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Kettlebell The Dead Swing Article

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SuperGirevik

SuperGirevik

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I just recently read this article by Mark Reifkind and I found it to be incredibly useful. While I like to think that my swing technique is decent, I've always felt my consecutive hinges after the initial hike were never as good as the first. They felt more shallow, with less knee bend. Allowing the kettlebell to naturally float down helped in timing my hinge but the depth of my hinge still didn't feel right. When viewing videos of myself, I could tell that my initial set-up hinge and hike pass looked different from the ones that followed. It was a bit frustrating because no matter how hard I tried to mentally hinge deeply in my swings, something was holding me back.

So after reading this article, I gained hope of improving my swing technique. So my plan is to share a current video of myself doing 2H and OA swings, then I'll will implement dead swings into my practice and share another video to see my progress.

Thanks to Mark and the StrongFirst community for providing great training material (y)
 
Apparently a lot of people find the dead swing useful (and I can't argue with that experience), but I am honestly not one of them.

In my experience, the first rep, hiked off the floor, is always the worst rep of the set and pretty much HAS to be that way.

One group of faults we see all the time in people's swings is hinging too early, dropping the bell too low, and having bad timing out of the hole because the hips moved back way before the bell. Well, hiking the bell off the floor pretty much ensures that the hinge is too early and ahead of the bell (because you start with the hips back and the bell out in front), and that the bell is too low (because it starts on the floor).

IMO, hiking the bell off the floor is a necessary evil to start a set. There isn't a better way to initiate the first rep, but it's something you need to adjust FROM, not something to replicate on subsequent reps.

One thing I do frequently notice is that people often have a great hinge position in their set up, but then lose it when doing their actual swings, so dead swings can take advantage of this. But I think the problems it enforces with bell path, position and timing outweigh this. I also avoid "hover swings" as a teaching progression for the same reason.
 
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@SuperGirevik,
Yes, you could sit back a little deeper, with more knee bend -- but that's still a solid swing.

I'd recommend spending some time with the KB deadlift (1-arm or 2-arm). Use a heavy bell. Start with the bell back between your heels (or at least between the back part of your feet). Sit back into the hinge to reach the bell, grab it and stand up smoothly.

On the descent, keep your arm(s) in tight to your body, and sit back to slowly lower the bell (avoid squatting). Strive to lower the bell straight down between your heels to the same spot you lifted it from, without letting it drift forward. Do sets of 20, with a slow negative.

When I was recovering from shoulder surgery (rotator cuff tear while playing basketball), I did a lot of 1-arm deadlifts like this with my good arm before I could do any sort of ballistics. I started doing them just to be able to do SOMETHING, but I soon found they did a fantastic job forcing me to explore my hinge pattern in a new way. They really grooved the feel of the bottom position of the swing so when I returned to ballistics I could use the muscle memory of that position as a target to shoot for at the end of the back swing, just like the standing plank is the target at the top.

I am convinced that most people spend way too little time patterning the hinge with the KB DL before starting ballistic swings, and that a lot of problems could be avoided by spending more time with it.
 
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Steve W. said:
I am convinced that most people spend way too little time patterning the hinge with the KB DL before starting ballistic swings
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You nailed it. I'll admit, when I first started to learn about kettlebells through ETK (years ago), I did some KBDLs but since then... I haven't done them at all. Since I had experience with heavy barbell deadlifts, I always felt I didn't need that drill. Also, I never even tried doing the 1A KBDL (shame on me). The reality is that I took for granted my swing technique but after watching videos of myself, I noticed I needed work.

I have a 32kg that I will start using for KBDLs and I have a 40kg on the way.

The great are great because they are great at doing the basics. The foolish rush for greatness and never achieve it.
 
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Steve W. said:
I am convinced that most people spend way too little time patterning the hinge with the KB DL before starting ballistic swings, and that a lot of problems could be avoided by spending more time with it.
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+1!!!!
 
@Steve W. - I started to add kettlebell deadlifts in my practices. I was surprised how using a relatively light weight could offer such a challenge, especially after 10 reps. I’d like to get your feed back on my technique if possible:



Also, would you recommend that I temporarily replace my 100 swings with 100 deadlifts (5x20) or should this just be part of my warmup?

I noticed my toes go up during the hinge. Not sure if that means I need to adjust the width of my stance or work on some mobility drills.
 
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SuperGirevik said:
I was surprised how using a relatively light weight could offer such a challenge, especially after 10 reps.
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Yes, that's the reason for sets of 20 -- the second 10 is where your brain and body figure a lot of things out.

