Other/Mixed What do SFG Level 1 Instructors have to know

[BillSteamshovel]

I get the impression that a fairly strict test of your technique and strength on various kettlebell exercises is part of whats required to become an SFG level 1 instructor.

What "theoretical" or knowledge tests does an SFG have to pass ? I've seen various posts and articles about the strength and technique requirements but have not seen much about the knowledge requirements

ie Is an understanding of programming for Hypertrophy or Endurance or Strength a requirement

Does an SFG have to demonstrate a detailed knowledge of how to wave the load during a program or greasing the groove ?

Does an SFG have to attend several seminars a year to maintain and improve knowledge ?

Is there an exam with questions ? ie ( I have to stress that I don't know enough to even ask the right sort of questions but you get the idea)

"Design a pressing program that demonstrates your understanding of waving the load for a trainee with intermediate pressings skills, she wants to go from 20 to 24kg 3RM over the next 6 months"

"What sort of range of movement should a client have demonstrated in shoulders T-spine and hips before you would begin to instruct 2 hand swings "

 

[Don Fairbanks]

I get the impression that a fairly strict test of your technique and strength on various kettlebell exercises is part of whats required to become an SFG level 1 instructor.

What "theoretical" or knowledge tests does an SFG have to pass ? I've seen various posts and articles about the strength and technique requirements but have not seen much about the knowledge requirements

ie Is an understanding of programming for Hypertrophy or Endurance or Strength a requirement

Does an SFG have to demonstrate a detailed knowledge of how to wave the load during a program or greasing the groove ?

Does an SFG have to attend several seminars a year to maintain and improve knowledge ?

Is there an exam with questions ? ie ( I have to stress that I don't know enough to even ask the right sort of questions but you get the idea)

"Design a pressing program that demonstrates your understanding of waving the load for a trainee with intermediate pressings skills, she wants to go from 20 to 24kg 3RM over the next 6 months"

"What sort of range of movement should a client have demonstrated in shoulders T-spine and hips before you would begin to instruct 2 hand swings "

True, none, no, no, no, no.

 

[Steve Freides]

I get the impression that a fairly strict test of your technique and strength on various kettlebell exercises is part of whats required to become an SFG level 1 instructor.

The requirements are pretty clearly spelled out on the website pages devoted to each certification. I'd have a close look at those and come back with further questions.

-S-

 

[Luis T. Gonzalez]

much about the knowledge requirements

There is a lot contained in the manual you get with the seminar as far as single kb programming and tons of coaching cues to help someone teach another person. I’d say if you did the certification and was coached well through your preparation, then you would have an excellent information base to teach others. Not to mention all programming that is available to everyone. In the state I live in, it is not a requirement to go to school for sports medicine or a related field to be a personal trainer. Being certified in something like StringFirst is enough for a person to be able to open a school or group fitness class.

 

[John K]

I get the impression that a fairly strict test of your technique and strength on various kettlebell exercises is part of whats required to become an SFG level 1 instructor.

What "theoretical" or knowledge tests does an SFG have to pass ? I've seen various posts and articles about the strength and technique requirements but have not seen much about the knowledge requirements

ie Is an understanding of programming for Hypertrophy or Endurance or Strength a requirement

Does an SFG have to demonstrate a detailed knowledge of how to wave the load during a program or greasing the groove ?

Does an SFG have to attend several seminars a year to maintain and improve knowledge ?

Is there an exam with questions ? ie ( I have to stress that I don't know enough to even ask the right sort of questions but you get the idea)

"Design a pressing program that demonstrates your understanding of waving the load for a trainee with intermediate pressings skills, she wants to go from 20 to 24kg 3RM over the next 6 months"

"What sort of range of movement should a client have demonstrated in shoulders T-spine and hips before you would begin to instruct 2 hand swings "

No knowledge required. You need to be able to demonstrate technical proficiency in the swing, clean, press, squat, getup, and snatch with the appropriate weights for your gender/age, and then pass the snatch test.

 

[BillSteamshovel]

The requirements are pretty clearly spelled out on the website pages devoted to each certification. I'd have a close look at those and come back with further questions.

Thanks for all the replies.

@Steve Freides Thanks, I've read those pages for SFG1, the main focus of the event seems to be an assessment of your skills and strength on the 6 exercises. This is what most people write about when they discuss their experiences at the event

I am more interested in the items mentioned in Luis post, is much time spent on these aspects during the 3 days ?

