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Kettlebell S&S Reboot: 1HS Form Check

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The continuation to my reboot series: now the one-arm swing. These are my first sets on each side today.

@Pavel Macek @Anna C @Brett Jones @Kyle Kowalczuk @advtracer am I incorporating the advice you gave me on deadlifts? Where else do I need to refine?

Thank you all in advance.





- bent your knees just a tiny bit more and observe, if it helps you to hinge more
- exhale at the hip extension, not when the kettlebell reaches the highest point
 
- bent your knees just a tiny bit more and observe, if it helps you to hinge more
- exhale at the hip extension, not when the kettlebell reaches the highest point
Thank you. I'll try those tomorrow. When you say exhale at the hip extension, do you mean when I start hip extension, or when the hips are fully extended?
 
Thank you. I'll try those tomorrow. When you say exhale at the hip extension, do you mean when I start hip extension, or when the hips are fully extended?

At the same time when the hips fully extend. Body is in "vertical plank", but the kettlebell will be still flying.
 
Note the difference of your position of your hips in the set-up versus the actual swings. The window gives a great reference point. You even slide forward on the initial hike. This isn't a"problem" per se, however it looks to me like your leaking a boat load of tension that could be used to send that bell forward with more power. Do you feel your hamstrings load to maximum stretch at the bottom of your swing? It looks like you may be trying to rush that turn around. Take your time and be patient for the perfect tension to let those hips loose. Think of drawing a bow, as in, bow and arrow. More tension= more power! Have you used shadow swings/overspeed eccentrics? Review the section in S&S and give them a shot with a 16kg or 20kg... If done properly, the hamstrings will validate your performance:D and it may give you an insight into the power you are losing!!!
 
Oh yeah, sorry for the delay in my response. Out of the respect I have for the senior/master instructors, I will tell you that I find it kinda difficult to add any additional thoughts after someone like @Pavel Macek, @Brett Jones, or @Anna C comments before you. I appreciate your coach-ability!!! Thanx!
 
@advtracer to be honest, I’ve never really felt the “hamstrings load to maximum stretch.” The cue doesn’t click in my brain and I've never had a eureka moment where I could say that I knew it had happened. So the short answer is probably “no, I’m not doing that.” also have not done shadow swings before. But I have been called out on my hip position changing. My setup position doesn’t feel comfortable to return to for more swings. I feel like I’ll go on my butt if I try it.

And now it’s time to fess up to impatience. I felt like a beast on Saturday. The 24 felt light, I was crushing each set of swings, and I thought I could start incorporating the 32. So I tried this morning, and my results - all seven reps - are below. I know that I wasn’t hinging deeply enough (especially on the right) and was T-rexing with my arms. I can’t tell if my poor results are because I’m afraid of the weight or just am not ready or strong enough for it. It’s probably both. Anyway, I’m not going to hide from it. Comments/critiques welcome. Regardless, I know I’m not incorporating the 32 any time soon.



 
@mightstone2k These swings are OK. Nothing unsafe or terrible there. I'd say keep working on a few reps here and there when you're feeling strong. But you're right, it helps show some form issues, so I'm glad you posted them.

On the loading of the hamstrings, I agree you're not really loading them. Here's my "go to" for how to feel it. Without a kettlebell and after you've warmed up, do a few vertical jumps. Jump as high as you can. Now go to jump again, but freeze in the bottom position. Feel your hamstrings stretched and loaded? That's what you want to feel in the bottom of the swing. Power! Now, doing that with the kettlebell is a matter of using the momentum or virtual weight of the bell as a counterbalance against your body's movement. Feel that microsecond in the backswing when the bell is going back to it's maximum backward point, you are at that "bottom of the jump" position. You are storing that elastic tension. Then everything reverses back up in a smooth acceleration.

You might have a bit of an overgrip on the bell. Try to mainly hook your fingers, not your palm, on the handles. Chalk helps, but isn't mandatory. With this grip, at the top of the swing the bell will be a more natural extension of your arm. Your calluses will thank you, too.

