I woke up today feeling like I got hit dead on by a Mack Truck. I was wondering what happened to my body and what the hell happened to me! I was sore in all these places I forgot I had, I was in utter disbelief – what the hell did I do Saturday??? . . .
. . . Oh, thats right . . .
I attended an RKC Prep course taught by the brilliant and gracious Dr. Mark Cheng – This was 6 straight hours of kettlebell training. He literally drilled the basics of working with a KB into our systems to prepare for the grueling RKC Test. A couple of the attendees were going to take the 3-day test next week in Philly. Best of luck to them!
My reasons for attending the course were to see where I fit in, and if I was ready to take the test. I mean, I work with KBs all the time, I should know a thing or two . . . right???
WRONG! I have a ton of work to do.Working with a 52lb bell is quite an eye opener. I still showed it who’s boss – or so I thought, until I woke up! (LOL!)
The experience was tremendously humbling as Dr. Cheng patiently and sternly broke down my mechanics until I felt what I was supposed to be feeling with my movement. The attention to detail and the way it just comes down to bare basics is really astounding. The course was really less about the KB itself and more about proper movement and perfect technique.
I learned that Dr. Cheng (AKA Doc) is not only a physical therapist, a doctor, and a Chief KB instructor with the RKC, a researcher in the fields of optimum human performance & orthopedic medicine through the FMS Functional Movement patterning, martial arts/combative systems, & Chinese manual medicine . . whew! . . .- he is also an awesome coach! He motivated everyone in the room to give their best and try until they nailed it. He knows the body and its mechanics like nobody Ive ever seen before, I was amazed at the depth of his knowledge. The scary part is I think we only just scratched the surface at this course.
One of the main things I learned is that often times people get caught up with all the cool exercises to do, which is okay from time to time, but the basics must be MASTERED. I learned that when it comes down to it, there are really only two exercises that really need to be done with a KB, and they can be done to death –
- Swing
- Turkish Get Up
Do them, do them well, master them better than anyone. Plain and simple. This really came to light when he mentioned that even the US MIlitary Special Ops are only taught the Swing and the Get up for the majority of their training.
If its good enough for them – its good enough for us.
So I left feeling humbled, inspired, hungry and tired. It was worth it, and now I have a new depth of knowledge and a ton of homework!
Big shout out to all the attendees, they rocked it and everyone stayed focused and motivated. Props go to Julie an Dave for their terrific perofrmance of VO2 Max training, I know they are hurtin today!I was very impressed with everyone. The other RKCs in attendance were all very helpful and extremely knowledgable – thanks for all your help!
All in all it was a great experience!
I will apply what new techniques I learned as soon I get to my next victi- . . . ummm . . .client – yeah, thats right!
Stay strong,
Joey
