Old Forum "Playing Chicken with the Bell"

[Dan John]

It's a standard part of our teaching the KB swing, but I am thinking that it might be a great rehab tool, too. To beat it do death, I had a total hip replacement two years ago and I use the swing as my core training tool now.

Recently, doing an experiment with a lot of swings, I began pushing a few ideas: throwing the bell forward (mentally, not actually), driving my heels down harder, really loading  the hinge, but I have noticed that playing chicken...really stressing the tight glutes and abs at the top and letting the bell float...has been an amazing healer (???) for my whole hip area.

Your mileage may vary, but this is really working for me.

 

[rambodoc@gmail.com]

Dan,

After a total hip, if someone wanted to do BB squatting, would you advocate a PL-style lift or a narrower stance, knee-more style? Similarly, in this situation as yours, would you find it easier to swing narrow stance or wide, or it depends on other factors now? Just interested.... Ram

 

[Rickard]

I usually focus on a couple of cues everytime for a few weeks then switch. Last month for swings I focused on the feet and throwing the weight with the hip forward. This month has been cramping glutes and abs on top and waiting out the bell as much as possible when it falls (I guess this is playing chicken with the bell?). I think those has been the ones that has made the biggest diffrence.

 

[JSStevens]

Dan,

How do you like side stepping swings?

I ask because I feel playing chicken with the bell forces  holding the tension in the glutes longer, butt... side stepping swings seem to force achieving tension in the glutes sooner.

I prefer to do them in place: Left foot steps in, then back out for 5 to 10 reps then repeat with the right.