Your left arm is bending, so yes, let it be straight. "The hips drive, the arms guide." Seems like I got that from Karen Smith. Project power forward like you're trying to throw the bell as far in front of you as it would go, if you let go of it. Let the centrifugal force pull your arm straight. Don't worry about how high the bell goes. On your right hand swing, your arm is straighter, but you're getting some shoulder action there to acquire bell height (watch in slow motion and you'll see it). The shoulder should stay packed and immobile. The bell height should come from the power of the hips.

I think your standing plank could be improved. "Cramp your glutes, brace your abs, and pull up your kneecaps." (S&S pg 29).

But again, all this is fine tuning. Your swings are good! Keep at it!
 
@mightstone2k These swings are OK. Nothing unsafe or terrible there. I'd say keep working on a few reps here and there when you're feeling strong. But you're right, it helps show some form issues, so I'm glad you posted them.

On the loading of the hamstrings, I agree you're not really loading them. Here's my "go to" for how to feel it. Without a kettlebell and after you've warmed up, do a few vertical jumps. Jump as high as you can. Now go to jump again, but freeze in the bottom position. Feel your hamstrings stretched and loaded? That's what you want to feel in the bottom of the swing. Power! Now, doing that with the kettlebell is a matter of using the momentum or virtual weight of the bell as a counterbalance against your body's movement. Feel that microsecond in the backswing when the bell is going back to it's maximum backward point, you are at that "bottom of the jump" position. You are storing that elastic tension. Then everything reverses back up in a smooth acceleration.

You might have a bit of an overgrip on the bell. Try to mainly hook your fingers, not your palm, on the handles. Chalk helps, but isn't mandatory. With this grip, at the top of the swing the bell will be a more natural extension of your arm. Your calluses will thank you, too.

Your left arm is bending, so yes, let it be straight. "The hips drive, the arms guide." Seems like I got that from Karen Smith. Project power forward like you're trying to throw the bell as far in front of you as it would go, if you let go of it. Let the centrifugal force pull your arm straight. Don't worry about how high the bell goes. On your right hand swing, your arm is straighter, but you're getting some shoulder action there to acquire bell height (watch in slow motion and you'll see it). The shoulder should stay packed and immobile. The bell height should come from the power of the hips.

I think your standing plank could be improved. "Cramp your glutes, brace your abs, and pull up your kneecaps." (S&S pg 29).

But again, all this is fine tuning. Your swings are good! Keep at it!
Noted on all. The big things I focused on today was the hinge (trying to get back in that solid loaded position), and the standing plank. And packing the working shoulder. I noticed some reps where my arm wasn't solidly against my body in the hinge position, and felt the loss of power there (mostly in my final sets, not the filmed sets). I did not think about a straight arm until I was done. There's just too much to think about all at once! Yeesh.

About my grip. I'm trying to apply the lessons from Brett Jones' article on proper swing grip. My blisters/calluses tend to form on my proximal phalanges, right below the joint with the intermediate phalanges. When I set on the bell with the grip you see in the videos, I make sure the metacarpal/proximal phalange line is... smoothed out, I guess? I'm not sure how to describe it. Hmm... it's not callusing there, I can say. And my normal hot spots feel much, much better. I can take pictures and show you, if it's easier.

Anyway, videos here:


 
Swings are coming along nicely.
Keep putting the practice in and the progress will follow
 
Yeah, looks good! Agree, just keep practicing. Recommendations:

1) More tension in standing plank. The whole time your legs are straight, they should be tight, with kneecaps pulled up. I see your knees soft at times. Also, glutes cramped, abs braced.
2) Breathing adjustment with your exhale on the hip snap, as the kettlebell is coming through your legs, at the point of most exertion. Here's one example.
3) Keep the arm straight on the initial hike.

Solid progress! Thanks for sharing it.
 
Today it doesn’t feel like I’m getting much right. What I was going to ask for eyes on was my backswing. Yesterday I noticed my arm didn’t feel tight against my body in the hole. The bell felt like it was hanging loose, which has been a big part of why I don't feel powerful with a 32. I didn’t feel that quite so much today. But I see that my hinge is shallower than past advice has suggested I want, my standing plank doesn’t look very tight (watching my knees as a sign), my exhale still isn’t synced to hip snap, and my left arm is again bent.