SuperGirevik said:
I’d like to get your feed back on my technique if possible
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Looks good. Your back position looks good, you are sitting back into the hinge instead of squatting down, and you do a good job not letting the bell drift forward. One thing I notice is that on the descent your hips get a little ahead of your shoulders. You sit back, then after your hips have finished moving back, you continue to fold forward and bend your knees in order to reach the ground with the bell. See if you can coordinate your timing so your hips, knees and shoulders all start and finish together, as they do on the ascent (basically reverse-engineer the timing of your ascent that you are doing unconsciously, and consciously emulate it on the descent).

Also, your stance is a little wide, with a lot of turnout. This isn't necessarily a problem, as there's lots of room for individual variation, but maybe something to experiment with.

SuperGirevik said:
would you recommend that I temporarily replace my 100 swings with 100 deadlifts (5x20) or should this just be part of my warmup?
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I think it's fine for you to continue with your regular swing practice and use the DL as an adjunct (such as part of your warmup). That way, you can directly apply the patterning from the DL to your swings. Use the standing plank as your target position for the top of the swing, and the bottom of your DL as the target for the bottom of your swing.

SuperGirevik said:
I noticed my toes go up during the hinge.
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This is a natural tendency when trying to sit back and not let the KB drift forward. The KB is going down between your heels, so it is right on your base of support or a little behind, and therefore not helping you counterbalance your hips. I try to stay rooted and balanced over my whole foot during the DL, and focusing on my weight distribution often helps me keep the timing between my hips, knees and shoulders smooth and coordinated, as mentioned above. There could be a mobility issue, such as with tight hamstrings (try the bootstrapper squat stretch that I described in your squat thread), but it's most likely just your brain and body figuring out the weight distribution. As you experiment with weight distribution, just be wary of getting squatty -- knees coming forward and hips dropping more straight down instead of back.
 
Steve W. said:
One thing I notice is that on the descent your hips get a little ahead of your shoulders. You sit back, then after your hips have finished moving back, you continue to fold forward and bend your knees in order to reach
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Nice observation. I would have never noticed that. But you are right, my hips stop moving forward but I keep folding down afterwards. I'll place a mental sticky on my brain for my next practice.

Steve W. said:
Also, your stance is a little wide, with a lot of turnout.
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I've tried a more narrow stance but I felt I had to open up my knees to make room for my arms. I'm not sure if you can tell from the video but even with this wide stance, my arms are barely avoiding my inner thigh. But I do prefer performing squats and conventional deadlifts with a more narrow stance.

I'll definitely experiment with different widths and feet turnout. I've actually been applying Brett Jone's "lock & rock" technique to find the best turnout.

Thanks Steve for all your help!
 
Just wanted to add this little nugget that may help others. Today I precisely came across this article by @Brett Jones titled, "Patience: The Unexpected Key to Power". Among the many things that can help a student with their swings, he discusses slow kettlebell deadlifts and the importance of being patient.

Here is a great quote from the article:
"Have the patience to set your bottom position and find your wedge and push through the ground to the top. Have the patience to keep the arms against the ribs on the way down to perfect finish"
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Sometimes we are so focused on generating power, that we forget that patience is key for setting ourselves up to generate that power. When I first started to swing the kettlebell, my instinct was to snap my hips forward as soon as the bell went behind my legs. Recently, I've been focusing on setting my bottom position before snapping back up into a standing plank.

The lesson I learned was that you can either patiently reach success or rush to failure.

@Steve W. - I can see in Brett's video how everything arrives at once during the hinge (y)
 
Joeyboy said:
Used your video in another thread on dead lift hinge to help my swing. I don't know if you understand how great you are.
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Would you be able to share the link? I'd like to learn from it :)

I tried searching for it but @Anna C has a lot of posts and it was very difficult to find. I did find a video of her practicing her 2H swings with a 40kg and the use of slow-motion video was genius! I'm definitely going to use it to analyze my technique.
 
I looked and can't find it. It was embedded I'm another thread. She posted it so I would ask her. She said it was a help video for one of her students. She was wearing nice clothes and not workout clothes, if that helps her remember.
 
Joeyboy said:
Used your video in another thread on dead lift hinge to help my swing. I don't know if you understand how great you are.
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Well, that's super nice! Thanks. :)

SuperGirevik said:
Would you be able to share the link? I'd like to learn from it :)

I tried searching for it but @Anna C has a lot of posts and it was very difficult to find. I did find a video of her practicing her 2H swings with a 40kg and the use of slow-motion video was genius! I'm definitely going to use it to analyze my technique.
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Here is the one on deadlifts... I have it unlisted on my channel because I'm not that confident yet with the instructional video to leave it out there! But I'm happy to share with forum peeps. Here's the other one you mentioned on 40kg slow mo swings... and that was used in this interesting thread from last year: The swing I actually made a few tweaks to my swing based on that thread. Slow mo video is really great for analysis, as is forum discussion!
 
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