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Kettlebell Turkish Get-Up Form Check

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SuperGirevik

SuperGirevik

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I finally decided to get my wife to record myself doing the Turkish get-up with the 32kg kettlebell. I would appreciate it if anyone should look at my form and give me some feedback. I felt it was important to fix any issues before I kept going. Thanks in advance to everyone :)

 
Thumbs up from me! Nice work.

The only oddity I noticed was the tall sit position coming down, your arm is bent, and you hand is way back behind you, so the next transition to elbow is a bit awkward. Maybe hand out to the side a bit more would work better.
 
Looks good to me. Two things I try to do, but I'm not sure if they are mandadory: keep the foot pointing up (yours doesn't during the tall sit) and make sure your wrist doesn't bend and it's aligned like a punch.

One more thing: during the get down, at the windmill, your knee doesn't point to your hand. Again, not sure this is mandatory, but I try to do it.

Nice get up!
 
@SuperGirevik
I'm not a big get up guy so I won't comment specifically on your overall form.

However, one thing I noticed that applies to any overhead drill is your lockout doesn't quite reach vertical; it's angled out like the side of a V, rather than vertical like the side of a U. This takes a lot more muscle power to keep the bell up there because you aren't supporting it as much with your structure and alignment.

There are lots of ways to work on mobility in this area, but in my experience it take some experimentation and trial and error to find the high bang for the buck mobility drills for each individual.

Probably the simplest place to start is within the lockout position itself with a kettlebell. When you are in the overhead lockout, pause and experiment with your alignment. Wave the bell around a little (while maintaining safe and stable control) and try to stack your working side foot, hip, and shoulder under the bell. Holding the lockout like this in half kneeling works well too. When you get everything stacked up right, it takes a lot less muscle power to hold the lockout.

It's unlikely to make a big difference right away, but over time you can make big improvements in your lockout just by pausing and searching for that supportive alignment.
 
@Anna C My elbow does indeed bend in the tall sit-up on the way down. Probably because I'm placing my hand too far back (I need to focus on my hand tracking the knee). Also, on that knee... I have a pimple that makes doing the 90 degree leg turn really rough, which is why it barely moves. I get cystic pimples on my knee and elbows sometimes from doing get-ups. It's quite annoying.

@Oscar Good points! I will focus on those too.

@Steve W. I never noticed the lockout issue until I saw the video. You are right, my arm angles a bit. I'm going to try your suggestion and wave the bell around a bit.

Thanks everyone! I will focus tomorrow's and future practice sessions on these points using a lighter bell (24kg). I will focus on proper overhead lockout, arm locked on sit-up, foot pointing up with the knee pointing toward the hand. I will say, using a heavier kettlebell definitely brings out your weaknesses like Pavel said (y)
 
By the way, comparing myself to this video also helped me quite a bit... this guy is a beast!



Mike Salemi (who I respect quite a bit), does the last phase of the get-up by sliding his arm back as he rolls back to the floor. Any opinions on this method?

 
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@SuperGirevik, your TGU looks really strong to me! To my non-SFG eye, the only things I would add are a few finer points:
  • Something that helps with what @Oscar identified is using a hinge and sliding your hand up/down your supporting leg during the transitions to/from lunge. That helps me a lot, and it also helps me the right spacing between my knee and hand on the way down.
  • Watch your front knee during the lunge and make sure it doesn't threaten to break the plane of your toes on your supporting foot.
  • Your face tenses up. As you incorporate the points above, I'm sure you'll be able to relax better. I do the same thing! I am able to do the 28kg now with my face remaining relaxed and I'm hoping and I'm hoping I'll be able to do the same with the 32kg once I get acclimated to it.
+1 for you avatar too.
 
@Steve W. I followed your suggestion and indeed I was able to move my arm closer to my ear. But I get this sensation that the bell is floating over my head, so mentally I want to separate it a bit

@StanStan Thanks for the link!

@Brett Jones The Critical Get-up Transition was a great read! The part where you said that in any frame you should not be able to tell if the girevik is on the way up or down was gold. I will work on twisting my arm and having the hand face the back... especially on the downward phase.

I have done the second variation of the TGU where my body turns but at times I feel a little loss of balance with a 32kg over my head.

@Ryan T I laughed a bit about my face tensing up. I’ll definitely try to relax a bit. As for the avatar, me and Nintendo go w-a-y back :cool:
 
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