Taking the 32kg bells for a ride

The beginning of this week I began training to lift the 32kg (red) bells for competition. I will be competing with them at the IUKL meet in Wilton, CT May 4th. Here are my first 2 sets going after these bells. They are no joke!!
Kettlebell Jerk 2x32kg


Kettlebell Snatch 32kg



So this is where I am at. My goal is to get Master of Sport and hope to lift these at the Nationals in September and the WKC championships in October. Reps needed in IUKL is 175pts and WKC 58 jerks/ 55 snatches per arm.

2nd Kettlebell Sport competition at Punch Gym Sarasota!!

This was a great meet!!! Jay and Karen Trunzo put on one hell of a meet. It ran smooth with no bumps in the road. Times and flights were set, lifters knew when they were lifting and had no question when they were up. No matter what they stayed on task and made the meet GREAT!!
Jay and Karen worked with me and I am very proud what they have been able to do with their gym and  how they positively affected their community for the better. And now that they are into kettlebell sport I can't wait to see what they do.
Back to the competition, it was a small meet but a huge turnout! Some big names and some new comers  showed up and decided to put it all out on the platform. The ladies from the Ice Chamber flew in from San Francisco, Scott Shetler came down from Atlanta and the entire Punch Gym Sarasota Family came out to take part in this 1st Kettlebell Sport Championship at Punch Gym Sarasota! It was a WKC endorsed event so they use WKC rules and ranking. Since a lot were new to the sport they didn't go to heavy but that doesn't take away from what they were able to do and experience. Scott had a small competition with John Beamon in long cycle with 20s, Melissa lifted the 24kg amazingly in biathlon, Surya and Jessica both lifted the 20kg in Biathlon and put up a great performance with Jessica getting her second MS. I lifted the 28kg in Biathlon and had a great meet. I missed CMS rank by 2 reps in Snatch....not that happy but still good. Here are my 2 sets from the meet.
2x28kg Jerk


28kg Snatch


Overall it was a great meet as I said before. Melissa Swanson and I both won the Best Lifter Award in Biathlon and Scott Shetler won Best Male lifter in Long Cycle and Teri Stabler from Punch Gym won Best Female lifter in Longcyle!! Awesome!! The sport is still growing!!
Next Competition will be in Wilton, Conn and it will be an IUKL/AKA meet. Back to training!!

Huge Thanks to Jay and Karen for hosting me this weekend. I can't thank you both enough and very happy I was able to inspire the both of you into this wonderful sport!

1st competition of 2013...on to the next one!

Last Saturday I had my first competition of 2013 at the IKSFA New York Open Kettlebell Sport Championship. I have competed in this competition all 3 years it has occurred and this was my best performance yet. The first year was a bit of a bust doing long cycle and the following year I had a personal best in Biathlon. This year I bested that score and felt great doing it.
My goal for this year is to make Candidate of Master of Sport in WKC and IUKL. But for right now I know I am not ready for the 32kgs bells. So I went into this competition going after the 24s. Last year I did 75 jerks in 10mins and 125reps in 9:45min. I have had some great training sessions and experiences from last year so I wanted to show it here. This competition also served as a warm up to this coming weekend's competition in Sarasota, Fl. So I went after it and had a goal in mind, minimum 80 reps in jerk and 75/75 reps in snatch. I came close to achieving them but still glad with my performance. Here are both sets. It was a good competition glad I was able to see some old and new faces and glad the sport of kettlebell lifting is still growing!!

Kettlebell Jerk 2x24kg


Kettlebell Snatch 24kg

New Personal best in Snatch 28kg

Recently I was able to put up a new best in kettlebell Snatch with 28kg. Here is the video of that training session. I didn't think it was great but Coach Duffey looked at it and it was a new PB. I was amazed that I had did this but when you consistently work at things improvements do happen. Check out the video!

How to improve Snatch....Snatch more often!!

Recently the Girevoy Sport union created by Mark Stapleton and Anton Anasenko had their first certification of a group of non-russians through a university on kettlebell sport. Don't know if I made that out correctly. The group that went had an experience like no other. From what everyone who went posted on Facebook I followed and it looked like a great time training for a week with one of the best lifters in the World. One of the things Anton does great besides Kettlebell Jerk is Kettlebell Snatch. Here was one of the videos that was taken during the week. Anton has a great way of training snatch especially since he does a run before he starts most of his training sets. He is at such a high level its unbelievable to watch. Here he is with Mark Stapleton after an interval run doing a swing snatch combo 10min set.