There is a lot contained in the manual you get with the seminar as far as single kb programming and tons of coaching cues to help someone teach another person

.

 

[Don Fairbanks]

Thanks for all the replies.

@Steve Freides Thanks, I've read those pages for SFG1, the main focus of the event seems to be an assessment of your skills and strength on the 6 exercises. This is what most people write about when they discuss their experiences at the event

I am more interested in the items mentioned in Luis post, is much time spent on these aspects during the 3 days ?


.

The manual is stuffed full of excellent information, cues etc Much/all of which is gone over in the cert. during all the practice rep volume and workout volume.

 

[Steve Freides]

Thanks for all the replies.

@Steve Freides Thanks, I've read those pages for SFG1, the main focus of the event seems to be an assessment of your skills and strength on the 6 exercises. This is what most people write about when they discuss their experiences at the event

I am more interested in the items mentioned in Luis post, is much time spent on these aspects during the 3 days ?


.

The manual really isn't the subject of the weekend; the focus is on the teaching progressions (and regressions). Learning how to teach the movements on which you'll be tested accomplishes many things: - you get to improve your own skill; you get to learn how to teach the movement to others; you'll be working with a partner or in a small group, and there you get to practice helping your fellow participants and to benefit from them helping you, all the while under the watchful eye of your team leaders and assistant instructors, so you are really also getting a chance to teach and have your teaching observed as well.

I would say that one could show up to the SFG-I and know next to nothing about programming and still pass - if you can "walk the walk" by performing the skills, and "talk the talk" by helping others in your group, you are very likely ready to earn your SFG-I. The manual will give you a wealth of additional information.

-S-

 

[Luis T. Gonzalez]

Thanks for all the replies.

@Steve Freides Thanks, I've read those pages for SFG1, the main focus of the event seems to be an assessment of your skills and strength on the 6 exercises. This is what most people write about when they discuss their experiences at the event

I am more interested in the items mentioned in Luis post, is much time spent on these aspects during the 3 days ?


.

I would say navigating the manual would be based on your desire to be a coach and to be coached. Dr. Michael Hartle was one of the main teachers at the SFG 1 I attended in Florida along with SFG Elite Team leader Tim Shuman which I have had the opportunity to be coached by. Both would repetitively encourage everyone to leave the cert for the day, stretch, and read your manual. You have 3 days to soak up as much information as possible and hopefully you are already proficient enough that you can spend the time at the cert learning how to be a better coach, which is the whole purpose. Most people who know about strong first know that coaches are held to a very high standard and really respect a person who has achieved becoming certified. I think it is really the start of a life long journey as you can only learn so much in 3 days, but the whole experience is transformative.

 

[John K]

Thanks for all the replies.

@Steve Freides Thanks, I've read those pages for SFG1, the main focus of the event seems to be an assessment of your skills and strength on the 6 exercises. This is what most people write about when they discuss their experiences at the event

I am more interested in the items mentioned in Luis post, is much time spent on these aspects during the 3 days ?


.

Most of the manual is focused on teaching and troubleshooting. Very minimal programming information.

 

[Brett Jones]

The StrongFirst certifications are hands on specialty certifications.
The focus is on the coaching and application of StrongFirst technique and coaching.

Students go through 100's of repetitions of practice of the skills and related drills to not only change their technique but learn to coach to the individuals they will be working with. There are 6 practice sessions where programming is taught "manually" and there is a solid programming section to the manual. Students are tested on their technique and coaching in order to be certified.

Going through a general personal training certification is recommended (NSCA, ACE, NASM, etc.) to cover general concepts and base knoweldge we do not have time to cover over the already packed certification weekends.

We have never been a multiple choice exam certification.

 

[Anna C]

Is there an exam with questions ?

There was a written test component when I did SFG in 2015 but I think it was discontinued soon after. It was a minor part of the cert weekend even back then. The technique tests with required weights, the coaching of others, and the snatch test are the main events.

Great information from all, above.

Generally speaking, I think that with kettlebell training, the overall approach is more important than "programming" per se. Knowing how to structure your training emphasis, how to select appropriate training weights, when to stop for the day, and having a basic idea of how to structure a session, a week, and a set of weeks or months gives you what you need. There are many, many more details of strength programming that apply to pure strength programming (powerlifting and other applications) that really aren't all that critical with kettlebell training. With kettlebell training, the volume does the work. If you have good technique, do the work, and mange the volume in effective ways, you are usually good to go.