*sigh* maybe tomorrow I’ll just film my entire swing set so y’all can see the whole thing. Thanks again for your advice and coaching.



 
That's good progress!

You're correct in what you see, but it's all getting better. Just keep practicing.

I like to take one thing to focus on changing for a set -- for example, tight quads in the plank (pulled up kneecaps). Don't worry if other things feel more "wrong" or like they're getting away from you when you focus on the one thing. Just get that one thing right for however many sets it takes (sets of 5 are great for this). Then once it's good, focus on integrating it back into your best swing with everything else. This takes some focus too, because each thing affects everything else. Then once that's good, turn your focus to something else to change/improve.
 
Well, I concur with Anna. And, to add; To me, that bell is moving faster and floating more than previous swings. I know this is a little subjective, but I see more power. So, even though, your perception seems skewed towards frustration, there are some really good things happening during those swings. The reboot was because of a stall at 28kg, correct? This is your road map through the stall. This is building the skill of strength, this is being a student of strength!!! S&S is about developing power, not about making it to Simple. Simple happens when the power is developed...The whole journey versus destination thing! Strongwork!!!
 
Today it doesn’t feel like I’m getting much right.
Your swing is good. Usually I'm the first person to break down form issues in minute detail, but I'm not going to add anything in this case. Others have already made good observations in this thread. There's always room for refinement and that should be part of the fun of KB practice -- experimenting with this, refining that, noticing the good reps and trying to replicate them, then trying to replicate them consistently. Imperfection is part of the process. And it's actually a good thing because it leads to "happy accidents" -- especially good reps where you realize, "Oh, I should be doing it like THAT."

So my main advice is just to enjoy your practice and enjoy the process.

Yesterday I noticed my arm didn’t feel tight against my body in the hole.
This statement caught my eye, because depending on what you mean by "tight," this isn't necessarily optimal. You definitely want your arm to be connected to your body, but you don't necessarily want there to be a lot of pressure between them.

The arm and the body should move together, but your torso isn't directly pushing the arm or propelling the bell. So a lot of pressure between the arm and body indicates that the arm and body are NOT in sync; either the arm is too far ahead of the body and pushing against it, or the body is ahead of the arm and pushing against it.

A big key to a powerful swing, especially as the bell gets heavy, is being patient in the hole, and letting the backswing complete before initiating the hip drive and then ramping the power of the hip drive into a strong finish. A lot of people start the hip drive too early, when the bell is still moving backward. That means some of your hip power is wasted braking the backward momentum of the bell and reversing it, instead of all the power going into propelling the bell forward. It might FEEL strong subjectively because your arm and torso get mashed together and there's an abrupt yank on your grip, but a lot of power is actually wasted. If you are a little patient and let the KB finish moving back before driving it forward, and accelerate smoothly through the hip drive instead of trying to blast all your power into the bell at once, the bell flies up even though it might feel subjectively slower.

So the fact that your arm doesn't feel "tight" against your body in the hole may actually mean that the timing of your hip drive is better.
 
Here is today’s full swing session:



@Steve W. please let me know if you see me reversing out of the hole too quickly (re: your comment). Watching the handle on the backswing, it looks like it’s flopping around. As far as “loose,” I meant hanging down, like gravity was pulling it down and I wasn’t guiding it back strongly, so it ended up way lower than it was supposed to be and I was swinging “up” instead of forward. I didn’t feel that today, for what it’s worth.

@Anna C if I did sets of five, would you recommend 10x5/side to keep the volume up, or 5x5/side?

Edit to add: do I need to pull the bell back more? Is that why my hinge is so shallow, because I’m just letting the bell drop back and down instead of actively pulling it back?

Thanks again, all.
 
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@Anna C if I did sets of five, would you recommend 10x5/side to keep the volume up, or 5x5/side?

Depends on your program and whatever else you're doing. If you're basically doing a version of S&S, then your volume should be about 100 swings per day. So yes, 10x5/side, or 20 total sets. Personally I think you could start incorporating the 32 kg for some sets (esp sets of 5), but it's up to you. The 32kg could help refine your technique at this point, and you're strong enough for it.
 