Here is another way to increase grip strength and endurance by doing the Black Snatch. This involves multiple swings and snatches. No matter how you set it up its 3 rounds: 1st- 2 swings, 1 Snatch, 2nd- 1 Swing, 1 Snatch, 3rd- Snatch. Here Anton does a 12min set with 34kg Black Snatch.


As my coach says you want to get better at something you concentrate on getting it done and do just that. Hope some of these videos inspire you to go after it and get better.
I will put up more videos about improving techniques and other ways and things to get better.

Recent Training week of March 4th

This was a week that started great and ended rough. Coach started me off with a test Kettlebell Jerk set and working on increasing numbers in both lifts. Finishing the week off continuing working around the numbers I need to make rank. I also added in a long run since the wether turned for the better.
Monday's test set was with the 26s. I have worked with them before going for a long set but never have I made it to 10 minutes 70 reps 2x26kg.


This turned out to be a challenge but I was able to make it through. Next time more reps!! There are still  a few more things i have to work on but its getting better.
The next workout was Snatch and that was a tough day. the goal was to get 6 minutes each arm with 24kg. I usually can get 4:30min 67/68 reps was my best. In this set I was able to get 65 on the right in 4mins and 71 on the left in 4:30mins. Much better than I though. I may try to add some black snatch in the workout. On Saturday I did the second kettlebell Jerk workout. which was great. I had 2x2min sets then 1 long set. the long set was with the 28kg try to reach 53 reps or get close. My body was tired haven't trained early in the morning before but I went in and lifted. I got to 4mins needed a break and then finished up with a total of 40 reps. I needed some energy. I took some Honey Zingers energy waffles and I felt much better. So good I ran 10.5 mile in 1:27.05.

I feel long runs really help out in mental strength as well as endurance. A 10 minute set sometimes feels like a long run so it has helped me get through these workouts and competition sets. I also see that some of the elite lifters are doing long runs as well. One of my favorite lifters Anton Anasenko does runs before he lifts and also competes in half marathons as well. If the best lifters do it there is no reason why I shouldn't be trying it out.

Still working....on getting better

So after the worlds I got an urge to really really go back at it and train even harder. The IKFF Nationals were a few weeks after the WKC Worlds and I wanted to see what other competitors were going to do. Kettlebell sport has grown in the USA over the last few years. WKC, IKFF, IKSFA, and now the AKA are hosting competitions all over the year which make it great for the lifters because we have more chance to compete. Last year I competed 3 competitions....this year I will do 3 in less than a month and look at competing in at least 7 competitions and a chance to go to Russia to compete in the World Championships!! This is amazing, a competition to decide who will represent the USA in the Kettlebell World Championships in Russia.
So I have been training hard to get ready for all of these competitions I will be participating in. I recently (1month and few days ago) ran a half marathon in Central park in 1:48.11

After that day I felt mentally strong but also tired. I had no idea that I could do that. This put a whole new perspective on my 10 minute competition sets. Here is a recent 10 minute set that I did in training with the 24kg bells. I set a new PR with this weight. It was great, I had no idea that I could do this.


This was a great feeling from here there is no turning back !!!

Updates...Reflecting and progressing

So the last time I posted I was getting ready for the WKC World Championships in Chicago in Oct 2012. I had a great time and it was a great experience. It really opened my eyes up to what I could do and a level I would like to get to. I am currently coached by C. Duffey of Lockout Kettlebells. He is an awesome coach and know how to get his athletes to the top level. I also added a lot of running into my program. Its one thing to get a 10 min set once or twice but to consistently and hit PR's is something totally different. Right now I'm training to get ready for a few competitions coming up in April.

Back to what happened in Chicago. I competed in the 75kg weight class and lifted the 28kg bells in biathlon. First up was Jerk. My best in training was 50 reps but a tough 50 reps. I once hit 48reps good but lost that steam. So I wasn't expecting CMS number but a good set. Here is what happened.....


Then came the second part of the Biathlon which is Snatch. Not a bad set but close to my personal best.  My best in training has been 53/53 which is very good. So since I didn't have a great Jerk set I was hoping for a much better snatch set. Here is what happened....



So now the worlds are over the a couple early 2013 competitions have passed and the competition season of 2013 is about to begin. April 6th starts my competition season and between now and then I will continue to update as well as give some tips and other videos I see and find.