A recent conversation with a client went something like this, “Of course you can do …you’re a professional.” A little while later, a prospective client asked, “Do you think I have the potential to be good at kettlebells?” Combine that with another amazing weekend hosting an RKC workshop, and this blog post was born.
Of course I can do all of these kettlebell lifts, I’m a professional. But how do you think I became a professional? I certainly didn’t come out of the womb able to do all of this stuff. I had to learn it and practice it, and be open to more learning and more practicing. Every. Day. Every day until I earned my RKC and every day since I earned my RKC.
I didn’t just pick up a kettlebell and magically start using it perfectly. I was once in exactly the same position as anyone who comes to my gym to learn kettlebells. I had to learn each exercise from square one, just as all of my clients do. Truth be told, it took me a long time to learn a proper swing! That deep hike and explosive hip snap was as foreign to me as it is to you. After lots of dedicated practice and consistency, it’s now feels so natural it’s hard to remember how awkward I once felt.
Even after 6+ years of being an RKC, I still don’t just pick up a kettlebell and magically start using it perfectly. Every time I pick up a kettlebell, I focus on all the components that I know make up proper technique.
I make sure I set up with proper form and I make sure I swing, clean, press, etc. with proper form. I think about making every rep the best I can make it. I concentrate on how each rep feels… “That one needed a little more tightness in my snap, I need to make sure I keep my back flat when I hike.” I video myself now and again to check and hone my technique. I never approach or pick up a kettlebell on auto-pilot.
I’m better able to recognize and make micro adjustments, but that certainly didn’t happen overnight either! It took a lot of time, patience, practice and consistency. It sometimes took losing my patience a bit. It certainly took lots of coaching and the ability to be coachable.
At an HKC workshop several years ago, after all the other participants and instructors introduced themselves and told about their vast athletic backgrounds, I said “I have a background in nothing.” I wasn’t an athlete and I didn’t participate in any sports. I had a history of being sedentary and inactive or yo-yo exercising, until I found kettlebells in my late 30’s. That is when I found the athlete inside me.
