Kettlebell Form check: one-handed swings

[Shawn Crespi]

I’m still integrating 1-arm swings into my practice. Would very much appreciate feedback. The left-handed one seems off, as I feel like I have to lean my weight to the right to offset the weight of the bell. I don’t have this issue with the right-handed one. Other than that, the biggest thing I think I can work on is staying in plank and delaying the hinge longer. Much thanks!

 

[CraigW]

Narrow your stance so you can hinge more, you should feel a stretch in the hams/glutes, use that stretch for more power.
Active your lats by slightly internally rotating your shoulder into it's socket, this locks the bell to the torso.
Pull the rib cage down to stabilise the spine and locks the torso to the hips. Inhale on the eccentric, forcefully exhale on the concentric, press your tongue to the roof of your mouth or on the back of your teeth to block most of the exhale, this creates a tsss sound and increases internal pressure thus creating more power.
Make a tight fist with your none Swinging hand.
Be more aggressive, give every Swing everything you have, it is ok to reduce the number of swing's while learning.
Practice the hip hinge and hardstyle plank with grease the groove, the hardstyle plank is how you should feel at the top of your Swing.

 

[Anna C]

I’m still integrating 1-arm swings into my practice. Would very much appreciate feedback. The left-handed one seems off, as I feel like I have to lean my weight to the right to offset the weight of the bell. I don’t have this issue with the right-handed one. Other than that, the biggest thing I think I can work on is staying in plank and delaying the hinge longer. Much thanks!

Looks good @Shawn Crespi -- just keep practicing! All those things will come with time.

The swing is a lot like the squat in barbell lifting -- and all lifts to some degree, but these two in particular in my experience -- in that it's really like a road to travel. It's important to be ON the road and not run off in the ditch somewhere with a totally wrong movement pattern, but once you have it basically good you just keep going, with practice and increased weight. It's still important to keep checking in with yourself or a coach's eye and make sure you haven't run off in the ditch again with scope creep or some change brought on by increased weight or some other factor, because this can definitely happen too. A movement or lift can be good, and then go bad and need correction. (As me how I know this...) And you have to keep cuing yourself for certain things -- Tighter! More explosive! Square it up! Hips back! or whatever you're working on, because every session is a practice. This is like your constant steering as you travel the road. But for the most part, once you have the correct vector and the right road to travel (and you do, with your swing) it just takes time and practice to get stronger with it. The cool thing is, you're getting benefits from the work all along the way.

 

[Shawn Crespi]

Narrow your stance so you can hinge more, you should feel a stretch in the hams/glutes, use that stretch for more power.
Active your lats by slightly internally rotating your shoulder into it's socket, this locks the bell to the torso.
Pull the rib cage down to stabilise the spine and locks the torso to the hips. Inhale on the eccentric, forcefully exhale on the concentric, press your tongue to the roof of your mouth or on the back of your teeth to block most of the exhale, this creates a tsss sound and increases internal pressure thus creating more power.
Make a tight fist with your none Swinging hand.
Be more aggressive, give every Swing everything you have, it is ok to reduce the number of swing's while learning.
Practice the hip hinge and hardstyle plank with grease the groove, the hardstyle plank is how you should feel at the top of your Swing.

It seems like you would want the shoulders to be externally rotated to get them down and back, so they’re packed. Any thoughts on this?

 

[Anna C]

It seems like you would want the shoulders to be externally rotated to get them down and back, so they’re packed. Any thoughts on this?

I used to try for shoulders "down and back" and I now think what I was doing in the beginning based on this cue was not optimal. What I do now is "down" and "tight armpits". I think that's what @CraigW is suggesting with the "activate the lats" and the feeling of pulling the shoulders down towards the hips with tight armpits; anti-shrugged.

 

[Bunn]

As @Anna C mentioned, "tight armpits" is one of the cues I learned in both the kettlebell course and during ATC for the power pushup, for me, it is the best cue to keep myself tight.

 

[Shawn Crespi]

As @Anna C mentioned, "tight armpits" is one of the cues I learned in both the kettlebell course and during ATC for the power pushup, for me, it is the best cue to keep myself tight.

I’m a little unclear on what “tight armpits” cues. I get the contract the lats to bring the shoulders down in order to anti-shrug. What does tight armpits add to this? If I had to guess, it would be pressing arms against the sides of the torso.

 

[Mark Limbaga]

Try swinging a bit lower and see if you can engage the lat better and improve power output

 

[Anna C]

I’m a little unclear on what “tight armpits” cues. I get the contract the lats to bring the shoulders down in order to anti-shrug. What does tight armpits add to this? If I had to guess, it would be pressing arms against the sides of the torso.

Yes it just better connects your arm to your torso. It's the same thing we talked about here; try that exercise again. Now try that same feeling with your right arm out in front of you with a horizontal fist. As you tighten those muscles your hand will tend to tilt to the right.