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Class News

Kettlebell Sport Lifting

Thursday, 03 May 2007

The American Kettlebell Club based in Cincinnati, Oh and run by World Champion Valery Fedorenko, is bringing new awareness of the sport of kb lifting to the US. Known as Girevik Sport or GS by many in the U.S., kettlebell lifting has been a tradition in Europe & the countries of the former Soviet Union.

The ranks of kettlebell lifters is growing rapidly and the need for qualified coaches prompted Valery to begin holding Kettlebell Lifting Coach certifications to pass on his knowledge and to spread the sport to more people in the U.S.

I was recently certified as was Steve Cotter, Steve Maxwell and many more former & current RKC instructors. We are dedicated to promoting Kettlebell lifting in this country.

Kettlebells are primarily a strength/endurance tool. As such, it is great for developing strong muscles, tendons and ligaments but without getting bulky. Now that isn't to say you can't use kbs for hypertrophy, but that is not what they are best used for.

Lifting for strength/endurance requires a different mindset versus lifting for sets and reps. Going for set & reps you can hit them as hard and fast as possible because you know you only have to do a certain amount of work before resting.
On the other hand, lifting for strength/endurance or more notably competition lifting, you are working against the clock. Lifting for time, whether it is swings for 2 minutes or snatches for 10 minutes you just keep going. You can't go hard and fast or you will never survive, therefore you must learn to relax and be more efficient in your movements.

Kettlebell Sport is competition lifting. Men & women can compete in the Clean & Jerk (with 2 kbs) and Snatch, they can also compete in the Long Cycle Clean & Jerk (a clean for every jerk). Each lift is judged by how many good lifts the competitor makes in 10 minutes.

In the snatch you may not set the kbs on the floor, you can let them rest hanging down but they cannot touch the body. You may not bring the bell to the shoulder after snatching (sometimes called a 1/2 snatch). You may only switch hands one time.

The Clean & Jerk (short cycle) allows resting the rack position or overhead. The cannot rest on the shoulders and you may not re-clean them. The rules are the same with the Long Cycle C&J with the exception of being able to re-clean each rep & letting them hang at the side but not touching the body

Typically you would train for and compete in either the LCCJ or the SCCJ + Snatch. The LCCJ is too demanding so it isn't advisable to train for it & the two lift competition (SCCJ & Snatch).
Men use either 24k or 32k bells women use 16k.
Scoring:
Snatches
Men - The total number of snatches with both hands is divided by 2
Women - Total number from both hands

The snatch numbers are added to the total number of jerks for a total score. The winner is the person with the highest number. In the event of a tie the person lightest at weigh in is the winner, or the person that lifted first, or the person lightest after the competition.

Women's rankings are based on how many total snatches in 10 mins using a 16k bell.
Here is a video of Catherine Imes achieving the rank of Master of Sport recently.

Men's rankings are based on the number of snatches divided by 2 + the total number of jerks. Here are a couple of videos of Marty Farrell attempting MS.
Jerks
Snatches

KB Sport is huge deal in the former Soviet Union and many European countries and competitions are held on the local, regional, national and international levels. Those who have been competing for a while are always trying to improve their numbers with goal of obtaining the rank of Master of Sport (rankings are here).

For more details on the rules go here
If you want to learn more about KB Sport lifting techniques This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it