 

[Anna C]

Generally speaking, I think that with kettlebell training, the overall approach is more important than "programming" per se.

@Adachi wrote a great post here that elucidates what I was trying to say in differentiating between approach and programming. Both may use reps / sets / intensity / and a given structure through days/weeks/months. The main difference to me is intensity. With kettlebells, the details of WHAT is done matter less important because the absolute load is lower. What ends up mattering more is HOW MUCH (getting in sufficient volume) and HOW you do it (managing rest periods, ensuring technique stays on point for all reps in a longer session, etc.). With pure strength training such as barbell powerlifting, or explosive strength training like weightlifting, the intensity is a lot more important to get right and there is much less margin for error on volume. Specific training effects for pure strength and power can be more specifically programmed, therefore traditional programming details become more important to know and understand.

 

[Steve Freides]

Generally speaking, I think that with kettlebell training, the overall approach is more important than "programming" per se.

This is an idea that resonates with me as a musician. I've taken a lot of music lessons, having started a music student in 1962. Most teachers focus on technique, musicianship, etc., and generally not a lot is talked about in terms of how structure your training/practice time. This has been my experience: you figure out how to practice largely by yourself while you learn exactly what you need to practice from your teacher.

That's not to say I haven't had teachers with suggestions about how to use my practice time - of course I have, but I've found that, at least in music, this is something I've had to largely figure out for myself.

JMO, YMMV. (Just my opinion, your mileage may vary.)

-S-

 

[BillSteamshovel]

Thanks very much for all of the answers, you have massively improved my understanding of what is involved in the SFG1 assessment and whats in the notes.

@Brett Jones - I didn't mean to imply that it is a multiple choice assessment, my apologies if the initial post was interpreted that way, I was genuinely interested in what else was involved apart from the technique assessments and snatch test.

 

[Steve Freides]

Thanks very much for all of the answers, you have massively improved my understanding of what is involved in the SFG1 assessment and whats in the notes.

@Brett Jones - I didn't mean to imply that it is a multiple choice assessment, my apologies if the initial post was interpreted that way, I was genuinely interested in what else was involved apart from the technique assessments and snatch test.

Dude, go get your SFG.

-S-

 

[Brett Jones]

Thanks very much for all of the answers, you have massively improved my understanding of what is involved in the SFG1 assessment and whats in the notes.

@Brett Jones - I didn't mean to imply that it is a multiple choice assessment, my apologies if the initial post was interpreted that way, I was genuinely interested in what else was involved apart from the technique assessments and snatch test.

@BillSteamshovel

All good—please let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[Jash]

The StrongFirst certifications are hands on specialty certifications.
The focus is on the coaching and application of StrongFirst technique and coaching.

Students go through 100's of repetitions of practice of the skills and related drills to not only change their technique but learn to coach to the individuals they will be working with. There are 6 practice sessions where programming is taught "manually" and there is a solid programming section to the manual. Students are tested on their technique and coaching in order to be certified.

Going through a general personal training certification is recommended (NSCA, ACE, NASM, etc.) to cover general concepts and base knoweldge we do not have time to cover over the already packed certification weekends.

We have never been a multiple choice exam certification.

As someone who hasn’t certified yet this is good to know as StrongFirst’s training process has been confusing. It’s starting to sound sensible though as your post here reminds me a lot of the combat medic training pipeline I went through, re-cert on, and train others for with the US Army. In the Army’s medical branch there’s a distinction between the certification testing for medical licensing and medical practice.

The US Army contracts to outside industry professionals that focus on teaching and testing the medical knowledge so medics can obtain our medical license. This seems similar to StrongFirst relying on outside industry standard certifications to cover the foundational knowledge of physical fitness (programming, physiology basics, etc.).

The application of standardized and professional medical knowledge is a series of separate in-house certifications that are trained and tested with a more hands-on approach which certifies a Soldier as a US Army combat medic. Overall this seems almost the same as the model StrongFirst has established for their own in-house certifications.

(@Brett Jones StrongFirst’s various certs, books, and seminars have been quite confusing to navigate, but it seems StrongFirst’s educational processes are converging into a sensible pipeline? The US military medical branches had the same problem and we successfully standardized recently (circa 2020) under a US Army style training pipeline. I’m an award winning 68W Combat Medic Sergeant with a National Guard Battalion (I’m “NCO of the Year” this year and StrongFirst seminars helped with that), and I could provide some insights on how we solved this problem in the DoD. DM me and we can talk more!)

