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Kettlebell Swing form. Hips rising on backswing causing knees to move forward on upswing?

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Paltreaux11

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I was hoping someone could critique my one handed swing form and possible give me a cue or some advice on how to eliminate this issue. On my backswing, while the bell is pulling me backwards, my hips rise a bit to compensate which pulls my knees back. Then on my upswing my knees move forward to their original position. I would like to eliminate this and have a 100% true hard style swing. The thing is it doesn’t feel like I’m doing it so I’m not sure how to remedy it. With one handed swings it can also cause my hips to also move side to side. I’ve been able to make it better over time, but not perfect. It’s usually worse on my hike pass.

Here is a link to a video of me practicing it.

This link may work better

Any advice would be appreciated. Overall I feel like it’s a pretty solid swing, but I’d like to really perfect it to strong first standards.
 
Any advice would be appreciated. Overall I feel like it’s a pretty solid swing, but I’d like to really perfect it to strong first standards.
Agree! A solid swing, and quite typical of many people who have learned the swing. Also agree it can be better. It's a great case study, so first I'll say thanks for sharing it.

Two suggestions:

1) Pattern the lower body movements with the kettlebell deadlift, either one hand or two hand. This will help find the smooth descent and ascent from plank to hinge and back to plank with no forward knee movement on the ascent. You can speed up the deadlift for more of an explosive lift, if it helps.

2) On your upswing during the swing, don't wait for the kettlebell. Snap explosively to standing plank as quickly and forcefully as you can after that slight pause in the backswing. Right now you're letting the kettlebell's forward momentum kind of lead your upswing. Instead, make your body lead, and the kettlebell will follow. Here's a slow-mo where you can see how forcefully I'm reaching full hip and knee extension when the kettlebell is relatively low... then it floats up. Try to find that. It will tug hard on your grip! But that's a good thing.
 
Agree! A solid swing, and quite typical of many people who have learned the swing. Also agree it can be better. It's a great case study, so first I'll say thanks for sharing it.

Two suggestions:

1) Pattern the lower body movements with the kettlebell deadlift, either one hand or two hand. This will help find the smooth descent and ascent from plank to hinge and back to plank with no forward knee movement on the ascent. You can speed up the deadlift for more of an explosive lift, if it helps.

2) On your upswing during the swing, don't wait for the kettlebell. Snap explosively to standing plank as quickly and forcefully as you can after that slight pause in the backswing. Right now you're letting the kettlebell's forward momentum kind of lead your upswing. Instead, make your body lead, and the kettlebell will follow. Here's a slow-mo where you can see how forcefully I'm reaching full hip and knee extension when the kettlebell is relatively low... then it floats up. Try to find that. It will tug hard on your grip! But that's a good thing.
Anna thanks for responding! I believe you helped critique my snatch last week. Which actually made me go back and really dig into my swing and realize it also needs improvement.

Thanks for the suggestions. I will try to implement these. Also do you think my working shoulder should be further back? Sometimes I wonder if it’s not “packed” enough. The shoulder is down, but sometimes not totally back. It feels good while swinging but it’s something I’ve noticed.
 
Dittos to @Anna C . great slow mo of the swing for reference.

I'll second that, and put something that helped me while I was still handling the 16kg bell.
I used to stand in the living room and move slowly like this.



Pavel Macek Presents the 4 count nature of the swing.

Also, I'll say for patterning the timing of the swing I got a lot of value from the 16kg towel kettlebell swing, myself.



I get the feeling that also might help with what you're sensing in the pattern of movement .
 
Have you tried letting your head naturally track instead of fixing your gaze? It might sound daft but see if it helps.
 
That’s actually how I usually swing. I was trying to keep it up on the horizon today to see if it would help my hips and shoulders stay more square. Not sure if it helped or not
 
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That’s actually how I usually swing. I was trying to keep it up on the horizon today to see if it would help my hips and shoulders stay more square. Not sure if it helped or not
On the back swing are you turning the arm so your thumb turns in?
 
I don’t think I am. I just watched a video of myself head on and it looks like the handle of the bell stays parallel with the floor.
 
I don’t think I am. I just watched a video of myself head on and it looks like the handle of the bell stays parallel with the floor.
Give that a try. Again it’s a wee thing but it might make a difference.
 
Thanks. Sometimes I also feel like the bell travels too far backwards and almost travels a little upwards at the apex of the backswing.
 
I actually thought you were cutting your back swing a bit short. Like it had a tiny bit more loading still to do before blasting out.
 
Maybe that’s why the bell wiggles a bit and flips up at the end of the backswing? Hard to put into words but do you see what I’m saying?
 
Maybe that’s why the bell wiggles a bit and flips up at the end of the backswing? Hard to put into words but do you see what I’m saying?
Aye it shouldn’t flop. You have to get into a position were it loads and you are reaching back and loading. If that makes sense.
 
No I understand what you’re saying. Maybe flop is too aggressive of a word. But if you watch the video again you can probably see what I’m saying.
 
Also do you think my working shoulder should be further back? Sometimes I wonder if it’s not “packed” enough. The shoulder is down, but sometimes not totally back. It feels good while swinging but it’s something I’ve noticed.
I think the shoulder looks OK - a good thing to work on from time to time, but it's not needing a major correction IMO. (Yours is about like mine is in that video I linked above, so I'll say it's good enough ;) )
 
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