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Kettlebell Kettlebell swing Sports transfer

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Colby

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Hey guys,

Recently read a article about how the kettlebell swing offers a lot of the same benefits of Plyometrics as well as sports benefits. I’m curious to hear if any of you experienced sports transfer benefits from the Kettlebell swing. Most commonly I hear about the conditioning/weight loss benefits but is there a transfer to sports I.e speed.
 
Though now in my 40s, I can still sprint fast, jump high, hit or throw explosively & recover quickly. That tends to be useful!
 
Kb swings don’t hurt. But i strongly suggest keeping some sprints/jumps in your training repertoire.
 
Colby said:
Did swings help those qualities ?
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I absolutely believe they did. Explosive hip hinge for sprint, jump & softball swing power. Homerun swing also aided by extension of lead arm, similar to 1 hand swing. Throwing shoulder more durable & healthy from posterior work. General power & recovery from A+A development.
 
Nate said:
I absolutely believe they did. Explosive hip hinge for sprint, jump & softball swing power. Homerun swing also aided by extension of lead arm, similar to 1 hand swing. Throwing shoulder more durable & healthy from posterior work. General power & recovery from A+A development.
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Thanks for the reply, there’s not a lot of scientific data like traditional lifts such as power cleans , barbells lifts etc , so trying to get some hands on feed back.
 
Colby said:
Thanks for the reply, there’s not a lot of scientific data like traditional lifts such as power cleans , barbells lifts etc , so trying to get some hands on feed back.
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And they certainly do as well. We can get so much into this "it depends" conversation with that too. Are you strong enough? If not, then DL & BN do matter. But also, only being strong at slow grinds is not athletic in many scenarios. I do love the explosiveness & while many will disagree, and have good arguments for it, I do agree that the Swing gives more athletic bang for the buck than any single other exercise. Not every will agree, and in many of their scenarios, I'd agree. And hopefully we'll never have any reason to only do one exercise.
 
Nate said:
And they certainly do as well. We can get so much into this "it depends" conversation with that too. Are you strong enough? If not, then DL & BN do matter. But also, only being strong at slow grinds is not athletic in many scenarios. I do love the explosiveness & while many will disagree, and have good arguments for it, I do agree that the Swing gives more athletic bang for the buck than any single other exercise. Not every will agree, and in many of their scenarios, I'd agree. And hopefully we'll never have any reason to only do one exercise.
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Even more so then the dead lift in your opinion?
 
Indirectly in a semi-direct way, yes, in my experience but not as a substitute for the thing that you do.
It covers a lot of attributes for many things that your sport may involve.
I sprint, not currently though, and swings, modified for volume, go nicely with prep for sprinting and an easy day as a light strength training day at an appropriate time depending on where I'm at in a training cycle.
I'm old....I sprint competitively in my age group, 55-60. All my competitors are experienced sprint athletes....so I say that as sprinting can mean many things. There is a carry over to high level athletics in one old guy!
In general, it's light on cns where cns input is high with sprints. And specifically, although this is only down to my musings and anecdotal observations, the one arm mechanics and its role in training anti-rotational upper body circuitry.
It's a sort of basic easy sprint drill in a sense.
Sprinting is max push and pulling with horizontal force production. Swings are a sort of proxy.
Good for hamstring bomb proofing too.
So yeah actual sprinting has got me where I am but swings were a big part in preparation and continue to be part of my regime.
There are a lot of studies on barbell, max strength and sprint transfer. Very little on kbs.
It's never just one thing....I have better movement quality now too. Overall, I do think the one arm swing is the thing that transfer so well....dynamic anti-rotation opposite arm opposite hip under load at speed supplied with horizontal force.
Now I don't know if there is an exercise that mirrors that movement, other than actual sprinting and many variants of sprint drills.
Again, why I think it as a specific strength drill within its generalist application.
The swing is good for many physical attributes but the one arm variant is the one closer to sprinting than the others.
I don't have heavier than 32 but I have milked it over some years now. It's a good precursor to developing the postural strength for sprinting which is more on the (sprint) endurance end rather than power output. If you lose power transfer it's game over. That's the benefit....maintaining postural strength for power transfer.
Maybe many other reasons too.
 
