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September 25, 2006
Compensatory acceleration in hard style Russian kettlebell training
In my book The Russian Kettlebell Challenge I refer to the kettlebell quick lifts as 'ballistics'. 'Ballistic' means the kettlebell flies on inertia after a brief muscular effort. This is true in the traditional girevoy sport technique. For instance, in the snatch the GS competitor applies leg, hip, and back drive to the kettlebell only for a foot or so, exactly when the kettlebell is between his legs. Before and after it is pure momentum, all the name of saving energy and getting more reps.
I used the term ‘ballistic’ out of habit and should not have because in our hard style of kettlebell training for power applications we drive hard from top to bottom. This is what Dr. Fred Hatfield calls ‘compensatory acceleration’.
F=ma. Force equals mass multiplied by acceleration. Within reason you can make a given weight as ‘heavy’ as you want by accelerating it. “Try to move the weight not just enough to get through the sticking point but as fast as possible through the entire ROM,” explains Mark Reifkind, RKC. “Louie Simmons added bands and chains to increase loads at the top of the lifts but with the kettlebell that happens automatically. You can keep rooting and applying max force the whole way; a super technique. I do it automatically and I forget that not all do.”
Dr. Hatfield recommends barbell CAT training with 60-80% 1RM loads, not heavier. Although no studies have been done to determine the optimal kettlebell weight for compensatory acceleration training it appears that you should also err on the lighter side. Senior RKC Brett Jones has significantly increased his relative strength in the last five years, yet the only time in his life when he could dunk a basketball was when he was doing fast swings and snatches with a 53lb. kettlebell. Food for thought.
Russian kettlebell power to you!
Posted by james at 9:16 AM | Comments (95)