ICKB Team takes Gold & Silver at WKC Championships
Congratulations to Brenda, Jen C, Melissa, Christy, and Surya for their performances at the 2011 WKC Championships in Chicago this weekend! The WKC competitions are by far the most difficult of all the organizations because they only count the lower score of the two hand attempts. For example, if you score 80 points on your first hand and 20 points on your second hand, your score would only be 20. For this reason, we are especially proud of the team for sticking to the game plan set out for them in training.
Surya took Gold in the 20kg biathlon with a competition PR and the highest one-arm jerk score in the entire event.
Brenda took Silver in the 16kg long cycle division and set a personal best at her first competition.
Melissa took Gold in the 16kg biathlon and also earned her Candidate for Master of Sport rank.
Christy took Gold in the 16kg long cycle division and also made Rank 1.
Jen took Silver in the 24kg long cycle, losing by only a couple of points to our great friend – the tough and dynamic Canadian Champion, Misty Shearer.
Ivan Denisov, Valery Fedorenko, and Sean Armstead with Jen C.
After 3 years of intense kettlebell training, Jen earned her Master of Sport rank. Her hardwork and commitment to solid technique were reflected in her set. Jen is now our 5th Master of Sport while Melissa became the 8th Candidate for Master of Sport produced by the IC. We are SO grateful to our athletes for their faith in higher standards within the sport of kettlebell lifting.
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank the WKC and Sean from Phenomenal Fitness in Chicago for hosting one of the best GS events in the US thus far. For the first time we got to enjoy great music from a local DJ, a concessions stand, as well as a live feed online so that our friends and family back home could join the fun!
Best,
Maya and Steven
Congratulations to the team — what an amazing accomplishment. We are all so proud of you and inspired by your commitment and dedication. Yaaaaaaaaay!
So proud if each of you! Your hard work and determination paid off. Inspirational!
Amazing!
This was a great weekend with out the ice chamber, Steven, Maya and C duff kettlebell lifting would not be the same. I just want to thank you guys for everything you do to make this sport what it is.
Wow!! What an amazing weekend this was. Congratulations ladies!!!
FANTASTIC!!!!! Congratulations to all of you.
Can’t wait to get the details!
Christy, Melissa, Surya, Jen, and Brenda each had fantastic performances. They worked very hard in the months and weeks leading up this event! What they also deserve a great amount of credit for is doing such a good job managing their stress and anxiety levels throughout the day. Long Cycle didn’t begin until after 3pm!
…and prior to that, it is important for people to know how extremely difficult it is to fly across the country, try to get rest/sleep in foreign place, eat unpredictable meals, navigate through unfamiliar towns on different modes of transportation, make weight by 8am, and then randomly step on the platform in front of huge crowd and try to match the numbers they earned back home in training. The sensory input from all the music, faces, conversations, and performances could have taken anyone off course, but the ICKB Team stayed focused along with many other impressive lifters on Saturday. Congratulations to ALL of the competitors from across the US, Canada, and Australia!
Scott Tighe, your MS performance was a true highlight of the day. In fact, my voice has not been the same since. Few people really understand how remarkable it is for someone in the 70kg weight class to lift 32 kgs x 2 (141 lbs.) overhead 55 times in ten minutes. I’m not sure I really do either to be honest. Congratulations to you and to coach CDuff on reaching this incredible milestone together!
Emily, great job on this video! We did not capture all that cool footage so thank you-thank you for compiling it all in such a short time for everyone to enjoy so quickly!
To everyone from the meet at TGIFs on Saturday night, thanks again for the good times!
Echoing the same sentiment of Maya’s comment, these meets are unbelievably tiring and difficult for lifters due to travel, weight cutting, and mental stress. I was extremely impressed that all our athletes hit their training numbers on the platform.
Another huge congrats to Scott Tighe (2nd Male MS in Biathlon in the U.S.), Will Metcalf (CMS), Melissa Metcalf, Linda Gilmour, Charlie Fornelli, Mike Sherman, PHump, Emily, Misty, Lori Doyle, Jenna, Deb Dozier, Svitlana, Jorge Gonzales, Lisa Hensz, CDuff, and many other lifters (and their coaches) for putting up their best on the platform.
Congratulations to everyone! I know you have all worked so hard these past months.
I feel so proud and so lucky to be part of this team and for the incredible dedication of our coaches, Steve and Maya. I have been so touched by their investment in each of us over these past few months and grateful to benefit from their tremendous knowledge of the sport. Thank you so much for all that you give. I’m also so lucky to do this sport alongside such fantastic women and teammates, thanks Brenda, Jen, Christy, and Surya for your support this weekend and for inspiring me in general!!