ali said:
Indirectly in a semi-direct way, yes, in my experience but not as a substitute for the thing that you do.
It covers a lot of attributes for many things that your sport may involve.
I sprint, not currently though, and swings, modified for volume, go nicely with prep for sprinting and an easy day as a light strength training day at an appropriate time depending on where I'm at in a training cycle.
I'm old....I sprint competitively in my age group, 55-60. All my competitors are experienced sprint athletes....so I say that as sprinting can mean many things. There is a carry over to high level athletics in one old guy!
In general, it's light on cns where cns input is high with sprints. And specifically, although this is only down to my musings and anecdotal observations, the one arm mechanics and its role in training anti-rotational upper body circuitry.
It's a sort of basic easy sprint drill in a sense.
Sprinting is max push and pulling with horizontal force production. Swings are a sort of proxy.
Good for hamstring bomb proofing too.
So yeah actual sprinting has got me where I am but swings were a big part in preparation and continue to be part of my regime.
There are a lot of studies on barbell, max strength and sprint transfer. Very little on kbs.
It's never just one thing....I have better movement quality now too. Overall, I do think the one arm swing is the thing that transfer so well....dynamic anti-rotation opposite arm opposite hip under load at speed supplied with horizontal force.
Now I don't know if there is an exercise that mirrors that movement, other than actual sprinting and many variants of sprint drills.
Again, why I think it as a specific strength drill within its generalist application.
The swing is good for many physical attributes but the one arm variant is the one closer to sprinting than the others.
I don't have heavier than 32 but I have milked it over some years now. It's a good precursor to developing the postural strength for sprinting which is more on the (sprint) endurance end rather than power output. If you lose power transfer it's game over. That's the benefit....maintaining postural strength for power transfer.
Maybe many other reasons too.
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I always enjoy your responses because of how thorough they are. It’s also nice to get a sprinters point of view. I agree that nothing replicates sprinting except sprinting itself. After awile strength work has a point of finishing return , and it sounds like KB balistics offer a good way to train without interference. Do you feel that KB swings are one of the better lifts out there for sprinters , due to them being similar to Plyometrics in a sense?
 
I think they probably are, yes caveated by 'it depends', hehehe.
Not being a coach and unable to apply that across different populations though. For an easy plyo effect without impact, certainly.....but not sure that would have as much a role for younger athletes v age/mobility compromised (if at all).

It's never been studied or compared but if you take a max strength development model over time, move into a sprint training cycle where, depending on athlete training history, will need an element of energy training .....aerobic and sprint capacity....and into competition. Where now, it is hoped, power output is improved but max strength has gone down. Maybe not much but a % of 1RM.
So there's that v swings (heavy for you) and into sprint training with a lot of attributes built already, into sprint training, into comp.
Really the only thing that matters is did sprint performance improve? But like for like, at comp time, would there be a difference in general strength parameters?
I've no idea. There are no studies to hint at a preference. Perhaps an athlete would respond more favourably to one v the other?
So if we take the latter....individual athlete needs and choosing or picking the right one....my subjective bias would favour kbs for an older athlete.
And when you factor in competitive sprinting at max velocity and max intensity, then it tilts towards kbs too.
There are sprint studies that show speed drops for some athletes after strength training....perhaps due to burn out, extra weight with muscle or something else. So taking a strong enough view then kbs edge it there with the extra conditioning component.
Lots of moving parts. Lots of variables.
As an easy plyo, absolutely.
It may negate direct plyo work as sprinting is plyo and sprint drills can be focused on technique rather plyo focused.
Another side of the coin perhaps.
 
Colby said:
Even more so then the dead lift in your opinion?
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It depends on how much strength progress you need. I don't deadlift anymore, but can go in any day & hit double bodyweight, so swings effectively and efficiently keep enough strength & work other attributes at the same time. My 10 year old daughter didn't need heavy strength, but needed hip activation & coordinated hip explosiveness for sports that the swing addressed well. (I only introduced this early bc she had knee pain from valgus that had its own consequences). There are certainly other scenarios where the DL would be a better choice.
 
Colby said:
Do you find a diminish return with strength work ?
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Not sure if this is directed toward anyone in particular, but I'd say most inevitably say yes, there are diminishing returns for strength work if the goal is health or athletics. Where that point exists depends on the individual, the need, etc. But a rock climber won't improve by moving their squat to 600. I won't be a healthier 50 year old softball center-fielder if only I could get my bench to 500. But someone who is weaker than their level? Sure, more strength will help a ton in almost all respects. Strong first, but at some point each person, or each goal, will inevitably have a point where they are strong enough. Most people aren't there yet.
 
