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Kettlebell SFG 1 Certification Advice

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Bobby

Bobby

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Hello,

Haven't been on the forum in a while but, I have finally signed up and payed to become SFG Certified.
I take the certification in late October, will begin training this week.

ANY and ALL advice on preparation is welcomed.

I remember reading that one should train for 3 months and rest/perform basic mobility exercises the week prior to the certification weekend.
Is this still an accepted training method?
Diet tips?

Thank you in advance, much respect to this community.


Bobby
 
Train hard, enjoy and have fun.

"3 months and rest/perform basic mobility exercises the week prior to the certification weekend."
This depends. Follow your intuition. I think this is meant to prevent people from getting injured by training too intensively.

On diet, follow your intuition.
 
Brett Jones' protocol delivers, I confirm.

Additional advice would depend of where you start from.

I would also suggest to re-read breathing advice in S&S. It helped me to recover quickly during the cert weekend.
 
First, congratulations! I hope this is the start of something very special for you.

Bobby said:
ANY and ALL advice on preparation is welcomed.
Click to expand...

The Brett Jones plan is obviously the bread n butter here.

What lifts are you most and least confident with?
What's your training history?
 
Mark Limbaga said:
Which of the skill tests would pose a challenge? snatch test in the bag yet?
Click to expand...

Thank you for the reply,

I plan on attempting a snatch test this Saturday before I begin my training protocol as sort of a litmus test. Shoulder mobility has always been something I've had to pay more attention to. I have been working on arm bars with a lighter bell and hanging from pull up bars in an effort to correct the anterior tilt.

How did you prepare for the snatch test?
 
taikei said:
Train hard, enjoy and have fun.

"3 months and rest/perform basic mobility exercises the week prior to the certification weekend."
This depends. Follow your intuition. I think this is meant to prevent people from getting injured by training too intensively.

On diet, follow your intuition.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the reply,

Over training is exactly what I don't want to do, I'll probably have a better idea of how much rest I'll need after a month or so of training.
 
jef said:
Brett Jones' protocol delivers, I confirm.

Additional advice would depend of where you start from.

I would also suggest to re-read breathing advice in S&S. It helped me to recover quickly during the cert weekend.
Click to expand...

I appreciate the suggestions, breathing is so underrated, I'm glad you mentioned that.
I will definitely take a look back over S&S.
 
Zack said:
First, congratulations! I hope this is the start of something very special for you.



The Brett Jones plan is obviously the bread n butter here.

What lifts are you most and least confident with?
What's your training history?
Click to expand...

Thank you, the SFG Cert is something I've wanted to go after for a long time and I plan on pursuing all of the cert's eventually. I could go on and on about how great the techniques and principles are but I think we all are well aware.

I'm most confident with swings, squats and cleans.
Least confident would be presses and snatches. Shoulder strength and mobility have been areas where I've had to dial in on due to bench pressing too much in high school and college.

I played basketball in college until 2009, was introduced to kettlebells in 2010 and started using them consistently since about 2013. Have read books and watched videos from Pavel, Dan John, Louie Simmons, Kelly Starrett, etc. I am also studying for the NSCA-CSCS.
 
Here are a few ideas for shoulder mobility (as this is something I have/sometimes do struggle with):


I did the Brettzel every day for 3 months before my first cert. Game changer!


Practicing deep breathing may help unlock the shoulders


The breath work in conjunction with segmental rolling helped me bounce back from a serious shoulder tweak mere weeks from SFGII

Hope that helps!
 
Zack said:
Here are a few ideas for shoulder mobility (as this is something I have/sometimes do struggle with):


I did the Brettzel every day for 3 months before my first cert. Game changer!


Practicing deep breathing may help unlock the shoulders


The breath work in conjunction with segmental rolling helped me bounce back from a serious shoulder tweak mere weeks from SFGII

Hope that helps!
Click to expand...


All of these are great, much appreciated Zack.
These will be incorporated into my training immediately.
Getting information like this is like gold to me.

Thanks again!
 
Bobby said:
Thank you for the reply,

I plan on attempting a snatch test this Saturday before I begin my training protocol as sort of a litmus test. Shoulder mobility has always been something I've had to pay more attention to. I have been working on arm bars with a lighter bell and hanging from pull up bars in an effort to correct the anterior tilt.

How did you prepare for the snatch test?
Click to expand...

when I recertified last year, built up an A+A esque program

with the new standards, I snatch one bell size down (I qualify for the 20kg) I nailed a 3:59 snatch test a few months back by focusing on double bell complexes and GTGing with a 24kg
 
This is good stuff, as I'm training for SFG1 as well. A question aside from the physical, is there specific material to be studying to work on knowledge base? I know @Anna C mentioned at some point to read through S&S a bunch of times prior which is helpful, so I'm working on that. Any other thoughts?

Thanks!
 
Question for @Anna C & Mark: what volume of A+A snatches and with what weight (same? heavier?) is needed to pass a snatch test? Thank you.
 
Pavel Macek said:
Question for @Anna C & Mark: what volume of A+A snatches and with what weight (same? heavier?) is needed to pass a snatch test? Thank you.
Click to expand...

That's a great question.... I don't know that we have any directly applicable data on that. My first thought is that it almost works in reverse; it takes a while be competent enough with the snatch to do good A+A work, and by that time you can definitely pass a snatch test with your standard weight.

For example for me, A+A is with a 24kg; that's the bell that gives me the strength and power challenge for the fast twitch fibers and alactic power, and then aerobic recovery. And if I can snatch the 24kg for a number of repeats (sessions of 20-30 repeats of 5 snatches, 2-3x/wk), I can pretty much pass my 16kg snatch test at any time. So it is definitely good maintenance but I don't know that true A+A could help in training for a first snatch test.

Now having said that, you could definitely use the A+A repeat scheme; for example 5 snatches R, rest about a minute, 5 snatches L, rest about a minute, repeat... to get started with snatching. This is a good training template for getting a lot of quality practice in for just about any move. But then once the snatch is solid, being able to do 100 in 5 minutes is all about a hard glycolytic effort and mental challenge, so the standard snatch prep programs are probably best for that. Many of these recommend snatching a bell heavier than the snatch test bell at least sometimes, but probably not a lot of that when approaching the very first snatch test.

Hope that makes sense. @aciampa Al, anything to add?
 
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