With that in mind, for SFG I, I’m assuming that much of the basic programming knowledge is actually obtained by following the workshop pipeline (101 to 201 then 301)? That helps organize Pavel’s books and the programming knowledge in those (start with Simple & Sinister, the book and program, and then look at Rite of Passage from “Enter the Kettlebell”). But what do we make of Kettlebell 301 which is supposed to prepare one for SFG I testing? From the workshop page the skills are clear and obvious, but for programming it looks like the student expands their experience into some very basic programming philosophy through a Plan Strong template. Then what does the “GPR” plan cover? It says it’s a 2.0 version which implies there’s a 1.0 version from Pavel’s books perhaps? Is “GPR” a Strong Endurance template or is it a logical continuation of programming principles from Rite of Passage and “Enter the Kettlebell”?

 

[John K]

As someone who hasn’t certified yet this is good to know as StrongFirst’s training process has been confusing. It’s starting to sound sensible though as your post here reminds me a lot of the combat medic training pipeline I went through, re-cert on, and train others for with the US Army. In the Army’s medical branch there’s a distinction between the certification testing for medical licensing and medical practice.

The US Army contracts to outside industry professionals that focus on teaching and testing the medical knowledge so medics can obtain our medical license. This seems similar to StrongFirst relying on outside industry standard certifications to cover the foundational knowledge of physical fitness (programming, physiology basics, etc.).

The application of standardized and professional medical knowledge is a series of separate in-house certifications that are trained and tested with a more hands-on approach which certifies a Soldier as a US Army combat medic. Overall this seems almost the same as the model StrongFirst has established for their own in-house certifications.

(@Brett Jones StrongFirst’s various certs, books, and seminars have been quite confusing to navigate, but it seems StrongFirst’s educational processes are converging into a sensible pipeline? The US military medical branches had the same problem and we successfully standardized recently (circa 2020) under a US Army style training pipeline. I’m an award winning 68W Combat Medic Sergeant with a National Guard Battalion (I’m “NCO of the Year” this year and StrongFirst seminars helped with that), and I could provide some insights on how we solved this problem in the DoD. DM me and we can talk more!)

With that in mind, for SFG I, I’m assuming that much of the basic programming knowledge is actually obtained by following the workshop pipeline (101 to 201 then 301)? That helps organize Pavel’s books and the programming knowledge in those (start with Simple & Sinister, the book and program, and then look at Rite of Passage from “Enter the Kettlebell”). But what do we make of Kettlebell 301 which is supposed to prepare one for SFG I testing? From the workshop page the skills are clear and obvious, but for programming it looks like the student expands their experience into some very basic programming philosophy through a Plan Strong template. Then what does the “GPR” plan cover? It says it’s a 2.0 version which implies there’s a 1.0 version from Pavel’s books perhaps? Is “GPR” a Strong Endurance template or is it a logical continuation of programming principles from Rite of Passage and “Enter the Kettlebell”?

What has been confusing? I'm confused by what you said. They offer a handful of different certs that have very clear standards. Is the confusion over which one to choose? How to train for it? How their educational offerings fit in?

 

[Anna C]

reminds me a lot of the combat medic training pipeline I went through, re-cert on, and train others for with the US Army.

What has been confusing? I'm confused by what you said. They offer a handful of different certs that have very clear standards. Is the confusion over which one to choose? How to train for it? How their educational offerings fit in?

I can relate to what @Jash is saying because I've been involved with the Air Force's training pipeline in various capacities in and out of uniform for 35 years now.

@Jash I would say it's different from your military medic analogy in that StrongFirst is certifying people to teach it's methods. Through that certification to teach/instruct, it is also verified that the candidate can do the things themselves... but the purpose of the certification is not to prove your proficiency as a practitioner. It's to obtain and prove your proficiency as an instructor.

But yes, Kettlebell 101 and 102 are aimed at the practitioner. Then if one wants to go further and teach, 301 is to further prepare them as a practitioner so that they can be prepared for the rigorous requirements of the SFG I and become an instructor.

All that said, SFG I and II (and the other StrongFirst certs, bodyweight and barbell, which might be analogous to separate Army MOS/specialties) are also good for practitioners even if they don't have intentions to teach. They're just great ways to get a deep dive into the theory, practice, programming, and principles of StrongFirst.

@Brett Jones please jump in with any additions or corrections...