters at once is helping me realize different aspects of technique that I do and don't explain.

Coach Rudnev having coached countless lifters understands this as I'm starting to. Thanks to my students and coach (IKSFA President) for teaching/learning. Good lifting this year:) Kettlebell Lifter

Lei Zhang


Video by one of my students :)

Sheesh, just kick me in the teeth! :P "All of these are symptoms of the same disease: a manic reinterpretation of “democracy” in which everyone must have their say, and no one must be “disrespected.” (The verb to disrespect is one of the most obnoxious and insidious innovations in our language in years, because it really means “to fail to pay me the impossibly high requirement of respect I demand.”) This yearning for respect and equality, even—perhaps especially—if unearned, is so intense that it brooks no disagreement. It represents the full flowering of a therapeutic culture where self-esteem, not achievement, is the ultimate human value, and it’s making us all dumber by the day. Thus, at least some of the people who reject expertise are not really, as they often claim, showing their independence of thought. They are instead rejecting anything that might stir a gnawing insecurity that their own opinion might not be worth all that much. Experts: the servants, not masters, of a democracy So what can we do? Not much, sadly, since this is a cultural and generational issue that will take a long time come right, if it ever does. Personally, I don’t think technocrats and intellectuals should rule the world: we had quite enough of that in the late 20th century, thank you, and it should be clear now that intellectualism makes for lousy policy without some sort of political common sense. Indeed, in an ideal world, experts are the servants, not the masters, of a democracy. But when citizens forgo their basic obligation to learn enough to actually govern themselves, and instead remain stubbornly imprisoned by their fragile egos and caged by their own sense of entitlement, experts will end up running things by default. That’s a terrible outcome for everyone. Expertise is necessary, and it’s not going away. Unless we return it to a healthy role in public policy, we’re going to have stupider and less productive arguments every day. So here, presented without modesty or political sensitivity, are some things to think about when engaging with experts in their area of specialization. We can all stipulate: the expert isn’t always right. But an expert is far more likely to be right than you are. On a question of factual interpretation or evaluation, it shouldn’t engender insecurity or anxiety to think that an expert’s view is likely to be better-informed than yours. (Because, likely, it is.) Experts come in many flavors. Education enables it, but practitioners in a field acquire expertise through experience; usually the combination of the two is the mark of a true expert in a field. But if you have neither education nor experience, you might want to consider exactly what it is you’re bringing to the argument. In any discussion, you have a positive obligation to learn at least enough to make the conversation possible. The University of Google doesn’t count. Remember: having a strong opinion about something isn’t the same as knowing something. And yes, your political opinions have value. Of course they do: you’re a member of a democracy and what you want is as important as what any other voter wants. As a layman, however, your political analysis, has far less value, and probably isn’t — indeed, almost certainly isn’t — as good as you think it is. And how do I know all this? Just who do I think I am? Well, of course: I’m an expert.