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

Here are two videos highlighting the key principles of the kettlebell snatch discussed in class on Wednesday night. When in doubt, learn from the best!

Here is a video highlighting some of the amazing moments and historic achievements of female kettlebell lifters from Russia, Latvia, Estonia, England, Croatia, Kazakhstan, and the US last weekend at the IUKL’s World Championship. Two new World Records were set by Russian lifters in the 24kg Professional Division: Anastasia Zolotareva (175 snatches) and Olga Yaremenka (174 snatches). Ivan Denisov’s MSWC students, Ksenia Dediukhina and Oxana Sarvarova, achieved amazing results as well.

Congratulations to these graceful and powerful trailblazers of Kettlebell Sport!

Denis, Surya, Oxana, Maya, and Ksenia

In addition to the excitement of Tough Mudder this weekend (thinking about you all the entire weekend), the IUKL World Championship in New York gave us an incredible high that we are only now coming down from.  The last time I saw this level of elite lifting, I was in Chelyabinsk, Russia visiting Ivan Denisov and participating in the Open Cup of Europe.  The people of Chelyabinsk as well as the competitors of Russia left a positive lasting impression on me.  Needless to say, I was excited to see them again.  This time three of Ivan’s students, all Masters of Sport World Class athletes, came to earn their rank as World Champions – and they did just that.  Denis, Oxana, and Ksenia are three of the best lifters from Russia in their respective weight classes.  All three took home Gold Medals and again proved that Ivan Denisov is not only the Absolute Best Kettlebell Lifter in the history of the sport, but also a formidable coach.  Chelyabinsk is now ranked #4 out of more than forty competitive regions in Russia.

The women and juniors set some phenomenal records.  Olga and Anastasia both snatched over 170 reps with the 24kg setting new world records for weight class and absolute.

I was fortunate enough to see Sergei Kirillov again.  He is the Head Coach of the Russian National Team,  Johnny Benidze’s coach, and competed with Valery almost twenty years ago.  He gave me a very special gift:

It’s the official uniform of the Russian National Team.  How cool is this?

Some of the biggest battles were fought between Kazakhstan and Russia.  Our coach Valery was there supporting us and also played the critical role of ambassador since he competed for both Kazakhstan and Russia when he was a youth.  It was amazing to see how Valery is still revered amongst an international contingency almost 20 years after he received his Honored Master of Sport title in the former USSR.

Our fellow American lifters including Chris Duffy, Scott Tighe, and Henry Marshall performed quite well.  Both CDuff and Henry placed first in their weight class of the amateur division, while Scott Tighe placed third in the professional division.

Maya captured footage of this young athlete (17 years old) from Kazakhstan taking the Junior World Champion Title in Long Cycle.  He performed 49 reps of 2 x 32kg Long Cycle at a body weight of less than 63kg!  The set was unbelievable.  You have to see it to believe it!

Best,

Steven

This was an action packed weekend full of excitement and surprises.  Jessica and Surya flew to New York to compete in the 2011 IUKL World Championships with the top teams from Europe and Asia!

After a two year hiatus from Kettlebell Sport (Jess’ last competition was in November 2009) due to her pregnancy and birth of her son Jake, Jessica became the 2011 World Champion in the 16kg amateur class!  We are beyond proud of Jessica’s postpartum comeback.  (She is still a nursing new mom!)

Surya took the Bronze Medal after Indra from Latvia and Ksenia from Russia in the 24kg professional division!  While earning a medal amongst the best female lifters in the world is an incredible accomplishment, Surya’s most notable achievement today was earning her CMS rank with the 24kg kettlebell under the IUKL rules in international competition.

Maya had to step on the podium to accept Jessica’s gold medal because Jessica flew back to SFO immediately after her set to be with her baby (welcome home Jess)!

Surya, Maya, and Jess with Valentyn of Ukraine, Anton of Russia, and Valery of USA!

This has been an all star weekend and we are honored to be here.  We are looking forward to tomorrow’s Men’s Long Cycle and International Team Relay competitions.

Best,

Steven

These are words from Coach Valery Fedorenko.  He knows a thing or two about winning.

Even little Gabriel knows a good lockout. If you want to lift barbells, dumbbells, or kettlebells safely, the lockout is the first thing you should master. This is the basis for healthy joints and connective tissue when holding a load overhead while training. Practicing a proper lockout can help you develop better stability, flexibility, and proprioceptive awareness.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the jerk, the “second dip” is not only a means of lowering your center of mass in order to extend the arm(s) underneath the object (as opposed to pressing up) to lockout, it’s also become an ideological analogy at the Ice Chamber to describe long term survival in sport.

While it is a well known fact that we all will hit the “dip” (time when we face seemingly insurmountable obstacles as defined by Seth Godin) and consider quitting,  the “second dip” is a lesser known phenomenon and yet it holds the key to progress.  It is the purposeful step backwards in training in order to examine technical flaws that may have accumulated over the years from just pushing forward.

Surya, for example, owns some of the highest competition one-arm jerk numbers recorded in America.  However, upon dissection of her technique by Ivan Denisov, she was advised to go back to the drawing board to address one mirco-phase of the jerk that was hindering her ability to break her competition pace.  Initially, this assignment diminished her ability to even keep her record numbers in training.  Now after months of unlearning and relearning, Surya is able to return to her previous competition numbers, but with much more efficiency, power, and grace. 

Sometimes, we have to stop dead in our tracks to look back and examine what has accumulated over time – the good and the bad.  If we continue to push forward while disregarding quality, we will eventually become stuck; confused and dismayed as to why we don’t improve in competition.  The “second dip” is a necessary step backwards.  It is a means for us to understand the symptoms of the first “dip.”  Taking some time out of our training to address technical flaws requires courage and patience.  Let’s face it, most of us do not want to “lose” our momentum in training, even if it means picking up bad habits along the way.  In the worst cases, we will not stop pushing ahead until we get physically or psychologically injured.

The “second dip” must be practiced perpetually – in any sport, if our goal is to improve, progress, and reach our personal best.

Valery Fedorenko, Ice Chamber Kettlebell Team, and WKC athletes honor World Champion Fedor Fuglev for his historic achievements in Kettlebell Sport on July 16, 2011 at the San Francisco WKC Sport Camp.

This weekend’s sport camp (July 16-17, 2011) was packed with excitement, fun, hard work, and lots of technical information.  While certifying a crew of new judges with the best standards in the industry, the entire camp had the rare opportunity to participate in a simulated kettlebell meet with Valery Fedorenko as the head judge.

Congratulations to the all the new WKC sport judges as well as all the lifters that achieved rank today:  Ryan Greiner (Rank IV), Jeremy Crawford (Rank IV), James Erickson (Rank IV), Misty Shearer (CMS), Joanna Hoch (Rank III), Brenda Navellier (Rank II), Sarah MacDonald (Rank 1), Lori Doyle (CMS), Deb Dozier (Rank I), Melissa Swanson (Rank I), Charlie Fornelli (Rank I), and John Henrici (Rank III).

The IC’s Sarah Mac, Brenda, and Melissa competed with great technique under an open class coefficient formula.  Both Melissa and Brenda took 2nd place in Biathlon and Long Cycle respectively!