Part of me wishes that I could give an unbiased review. The rest of me says “to hell with that”. I was a teenager during the Clinton years, which is to say that hyphenated words and dancing around raw subject matter were once temporary solutions, and now and again find their way into my world.
He's not from Fiji, he is a pacific islander. She didn't have an abortion, she terminated her pregnancy. That child is not a cripple, he is physically challenged. Really? Because people from Fiji refer to themselves as Fijian, the act of terminating a pregnancy is known as 'aborting', and the correct English for one who is crippled, is, well, a cripple. What is the PC term for white trash? Economically disenfranchised Caucasian? Forget that. I can't be PC, not in this review.
If I had never heard of Pavel and rolled up on the TAIC, I would have been awash in the glory of Jeff Martone's ability to promote the kettlebell. Yet, since I have been to 10 Russian Kettlebell Certifications, I can tell you that there is no comparing the two, as the comparison hearkens the old expression “you would be comparing 2Pac to Brahms”. Both are excellent on their own plane, yet to align the two is to make a mistake. Now find out why.
Pavel introduces kettlebells to the US. In hopes that only the toughest bastards step into the realm, the magazine advertisement in 2001 and 2002 declare that if you train with kettlebells you will soon wake up with better wind than a storm, and harder than a coffin nail. They promised and delivered.
2007 Jeff Martone, formerly of Pavel's staff, introduces the RKC curriculum to Crossfit, and becomes their go-to Kb guy. After 9 years following Pavel, and 5 years certified under him, I finally went out and trained under someone else. Jeff Martone's kettlebell curriculum was part of his four day Tactical Athlete Instructor Course. If I had the option upon registration I would have skipped the two day kettlebell cert, known as Crossfit Kettlebell Level I, though after completing that portion of the course, I am quite glad I did not.
“What's better, crab cakes or sushi?”
“Yes.”
Both dishes are served in an optimal setting if you are near the ocean, however in some cases, one is more appropriate than the other.
Out of the small p-way she walked, small enough to be obscured by anyone taller than her, yet possessing enough beauty to halt foot traffic within the dining area. Hers was a beauty unmatched by anything structural within the restaurant. Her light eyes and dark hair spinning men's heads around and eyes on said heads soon looked up and down the length of her, albeit quickly, as her body was just as enticing as her facial features. She was the prettiest waitress in the sushi joint, and whatever geographic origin her ancestors could claim was visible in her non-specific exoticism. When she delivered my plate of edible art from the sea, I opted to marvel at her skin tone as she walked away, rather than tripping out on the deliciouss appeal of my fir dragon roll and unagi tataki.
Do you hear me?
When he was done washing his hands in that closet which featured a toilet, his mitts were actually more filthy than when he entered. His dick was the cleanest thing in that bathroom, by a light year, and when he used his foot to lower the toilet seat, and flush, it occurred to him that if he could only do them same for the faucet, soap, and paper towels, he may be minus a few diseases after 4 quarters were through. With an exaggerated grimace on his unshaven face, he prayed for a sanitary plate on which his crab cakes would be served after he left this biological disaster zone known as the bathroom at “RD Doherty's Public House”. The Patriots were about to put the hammer down on the Jets, and when he got home he could have a shit in his own bathroom with the autumn breeze on his face and no one's remnants on the toilet seat. Go Pats.
You got to be feeling me by now.
Each paragraph was given some plausibility by the food selection relative to the environment. How many times have you been to a grungy bar to watch sports and wished you hadn't entered the “lavatory?” If you are like me, you went to an upscale sushi joint once and fell in the love with the server. Dirty boys, crab cakes & beer. Fine, exotic women do well around fine, exotic foods. RKC Standards set by Pavel work well for the Pavelian student body. What Jeff Martone does is perfect for Crossfit. The examples given have set the context, now check the specifics.
-RKC drills are very linear and involve power production on nearly every rep of every drill. RKC drills come with a lunchbox of cues and enabling drills to fix 'poor mechanics'. RKC weekends are physically arduous and should entitle you to a week off work. RKC instructors are quite capable and sometimes righteous, but do have the best in mind for their clients.
