Banstead Kettlebell Instructor
James Davis – Qualified IKFF Level 1 Certified Kettlebell Teacher
WOW! The weekend of October 9th and 10th 2010 was one to remember for me and about 20 other budding kettlebell teachers. I have pretty much just about recovered from two 8 hour days of intensive kettlebell exercises, corrective drills, density training, stepping stone techniques and testing. It’s taken a week to get back to normal, I am sure others have recovered sooner, but it was certainly one of my finest training weekends I’ve had in a long time and I am very pleased to say that I emerged, along with many others, as a fully qualified Level 1 Certified Kettlebell Teacher (CKT) through Steve Cotter and the IKFF.
October 9th 2010 – CKT London Day 1
Usually a trip to Earlsfield Amateur Boxing Club takes me about an hour starting at 6am, covering about 9 miles. My most recent Kettlebell instructor, Cj Swaby from CJS Fitness, improved my kettlebell technique at Earslfield ABC over the months in the lead up to the CKT course last weekend – he really guided me well, a great instructor.
Of course, I overestimated the Saturday morning traffic and arrived at the club way too early, so I investigated Garratt Lane, found Starbucks, entered, ordered, sat, drank, tweeted, facebooked and generally relaxed looking forward to the day. Wandering back towards to the club I met with lingering people who all had one thing in common, a deep nervous excitement of the prospect of being pushed to your physical and mental limits and then some.
When Steve Cotter, the instructor for the weekend & President of the IKFF and generally the main man, entered the training room I felt I was meeting someone I already knew. Since starting working with kettlebells about 2 years ago I’d followed Steve Cotter’s advice on the internet, watched his instructional video clips many times and developed the understanding that this man was a great teacher. I slipped straight in the student role and enjoyed being taught by someone with such a respected following.
Making sure I got a good view of his movements (I’d taken my glasses off) and in a perfect position to get some videos we got to work. Day 1 consisted of (if I recall correctly):
- Joint mobility warm up
- Dynamic warm up
- Unexpected Fitness Test (which most passed first time)
- Swing – two handed
- Swing – one handed
- Swing – hand to hand
- Clean – hoisting the KB up to your chest and learning to rest in that position.
- Presses – various over head presses with one and two KB’s
- Density Training – low reps going from light weight up to heaviest and back down again
- Various corrective drills for Swing and Clean
The above list might not be completely accurate but it sets the scene anyway.
After the day there was the chance to go out to a local place to grab some much needed food, I jumped at the chance and surprised that not many others did although many did have long drives home and probably needed sleep. I’m used to sleeping very little so going out for dinner and getting back a little later than planned didn’t affect my sleeping pattern particularly. It was a great night, chatting with a few other students and the instructor team – shame I didn’t take any photos of that night – great chance to just get to know others. My muscles stiffened up a treat.
October 10th 2010 – CKT London Day 2
After just a little sleep with, at times, both children sprawled across our pillows I headed out to Earlsfield early again, knowing I’d be early. Starbucks was shut! However, across the road Nero’s was open so headed in there to start the day. A few others from the course discovered the same place and we chatted about sore hamstrings and the prospect of Day 2 and when ready we walked back to the club to get cracking.
People were certainly slightly less energetic than at the start of Day 1, however after a decent joint and dynamic warmup we were ready to get cracking. Day 2 was hard going, hard, hard going. We reviewed the finer points from Day 1 and then proceeded with Day 2′s material while some were nursing very sore hands from Day 1. Day 2 I think covered:
- Jerk – starting with double bells, then density training with singles
- Long Cycle – clean and jerk
- Snatch – this is super ace
- Squats – front squat mainly, some great mobility drills for better squatting
- Testing – covering all the main points except Jerk which is assessed on Level 2
Day 2 was solid, hard, mind blowingly hard at times, difficult to breath, enlightening and glorious too. After testing we relaxed, ate, and watch Cj do the housework by cleaning the gym from all the chalk, sweat, blood (indeed), and skin.
Great weekend of training, perfecting technique, learning assistance drills, spotting common errors and using corrective drills, meeting new people, making friends, feeling great and getting qualified.
Watch out for Kettlebell Classes in Banstead and nearby very, very soon. As a supplement to the Martial Arts training we’re doing, the Kettlebell training is superb! Take advantage of the all the skills your TKD instructor has to offer, pester me.
Some photos from the day:
Here’s a video of the weekend put together by Cj Swaby:
Great Fun
James Davis
www.bansteadtkd.co.uk