Nate said:
Not sure if this is directed toward anyone in particular, but I'd say most inevitably say yes, there are diminishing returns for strength work if the goal is health or athletics. Where that point exists depends on the individual, the need, etc. But a rock climber won't improve by moving their squat to 600. I won't be a healthier 50 year old softball center-fielder if only I could get my bench to 500. But someone who is weaker than their level? Sure, more strength will help a ton in almost all respects. Strong first, but at some point each person, or each goal, will inevitably have a point where they are strong enough. Most people aren't there yet.
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I couldn’t agree more . Sometimes you hear mixed things such as from the starting strength forum where the consensus is you can never be too strong and strength is never a weakness , but I agree that at some point strength doesn’t transfer any more to athletics. I guess the dilemma is understanding “what is strong enough “
 
I don't know for swings, but snatches do transfer well to tennis for me. In the winter, I don't play tennis but train at home and try to keep in shape for the next season. For the last 3 years my training core over the winter was A+A snatches (with 32kg mostly, and over some shorter periods 36 or 40). I did not squat heavy (mostly 32 or 40kg goblet squats in the warmup), did not deadlift and did not sprint. I did some running and cross-country skiing (classical), but always at around Maffetone level (around 135 bpm). No sprint at all, execept for a few uphills a week when skiing, and then they are on the long side (30-60 secs). Therefore, my only explosiveness training is with kettlebell snatches (and the occasional swings).

When I play tennis, I can get to most drop shots (shots that hit the ground not far from the net) from the baseline without any problem. That's a 70-80 feet sprint, depending on where I am sideways relative to the ball. My regular partner is always amazed that I can get to those shots. He rarely if ever wins the point on the drop shot. In fact, I rarely lose a point because I could not get to the ball. This happens of course once in a while, but my partner really has to move me around. We have known each other for 15 years and played rugby together when we were younger. He can't believe that I get to the ball almost every time. I don't have any quantitative data, but for me, A+A snatches are good enough to play tennis at the club level. At the level I play, they give me the fitness I need (with the addition of 1-2 hours of low speed locomotion) and fitness is not the limiting factor in my performance.

Now, I'm not saying that snatches are better than sprinting for performance. Maybe they are, maybe they are not. I do them because they hit a lot of things in a short amount of time. They have benefits for tennis, but also for general health and general strength and conditioning. If I were to compete at a high level in tennis, I would probably add some on-court sprinting drills at some point to be more sports-specific.

I don't think there has been a lot of good studies, if any, on the influence of kettlebell ballistics on sports performance, especially at the high level. It is accepted that barbell squats and deadlifts help with speed, but I think kettlebell swings, and even worse snatches, have not been studied much. One problem is that it takes a lot of time to get profficient at snatching a kettlebell, especially if you want to go heavy. Taking someone who has never snatched to snatching 40kg, even if they already very strong, will take a lot of time. I can't imagine for example a high level tennis player spending that time and risking to rip a callus in the racket holding hand for an exercise that could maybe work.
 
Kettlebell swing training improves maximal and explosive strength

The aim of this study was to establish the effect that kettlebell swing (KB) training had on measures of maximum (half squat-HS-1 repetition maximum [1RM]) and explosive (vertical jump height-VJH) strength. To put these effects into context, they were compared with the effects of jump squat power training (JS-known to improve 1RM and VJH).
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Twenty-one healthy men (age = 18-27 years, body mass = 72.58 ± 12.87 kg) who could perform a proficient HS were tested for their HS 1RM and VJH pre- and post-training. Subjects were randomly assigned to either a KB or JS training group after HS 1RM testing and trained twice a week. The KB group performed 12-minute bouts of KB exercise (12 rounds of 30-second exercise, 30-second rest with 12 kg if <70 kg or 16 kg if >70 kg). The JS group performed at least 4 sets of 3 JS with the load that maximized peak power-Training volume was altered to accommodate different training loads and ranged from 4 sets of 3 with the heaviest load (60% 1RM) to 8 sets of 6 with the lightest load (0% 1RM).
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Maximum strength improved by 9.8% (HS 1RM: 165-181% body mass, p < 0.001) after the training intervention, and post hoc analysis revealed that there was no significant difference between the effect of KB and JS training (p = 0.56).
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Explosive strength improved by 19.8% (VJH: 20.6-24.3 cm) after the training intervention, and post hoc analysis revealed that the type of training did not significantly affect this either (p = 0.38). The results of this study clearly demonstrate that 6 weeks of biweekly KB training provides a stimulus that is sufficient to increase both maximum and explosive strength offering a useful alternative to strength and conditioning professionals seeking variety for their athletes.
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