North Jersey Kettlebell Competition

So, somewhere around six weeks ago, I caught wind of an upcoming kettlebell coaches cert here in the NYC area. Somewhere between making sure I'd completed the requisite pre-certifications and wrapping my head around a completely different movement language, I decided it'd be a bright idea to try my hand at a regional competition. You know, not that serious, seasoned athletes spend years training for these events or anything (the problem I'm encountering here is not being sure you actually caught the copious amounts of sarcasm slathered over that last bit there).

Not long thereafter, my bright shiny new pair of 24kg bells arrived and I was off. For those of you not in the know as far as this relitavely esoteric competition goes, basically you have 10 minutes to complete as many repetitions in your chosen event as possible without putting the weights down. Just because I'm a glutton for punishment, I chose the long cycle. That's a goal of 10 minutes of bilateral kettlebell clean & jerk under a 106# load. No touching the floor. No resting other than the recovery you can get holding the bells in rack position at chest level.

Anyway, back to me and the shiny new bells. So, of course I have to go ahead and give it a try. 1 minute and 5 reps into the thing, I was seriously began questioning the moral consequences visited upon the b*stard that came up with this crap (that coming from a guy who has no hesitation asking his clients to complete 250 ball slams, burpees and pushpress in the first half their workout).

Cue "Highway to the Danger Zone" and a Rocky styled training montage. Owing everything to my fantastic coaches, Lorna Kleidman & Mike Stefano, I ended up getting my ass handed to me day after day, set after set for the next five weeks. But then, what should you expect when your coaches are a two time world kettelbell champoin and a master coach as your mentors? I've experienced numerous physical changes over the years due to my training. The leaps and bounds my conditioning made to meet the specific demands of these movements over subsiquent weeks was really quite astounding. Honelstly, Lorna and Mike, I owe you guys a lot of thanks. Your guidance really got me through this.

The key here is that this vein of kettlebell sport is based on a very different style of movement. Whereas everything I have done and taught, kettlebells or otherwise, is based on the universal athletic position, soft style girevoy (kb) sport tends to be more rounded, using the body as a whip. For me it was a bit like learning Greek. I can't even rely on the background familiarity I have with gramatical structure, very different. I knew I wasn't going to contend, but to learn.

June 13th rolls around and at the end of the day I'm one of the few that did not finish the allotted time. I did however finish with a personal best of 6:05 and 22 reps at a total of 6 weeks worth of training. I'll take it.

Thank you to Mike Sanders and his crew for putting this whole thing together. above it all, I'm an information and learning junkie. I 100% appreciate you guys facilitating my being able to learn this in a way I couldn't have if the North Jersey Kettlebell Competition hadn't happened.

Yes, I'm going to keep training. Yes, I'll keep you posted as to how it's going.