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Kettlebell Swinging Too Light a Bell

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Baron von Raschke

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Hello everyone. Has anyone ever tried to swing a bell, one handed or two, that was much much lighter than their normal working bell and had a lot of difficulty getting it to swing? I tried two handed swinging my wife's 8kg bell but I'm used to using my 24kg version that I can swing quite easily. Could not get that 8kg bell to swing for the life of me and I'm wondering why. Are my arms not loose enough? Can I not impart enough kinetic energy into the smaller mass so that it will pull my arms up on an arc?

Just a curiosity question, might be a simple physics problem.
 
It can be done, but to paraphrase a description that Al C used once, it's kind of like trying to pitch a whiffle ball. It doesn't have enough mass to really accelerate. So, I think it's natural that is just doesn't feel right.
 
Hi Anna, thanks. That's exactly what it feels like, trying to pitch a whiffle ball. I'm not planning on using it for anything other than a training bell for my wife, I was just going to show her what a swing looks like and I picked hers up and completely embarrassed myself. Tried to explain to her that it's not as difficult as I'm making it look. Finally put it down and used my own. It was a bit of a laugher.
 
I actually like a 2 H Swing with an abnormally light bell every once and a while to help keep me honest about keeping loose passive arms in the swing. It forces me to be intentional and disciplined in sort of "turning off" the arms when I swing. Of course, at a point, it's very much like the quote Anna mentioned...it becomes awkward.
 
I like to drop down to a 12kg bell periodically to do American style speed swing intervals. Slowing the movement once overhead is great for the abs. I think it has the most to do with active deceleration. A heavy bell you can put a lot of force into and it won't accelerate through the ceiling. A light bell would though and you end up not accelerating like you should for less mass. Only way to accelerate a light bell properly is to actively decelerate it at the top.
 
Learning this aspect of the volume control @Brett Jones talks about is a very useful thing, IMHO. I haven't tried less than a 16 kg in a long time, but I know I can swing from 16 kg to 36 kg two-handed and they all look about the same, and I will do that as a demonstration when teaching the volume control concept.

Rather than go "abnormally light," I'd just try one size down and see if you can manipulate the volume control to accommodate the change in weight, and work on it gradually that way.

-S-
 
That's interesting, Steve. Volume control is one of the nuances of S&S that I haven't experimented with yet. I know where it is in the book, have read it several times, just haven't tried it. I did do a couple of S&S workouts with the 16kg bell to try for 10 x 10 using one hand like in the book. Currently I'm a long long way off from being able to do 10 sets of one-hand swings with the 24, mostly due to lack of grip strength, so I'm using the two hand approach. From what I remember about volume control, you can use your normal size bell, you just vary how much oomph you put into your swings.

In any event, the 8kg just feels all wrong and I think falls under the "abnormally light" category for me. But again, I was just trying it out of curiosity as it will be my wife's starting bell for swings.
 
@Baron von Rasche, a good place to start might be to make your two-handed swings with 16 kg look like your two-handed swings with 24 kg. Adjusting the volume control is how you achieve that.

-S-
 
Thanks Steve, I'll keep that in mind and reread the volume control segment again. I'd only gone back to the 16 once or twice over the past year but I'll try and add it in now every other session or so while maintaining the same "look" between that and the 24.
 
@Baron von Rasche, not to go too far into the details here, but this isn't a skill you need to practice every other session, IMHO. It's a skill you want to own - you may certainly practice it as often as you need for now, but once you acquire it, just make sure you still have it by checking from time to time. It needn't become a regular part of your practice.

-S-
 
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