What Would Kettle Do?

From now on the Orange Kettlebell Club will be offering a 50% discount on all of our workshops and seminars for all veterans and active soldiers of our armed forces. This is not a sale, it is a permanent policy.

This is a new policy and we will get it on the site soon. Until then if you are eligible for the discount please email me directly for your special payment link.

There is one exception though. Sometimes we collaborate with other organizations or professionals. In these situations can not speak for our partners and can not guarantee the discount. We will always try our best to make it happen. Please feel free to email me or pm me facebook with any questions. Oh, and tell your friends

We will have new events listed shortly

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kettle,

When people come to me to learn how to lift bells they understandably have certain expectations. Instruction is expensive and in the past I have worried about making sure my new students feel that they got their moneys worth by teaching as many movements as I could.  When I first started teaching I would run into problems with people not really getting a movement. My limited experience was stopping me from really teaching them how to get it right. Even knowing that though I felt that I had to move on. I had to teach at least another movement.  I have since abandoned this approach.

I used to make people try to perform some easy physical task while counting backwards from 100 by 7. I told them when they were finished counting they could stop lifting. It’s really hard. You should try it yourself and see how smoothly it goes. It is very difficult to do something new while focusing on something else like counting backwards. It gets very loud in your head. The more things you try to do at one time the louder it gets. If you are going to learn something new, especially if it is complex, you have to break it down. You have to make it quiet.

Some people are naturally athletic. You can simply show them and they can do. Others obviously are not that easy. These are my favorite people to work with. They are trying to focus but it is very loud in there. Break it down. Make the pieces smaller.

Here is how. Lets say we are doing the swing. Ask yourself a few questions.

Why am I doing this? It is very important that you are doing exactly what you are trying to do. I don’t mean that a person who is learning a movement needs to get it perfect on the first try. What I mean is if you are working on staying connected with your swing, do not get seduced by the temptation of getting a workout in. If your intention is to practice a specific segment, do just that.

What is the order? Will mastering one part of the movement make the next part of the movement easier for you to learn? For example, if you are working on getting your legs straight and your hips forward it may not be time to practice using your upper body as a counter lever. Of course, you will want to work on your upper body but if you try to do it all at once you will be thinking about to many things. Quiet it down.

When I am working with a lifter they will always have their own pace of learning. Some people have the hardest time using their hips as a primary fulcrum, to name something common. I know now after a few years of teaching that no good comes from skipping over that important piece in the name of “progress”.  If a student has a pure, fundamental flaw in their technique it will resonate in all of their lifts.

When I swing I go through a progression. My first few are about waking up my body. Then I move into leg locking and hip extension. Once I have that I focus on my connection. Finally I integrate the breathing. Sometimes it takes a little while to get comfortable but once I do I usually play with my grip a little and then I’ll swing for a few min before either going into cleans or snatches (usually cleans). I do this every workout. There have been times when I have skipped this but my set never goes well when I do. I am just not advanced enough to skip over the basics.

When people come to visit me now I make them go through a similar progression. Some people are more athletic than others so we can move a little faster. I will say though that almost nobody gets to the breathing. Most people are learning a new motor pattern and asking them to learn sophisticated breathing is like asking them to count backwards from 100 by 7.

I don’t want to go into the specifics of beginner and advanced technique in this blog. Suffice to say that yes, beginner technique exists as well as advanced technique. It is a linear progression. It is far more productive to look at a technique scale in the terms of beginner to advanced than it is from wrong to right. Of course, some technique is just bad and wrong. That being said, just because you don’t know what I am doing or what I am working on doesn’t mean I’m doing it wrong. When a person is working on one specific thing it almost always looks “wrong”. If you are the student practicing ask your coach why you are doing something in such a specific way. Your coach should be able to give you a clear answer. If you are the local kettlebell expert and you see something you don’t understand my advice is to ask questions. There is always the chance that the person you are watching is simply working on their patience.

Kettle,

Who are we? I mean, what is this kettlebell community? Are we really just a collection of tweets and facebook updates? Are we just vloggers and social media whores? Are we just basement lifters? Are we really just a bunch or arrogant extrainers who feel better after a bout of insulting folks who enjoy training that is not identical to ours? Lately I have been feeling that this is the dominant vibe. We are radiating waves of exclusion. I just want to remind everybody that we are not better than them. They are us. Well, at least we were them a few years ago. We are doing now what we are doing now, but we were doing then what we were doing then too.

I think we are better than this.

I’m no angel and I am not better than you. You won’t run into me on the street and think “wow, that guy was like, the like, most totally nice guy I’ve ever met”. I mean, just this second the guy sitting next to me in the coffee shop sneezed without covering his mouth. I almost punched him in his face, I hate that shit. It is rude. Then again, I didn’t say “bless you” so he may be thinking the same thing about me. I digress, even in our present states we are better than this.

Are we really that much more right than the other guys? Are we really the strong ones? Could we prove it if we had to? Can we do more than just piss for distance?

I think we can. More than that I think we have to. Well, at least I do.

I lift things, bend things, and rip things in half. I build things, break things, burn thing, but really what have I done? What is it all worth? Who is going to remember that I snatched a big bell?

I want to make a difference. And even if I can’t I want to try. I would rather break my bones against the rocks of failure than have them dissolve quietly under the warm cozy blanket of apathy.

To be clear. I don’t care about others opinions of my achievements. I hope you don’t either. I am not calling anybody out here. I think that most of the time people judge others out of reflex, even though they have no idea what they are looking at. They only think they do. For example: if you keep reading this blog like that you are going to hurt your back. Everybody’s an expert.

What I am saying is, that it is time for us to step up and lead. We are what? The fitness community? The alternative strength culture? Does that mean we are the strong and the able? Because from the outside we are probably seen as muscleheads and freaks you know. Are we to be only known by our biceps, abs, and asses? Do we really believe we are better than others because they are fat? The same way they believe they are smarter than us because we are not (ok, I may not be the best example but you know what I mean…stop laughing!)? I have met so many amazing people in this scene and I am proud to be a part of it. I think we have something really special here. Why not take it for a spin around the block and see what it can do???

Isn’t it time we lead with our hearts?

We are strong! It is time for us to stop talking and do something. We can’t cure the world of all that ails it but we can do what we do. I pick things up, then I put them down, then I pick them up again. It isn’t much, I am not the best in the world at it, and I don’t really know how to sell it, but I sure as shit know how to give it away.

On Oct. 23 in Los Angeles I will be giving it away here: http://www.onehourlongcycle.com/

Please come down and join me. You can help save a child’s life! And really, what else are doing for an hour on a Saturday morning?

If you have any questions about donation, participation or preparation for this event you can contact me at johnwild@orangekettlebellclub.com or PM me on facebook.

Kettle,