Methods For Kettlebell training

Kettlebell training in Australia is still in its infancy despite the tool having been around for over three hundred years! But things are starting to change with many groups now running kettlebell training, instructor courses and introduction workshops.

Leading the way is Dragon Door Australia. While only having been operating for a short time they have already become known as the national experts on improving functional strength and movement via kettlebell training.

Andrew Read, one of Australia’s best-known personal trainers, started Dragon Door Australia. Located in Melbourne he originally started training with kettlebells to rehabilitate an injured shoulder. To begin with he scoured the Internet for reliable information on kettlebell training, always coming to the same source – Dragon Door.

With no local courses or training available he set to reading as much as he could of Pavel Tsatsouline’s works.

Tsatsouline is regarded as one of the brightest minds in strength training as well as being the creator of the modern kettlebell trend. His works combine old time Russian training methods with new age sports science to achieve a result only possible with these dangerous looking “cannonballs with a handle”.

What Read quickly found was that the unique design of Dragon Door kettlebells allowed him to fix and rehabilitate his inured shoulder. Even better, once he had repaired the injury he realized that kettlebells could be used to replace nearly all of his strength training. The Russian Kettlebell Certification (RKC) system devised by Tsatsouline is so state of the art, and the kettlebell so versatile, that a home gym could be set up requiring almost no space, minimal cost outlay and giving a workout that was many times greater than the sum of its parts.

The offset nature of the kettlebell allows many hidden benefits of kettlebell training to be realized. The kettlebell, by virtue of this is always trying to force the body to move out of alignment. This resistance to force is an essential element to creating stability and core strength in the body. Many have found that their core strength rises dramatically after spending some time training with kettlebells.

The difficult thing about traveling this path in Australia was that not many people had done it beforehand. But Read decided to go ahead and attend the RKC in 2009, becoming only the sixth Australian to pass. The RKC course is regarded as the world’s leading kettlebell training course and includes many of the world’s top minds in strength and conditioning. Becoming one of them is neither easy nor fast with preparation for the event taking many close to a year before satisfactory levels of strength and skill are reached. Even once a student feels ready as many as thirty percent fail the RKC at each event!

Having since gone onto become the first Australian to ever pass the Certified Kettlebell Functional Movement Specialist course as well as RKC level II, in recognition of his stellar achievements he has since been promoted to RKC Team Leader – an invite only position within the RKC only awarded to those who display exemplary knowledge and dedication to becoming the best kettlebell trainer they can be.

By combining the essence of human movement –building blocks of exercise that in turn lay the foundation for athletic performance – with the simplicity of the kettlebell is an easy feat. The RKC system is built on the development of force while retaining relaxation. These two elements are two sides of the same coin – the athletic performance coin. And contained within the works of Tsatsouline are many thoughts on both of these essential subjects.

Even movements that appear simple – such as the swing – often contain many depths of technical skill not often initially realized by people. This one simple exercise teaches force development as well as speed and power production. It teaches safe lifting mechanics, while reinforcing good posture – an essential element, often overlooked, is that performance and safety are intertwined. The swing also teaches breath manipulation for strength and safety as well as the aforementioned ability to relax even during times of high workload.

With Dragon Door now firmly entrenched in American’s minds as the leaders in advanced strength and conditioning resources it is only natural that Dragon Door Australia are starting to become known for the same thing. With one of Australia’s best known personal trainers now leading the charge for both functional strength and kettlebell training it is only a matter of time before this secret training method of the Russian supermen becomes better known.
 

Related Kettlebell Training Articles