-The Crossfit system, to include the 'elements' and the 'Workout Of the Day [WOD]' derive their power from the Olympic lifts. Crossfit offers somewhere around 100 certifications a year with regard to their various elements [endurance, power, kettlebells]. Crossfit Kettlebell Level I course was only flecked with moments of physical distress and the most challenging portion of the course, other than continuously scrubbing my neural whiteboard of Pavelisms, was the testing at the end. We were tested on about 12 drills, and each set flowed into the next, and into the next, so that when you completed your push presses, if you are like me you thought “Hot damn, it's chow time!” Their was much talk, and good demonstration, yet those two days were so decidedly not RKC that if I hadn't been introduced to Gym Movement, I would have been in trouble. And by that I mean that my mouth would have fired off a three round burst of self righteous crap that would have disrupted my ability to learn from Jeff and made me look like an arrogant Yankee in a room full of, well, nicer people.
Through Gym Movement I have come to understand that movement quality is subjective,and if looks nasty but tests well then you have no business adjusting the hell out of it. If they swing a bell and their shins are not vertical, but it tests well, than shut your mouth and let them train. That is what I had to tell myself often during the two day CFKB1, and the light approach to technique refinement, the familiarity of the enabling drills to 2004-era RKC, and the near absence of tension cues did cause a problem for me halfway through the first day. Things were easier to deal with after I made the decision to believe that Jeff's style is appropriate for CF, and the dissimilarities between CF and RKC were necessary. In addition, the way I feel now about teaching movement, after reading much of what has been posted on Mike T. Nelson's site, allowed me to 'go easy' on Jeff when it came to my final understanding of the course and the evaluation sheet.
Crossfit has an Olympic lifting element, so they get thier power training from barbells. The kettlebell, for them, is a means to amplify the endurance element. That is they kettlebell's use for them. And bravo, as the design of the bell allows for exaggerated ranges of motion, greater musculoskeltal recruitment, and more reps. Right? So when the absence of 'Hardstyle' was clear to me, the call I made was the aforementioned. They use kettlebells for endurance, so they stay relaxed when they train. Jeff's approach the Turkish Get Up was quite refreshing, and the military press segment was with full respect to Pavel's teaching of the press, and of course, whomever taught Pavel.
The one arm swing, taught with a slightly bent elbow, makes sense as Martone explained that when transitioning from swings to cleans and snatches, having learned the swing with a packed shoulder/bent elbow, the clean and snatch are eaier to teach and learn. So, hold onto yoru manuals, RKC community, but I believe it. I believe that you can pack your shoulder and swing with a slight break in your elbow. Because I saw it. I saw a room full of people learn the clean and snatch with ease. I saw a room of fit people learn the clean and snatch. I was impressed. No best, only better. This was better for them, and that's what happened.
In later months I will offer my opinion on power breathing as it taught class wide. I will tell you now that I swing a bell in a different fashion than I did last year, and the new swing was enabled by a conversation with Dustin Rippetoe RKC Team Leader and CKFMS instructor, multiple Rolfing and Pilates sessions with my friend and source Maryanne Garvin of Silverton, CO, and the incomparable Adam Glass. “Ripper” watched me during Crocodile Breath at the Indian Clubs workshop in April, and noted to me that my belly-breathing was causing extension in my lumbo-pelvic region. I stood up and went through the pressing pattern with no external load, and noticed that my natural lumbar curve and the unnatural lumbo-pelvic situation I was left with after being ejected from a Jeep Wrangler at 70 MPH and hitting concrete was indeed affected by my application of the Valsalva maneuver. I thought back to what Maryanne said about my abdominal muslces. How my rectus abdominous was “dominating” and the tissue inside my gut was not firing to a capacity that would allow good back health for me. I thought of the numerous phone calls Adam and I have had since we met last summer. And I adjusted. To the dismay of my professor, Pavel, I began to draw my belly in, rather than 'brace' the abdomen with power breathing, on my 20kg swings. Firing from what I have read is called the 'hara', or, the area 3” below the navel, my swings felt safe and smooth. No disproportionate tension, no hard glute snap. I simply protected my back with a new breathing technique and focused on the rhythm of the swing, i.e. up and down, up and down, etc. My back only bothered me after I slept for 9 hours in the hotel bed.
And when they rolled out the Tactical Athlete Pull Up Challenge, guess who nailed that sumb*tch? That's right. At 237 body weight, i pulled 90 lbs. over the bar on my waist, totaling a 327 lb. neck-to-bar pull up. Tell me who the man is?
So here I am, on an American holiday, questioning everything and gaining at a nice pace. I'm losing belly fat and getting tan. I'm keeping my Indian club swinging sessions short, and i'm testing everything. I do not have workouts, yet, and I may never regularly 'workout' again. I will, however, test everything and with the minimal effective amount, train myself into a better spot. Better.
Best to you,
W
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