@Steve W. please let me know if you see me reversing out of the hole too quickly (re: your comment). Watching the handle on the backswing, it looks like it’s flopping around.
It doesn't look obviously bad. Just experiment with your timing. Try delaying your hip drive more and more until you are obviously TOO late (you'll know it when you feel it). You can do this rep by rep (make each rep a little different) or set by set (try to keep all reps in a set consistent, but vary the timing each set). Then dial it back a little more and keep varying it until you zero in the timing that feels the best.
As far as “loose,” I meant hanging down, like gravity was pulling it down and I wasn’t guiding it back strongly, so it ended up way lower than it was supposed to be and I was swinging “up” instead of forward.
This can happen when the timing between your hips and shoulders get out of sync. Ideally, your shoulders should finish coming forward as your hips finish going back and then your shoulders start coming up as your hips start driving forward. It's easy to let yourself continue to get folded over after your hips finish. Note that this is not a matter of the DEGREE of torso lean as much as the timing of it relative to the hips.

To pattern this timing, go back and do a bunch of one-arm KB deadlifts in sets of 20 with your heaviest bell. Sets of 20 are important -- the second 10 out of 20 are where you learn things. Start with the bell back between your heels or at least the back half of your feet. Keep your arm in tight to your torso and try to lower the bell to the same spot you started from. It will want to drift forward, but sit back and keep your arm in tight to keep it back. Try to have your hips finish moving back just as you touch the bell down, rather than sitting back and THEN folding foward to reach the floor.

Get a feel for that bottom position and make that the target you want to hit at the bottom of your swing. Plank up at the top of the DL and make that your target at the top of the swing. Now when you go to swing, keep those two targets in mind. On the hike, think about hitting the bottom target, and on hip drive think about hitting the top target.

There are a couple of cues I use when I feel like I am getting folded over after my hips finish.

One is to imagine a giant rubber band is attached to the ceiling and attached to the top of my head or looped under my armpits with tension pulling me upright. But it's not that I have to hinge more aggressively to overcome the band tension, it's more that the imaginary band tension is making it harder for the bell to fold me over. As if I have to internalize the imaginary pull of the band and replicate it with my own muscle tension.

Another, which I find especially helpful with a heavy bell, is to think about pulling UP on the bell as it drops. This help me to resist hinging too early and being too loose on the drop. I am actually resisting the hinge and "playing tug o'war with the bell" as it drops. This way, I am braced against the force of the bell as it hits the bottom, and the force of the drop doesn't hit all at once; I've started to absorb it earlier in the drop instead of letting it all hit at once. This can be taken too far. You don't want to be too stiff in the swing. It's a rhythm of being tight when and where you need to be and loose when and where you need to be.

I hope this helps. But, again, my main feedback is that your swing is fine overall. Just keep experimenting and tuning -- it's a never-ending process so embrace it and don't get frustrated because it isn't "perfect" (there's no such thing).
 
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Today with the 32. I was aiming for a set of five, but felt like I was flopping around, not swinging solidly. So I only did three reps per side. I don’t feel like I have any control over it on the backswing; it feels like it’s just doing it’s thing and I’m jerking my body around through swing-like motions. That could be entirely in my head because I’m in that kind of mental rut, so here for objective review:



Thanks, y’all.
 
Looks good. Use the feeling there of the bell bossing you around to find the opposite of that when you go back to the 24. Let your body's movements rule, and the kettlebell just be a weight against which to express your power.

I would say keep practicing those short sets occasionally with the 32. But don't try to make it go higher than your hips can throw it. I see a little shoulder action there at the end that you're using to get it up to chest height. Don't worry how high it goes. Just make your hips do all the work to make it go as high as it goes. As for the backswing -- just get tight... stay tight... coil the spring. This means absorb the momentum of the bell coming back with your hinge. The exact same way, when you jump vertically as high as you can, you first rapidly go down and absorb that power in your hinge position with which to propel your body upwards. That feeling.
 
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