I have to echo Melissa’s sentiments above, I am consistently reminded of how lucky I am to be a part of the Ice Chamber and in particular, the kettlebell lifting program. Steven and Maya are so giving of their time and energy, I can’t thank them enough for all the time spent and invaluable input that allowed us all to get to where we are. I am especially grateful for their insightful tips during training these last few weeks.
I also have to say that, for those IC members who just know them in the context of boot camp or core class, Steven and Maya are so respected and admired in the wider kettlebell community, their contributions to the sport are recognized and deeply appreciated. Real shining stars. Thanks everyone, and especially my good friends and fellow lifters Christy, Brenda, Melissa, and Surya, and everyone cheering us on from home!
Jen and Melissa, the $100 I promised for the paid endorsement is sitting under the red KB.
Geez, thank you for the nice words (blush). We are the fortunate ones. Coachable athletes that actually listen, especially when the going gets tough (2nd dip – no pun intended), are especially hard to find. We are really honored to have you all represent the IC. You guys make us look really good out there!
Congratulations Ladies! Great Work!!
Congratulations to the proud women of the IC KB Squad of Awesomeness! Very nice work. Always, the best part of the kettlebell community is meeting new friends at Camps and Competitions. I’ve been at this sport for a while and several lessons are now coming into focus: be part of a team and listen to what great coaches are telling you! The IC Team has wonderful togetherness and concentration. They showed up, stuck to the game plan and got the reps needed. Maya and Steven do a wonderful job prepping their athletes so they have a goal in mind when they step on the platform. They’re not just winging it to see what happens. The gift these incredible athletes have everyday is being part of that team.
I of course echo all the sentiments expressed thus far and especially want to pause on the insights shared by P-Hump. We are truly a blessed group of women to have the gift to train in one another’s company and under the incredible guidance of our Coaches Maya and Steve. Steve and Maya are Master Coaches with an astute understanding of Kettlebell Sport. As Jen said they are greatly respected for their knowledge in this sport. Beyond this technical knowledge Maya and Steve are true visionaries in what it means to holistically coach athletes: they look at all aspects of what is required for each unique team member to achieve success. This could mean support in any number of areas- pre-platform psychological/emotional coaching, bell chalking ( yes Maya chalks each of our bells before our set), pre-competition planning, documenting each lifters platform performance, second by second coaching while on the platform, post competition processing and review, dietary, sleep, wellness education- the list goes on and on. So yes-yes-yes P-Hump we are very lucky athletes. Thank you for reminding us.
Thank you Steve and Maya, fellow lifters, and WKC for an great event!
I bet some people think that the Ice Chamber is some secret little factory out in California that magically pumps out great lifters… That would be nice… but the truth is much less sexy!
I have been there many, many times and always walked away a smarter lifter and coach! Steven and Maya are obsessed with kettlebell lifting technique… But before that even gets discussed, they carefully select the right people to invest in… not money, but time! When they take some one on to Coach, it is big deal!! They will help everyone that asks, but the inner circle is very, very tight! You just don’t go prancing into that area uninvited! You have to prove that you are able to handle not only the demands of training, but all the analysis and the not so pretty truths that uncovers… You have to have the mental toughness to hear and apply the solution… Not for everyone!!
Lockout and fixation are like commandments out there!! So getting into the inner circle is quite a task in and of itself, because it is a team! They train together on Sundays ,saturdays ,nights ,mornings, late night… whenever they can. They really really take the athlete -Coach relationship seriously!
They know what it takes to become a great lifter and it is a big investment for you and also them!
I am rambling now, but my point is that is not an accident or luck that they just keep showing up with high quality lifters, they start with high quality people!!
Congrats Ladies!! You guys won long before you stepped on the platform!!
Also, thank you Scott Tighe!! Your reign of terror has just begun!!
Congratulations Brenda, Jen, Christy, Melissa, Surya!!!
Daily we get to witness the incredible dedication that each and everyone of you put into training for this event and it is so exciting that you all accomplished your goals with such poise – simply amazing!
Steven and Maya, none of this could be accomplished without your unending support – you are amazing coaches!!!!
Woo Hoo IC!!!!!
I can jump on with everyone else and say what great lifting you all produced…but lets skip the obvious and goto the fact that all of the lifters and coaches are true class acts…true champions and down right awesome people- cheering on each other and every competitor. Watching Jen come along and get her MS right after watching Surya,Brenda, Melissa and Christy smash records is just awe inspiring!
I personally cannot thank Steven, Maya and Surya enough for the kind words and especially Steven for stepping in to coach my last 3 minutes of my jerk set….i cant even express the grattitude other then to know I wouldnt have hit my numbers without it!