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Kettlebell Eye positioning on TGU

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Sean Wright

Sean Wright

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Can someone clarify for me the reasoning with where the eyes rest on the Turkish get-up? My understanding is that from the moment the bell is pressed in the bottom position to the moment the supporting hand comes of the floor the eyes are fixed on the bell, and once you come into the low lunge and proceed to the stand-up your eyes are fixed directly ahead.

I appreciate that in the vertical portion of the movement it makes sense to keep the spine neutral and eyes ahead, but in the lower part of the movement, where the supporting arm is on the floor, the eyes remain on the bell. Is this simply to assist in balance on this portion? At the expense of keeping the gaze ahead?

Thanks in advance!
 
Try a TGU (or Windmill or Bent Press) without keeping your eyes on the KB and you'll know why...or maybe don't try that ;)
You'll lose balance if you take your eyes of the KB. That's not necessarily true for light TGUs, but with a challenging weight you'll need to maintain eye contact to keep your balance.
 
*grabs kettle bell and starts windmilling round his head with his eyes closed*

Thanks. I felt this was the case, but was wondering why it no longer applies during the standing portion but I guess keeping a neutral spine at this point is more of a priority and balance is less of an issue due to there being relatively few changes in loading position...
 
My SFG tought me to look at the bell from the floor press to the kneeling position, then stand up and back down with the eyes looking straight ahead and again looking at the bell from the kneeling position until the end of the movement. Without going into deep analysis which isn't something I feel qualified to do yet, he told me it is for a biomechanical advantage you have doing so, and that you haven't if you do differently. From my experience it is very true and @Kettlebelephant has a good point advicing you to better not try it without looking at the bell. I want to point out it's not by rolling my eyes that I look at the bell, but by twisting my neck enough to be able to. The principle for which you stop looking at the bell during the phases above it's that you haven't such advantage anymore once the arm is parallel to your body, that you in turn gain if you look in front of you.

Hope someone can clarify this further or just plain level this and tell me I didn't understand one bit of what my instructor told me.
 
IMHO

Eye positioning is important to reduce the risk of loosing balance of your body and/or the bell. As your eye can only be fixed at only one point at a given time, priorities has to be made.

1) From the ground to kneeling position there is a lot of bell movement in relation to your shoulder - at this stage the highest risk is the balance of the bell and not your body. So in these moves eye position on the bell has a higher priority.

2) From the kneeling position you place the bell in the lockout position to secure and improve the balance of bell. From that point you move your body up vertically and are increasing the risk of loosing the balance of your body, as the bell is safely in the lockout position. So in these moves eye position on the horizon (or fixed point on the wall) has a higher priority.

Then movement is reversed with point 2) and 1) to the ground with the same eye positioning priorities.
 
I have to admit only sometimes tracking with my eyes or turning my head to follow the bell. Not just for TGU, but for Bent Press and Windmills as well.

I did start out that way, but training outdoors whenever possible I found myself occasionally looking into the sun while trying to track the KB, not only blinding myself and ruining any balance benefit, but maybe bringing on a migraine to boot. So just kept my head neutral and concentrate on feeling the balance.

I believe it winds up being more for mental reassurance than functionality, best to learn it with eye contact until the balance is second nature, and then whatever is most comfortable.

An interesting observation I made about my own form - when training at a gym I am more likely to wobble when standing up from the TGU if I have my eyes straight ahead and looking at myself in a floor to ceiling mirror. Learned to just pick out a spot ten feet in front of me and keep my eyes on that.
 
My 2 cents...

Probably both balance and awareness and biomechanical reasons for both stages.

I think that @Henningb clarified the balance and awareness reasoning quite well.

I'll try to take shot at the biomechanical reasoning...

We always aspire to keep a neutral spine. Looking to the horizon while moving from the ground to half-knelling position seems to encourage spine flexion. Looking at the kettlebell at this stage pretty much forces us to keep a neutral spine.

As @Steve Freides mentioned, looking at the kettlebell from half-kneeling to standing might encourage hyperextension of the spine, looking at the horizon while keeping a "tall spine" encourage neutral spine.
 
From my point of view its a proprioception thing. Watching the bell to vertical while you and your shoulder are moving around the bell from supine to half kneeling helps your brain work out where vertical is.
From the Half Kneeling to standing the bell is supported by a stacked and packed shoulder and the focus shifts to maintaining a strong trunk/neutral spine.

A great drill to work with this while keeping it as safe as poss is the Arm Bar. spend a few seconds in the arm bar position and watch the bell to vertical......and then rotate your head and look forward and/or down taking your eyes off the bell.....be ready for the bell to move around while your brain tries to figure out what the hells going on and "re-learns" where true vertical is. you can look back and froth between up and down or even try resting your head totally on the outstretched bottom arm, this changes things as well. I've become a huge fan of the Arm Bar, especially since starting practicing the Bent Press.
 
King Cobra Fit said:
A great drill to work with this while keeping it as safe as poss is the Arm Bar. spend a few seconds in the arm bar position and watch the bell to vertical......and then rotate your head and look forward and/or down taking your eyes off the bell.....be ready for the bell to move around while your brain tries to figure out what the hells going on and "re-learns" where true vertical is. you can look back and froth between up and down or even try resting your head totally on the outstretched bottom arm, this changes things as well. I've become a huge fan of the Arm Bar, especially since starting practicing the Bent Press.
Click to expand...
Great description!
That's exactly what I mean with "balance" during those movements. It's not so much about your "total body balance" as in you'll fall over if you take your eyes of the KB, but about balance in your shoulder -> keeping the arm vertical. Once you look away from the KB your arm starts to move around and with a heavy weight this could dislocate your shoulder joint or other bad things might happen.
 
Jason Paul said:
I think the body tends to follow the head. For me personally, when I'm upright (kneeling or standing) if I try to look up at the KB, I feel like I'm going to fall backwards. I feel much more stable and balanced looking forward rather than up in this position.
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+1

Also, to practice this go through a few sets of forward, backwards and sideways crawls during your warmup to reinforce the "body follows the eyes/ head" experience.
 
Thanks for the feedback guys. Some good points. I've always applied the principle of neutral spine in the vertical portion of the move but in the past have been guilty of keeping my gaze ahead pretty much from from when I first get up on my supporting arm. I noticed that when I have a mirror in front of me proprioception is not as much of an issue as I have something to fix my gaze on. Obviously this is a crutch I don't want to be relying upon though so I've been retraining the movement with eye position as described above!
 
King Cobra Fit said:
A great drill to work with this while keeping it as safe as poss is the Arm Bar. spend a few seconds in the arm bar position and watch the bell to vertical......and then rotate your head and look forward and/or down taking your eyes off the bell.....be ready for the bell to move around while your brain tries to figure out what the hells going on and "re-learns" where true vertical is. you can look back and froth between up and down or even try resting your head totally on the outstretched bottom arm, this changes things as well. I've become a huge fan of the Arm Bar, especially since starting practicing the Bent Press.
Click to expand...

Nice drill!
 
Sean Wright said:
but in the past have been guilty of keeping my gaze ahead pretty much from from when I first get up on my supporting arm.
Click to expand...

I hadn't noticed it til yesterday's session, but I do this same thing. Pretty much as soon as I finishing locking the supporting arm, I'm looking forward. I tried to do it the other way, and I felt totally out of control! I haven't had an issue with bell stability in the past, other than when I first started and was using the 16 when I should have been using the 12. I guess this is something else I'll have to practice.
 
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