The Hamburg Experience

Last week/weekend, I traveled to Hamburg, Germany for an International Kettlebell Lifting competition. Actually, it was the World Championship for Long Cycle Clean and Jerk (LCC&J). The womens competition was Snatch only and an International Meet.

I flew out on Wednesday and arrived in Germany on Thursday afternoon when I met up with Team America. Upon arriving, I was quickly briefed on the rules of walking on the sidewalks. Evidently, the bike lanes are marked (in some cases) with a different color of brick.

Some of our team stayed in Ahrensburg, a suburb of sorts outside of Hamburg. Our friend and fellow KB Lifter Stefan lived only a couple of blocks down the street from our quaint hotel. Here is the site: http://www.nummer-8.de/. Leave it to me to not take pictures... It was very convenient in that we could easily meet up with Stefan and his lovely wife Maneula or we could easily catch a bus into town.

The town center of Ahrensburg was very cool. Plenty of great places to eat. Many people walking around, riding bikes, ect. I loved this place. The atmosphere was very laid back and relaxing. Did I mention the near perfect weather?

On Saturday, we traveled into Hamburg for the competition by rented VW Bus. Some of our team rented the bus for the group, but more importantly so that we could transport the weights needed for Andrew’s Attempt at a WR Double Overhand Axle DeadLift.

At the sports hall, we connected with the rest of our teammates and Head Coach Valery Fedorenko. We weighed and registered, and sat and sat and sat…You get the idea…We got there at 9am and I don't think I was on the platform until 4pm. Jet lag was setting in and I was dozing off in the stands. Some of the delay was due to the fact that they use the “Just In Time” methodology for building platforms which ended up being very shoddy, but what can you do?

Andrew Durniat was the first on our team to compete. He competed in the LCC&J. He did an impressive 45 Reps with 2-32kg bells.

As always, there were many great performances. Anytime I get to watch someone like Fedor Fuglev do 85 reps with 2-32kg bells, I’m amazed! The lighter weight class guys were probably the most impressive overall.

Our new Ukranian Friend, Alona (who spoke excellent English) turned in an awesome snatch set in the 60kg class with 174 reps. I get the feeling that she hasn’t been doing this very long and she was personally coached by Yuri Scherbina (IGSF President). We will be staying in touch with her.

Lubya the WR Holder from the Ukraine took the 70kg class (of course) even though her numbers were quite lower than what we know she is capable of doing. She had some blister issues and stopped her set a little early to save the hands and ended up with 190 reps.

In spite of having some asthma issues, Lorraine Patten turned in a gutsy performance and took 1st in her age division. Our friend Kukka from Finland who is very new to this sport had a good performance and improved her numbers significantly from the last competition. She is very strong and when she gets more technically adept, she will be one to watch.

Susanna and I were in the same flight. Susanna did a good paced 10 min set and took third with 155 reps.. I took second even though I had a relatively bad set and got 187 reps. I will elaborate on that experience in another blog post. 1st place for the 70+kg class was a very talented girl from the Ukraine (I say girl because she looks young). She did 211 reps. Her numbers were down from what I saw her do in San Diego, so it wasn’t a great day for most of us snatching.

After the women, the men Masters lifted. Teammate David Zink turned in an awesome performance of 85 reps with 2-24kg bells.. David has come a long way. He took his age division in the 75kg class with a first place Trophy!

Our German Friends, Stefan and Harry, turned in great performances in the Masters Division. We also watched Fedor Fuglev lift a second time in the Masters division. He did 101 reps with the 24s in less than 10 min.

The awards ceremony was a great moment to watch several on our team take the platform for Medals and Trophies. Of course, I didn't get pics of this, but I know video and photos were taken. Stay tuned.

After the competition, some of us grabbed beers and some of us(not me) loaded up the Axle with 461 pounds. We then watched Andrew Durniat set a new WR for the Double Overhand Axle Deadlift. It was great to watch him do this in person especially while drinking a beer. The lift was made official because our new German Friend, Dr. Hermann Korte from Ironmind made the trip to Hamburg to Witness it!

Stefan also loaded up his inch dumbbell. It was fun to watch all the guys try to lift and then to watch Andrew come over and lift it...easily.

On Saturday night, Stefan and his lovely wife Manuela had us over to their house for a great barbecue…We played around with KBs, grip stuff, ect. If someone asked me about my idea of Heaven, I might point them to this barbecue. It was a perfect evening filled with Good Food, Good Beer, and most importantly Great Friends. It was a great ending to a challenging day.

On Sunday, we made several trips to Ahrensburg and a trip into Hamburg. We had to find a bunch of Euros to pay cash for our quaint hotel. We said goodbye to our Finnish friend Kukka. We’ll be seeing her again...

On Sunday evening, we met up with our friends for dinner..I finally found one of my favorite beers at this restaurant....Berliner Weiss. It is a very light (Probably low-alcohol) almost champagne like beer. That beer along with Franziskaner and a good steak made for another great meal.

Our German friends were great and very hospitable. Stefan and Manuela are 2 of the nicest folks I’ve ever met. They made this trip painless on so many levels. It was great to meet Harry. I've corresponded with him and seen his posts for years on several forums. He and I exchanged T-Shirts. It was great to meet Hermann Korte. We will likely be seeing all these folks again as we plan to do more traveling to Europe later this year and next year for more competitions.

Thanks to Lorraine for basically spearheading this trip and making the hotel arrangements for many of us. Thanks to Matt M for offering moral support and humor throughout the entire trip. As you can see from the Photo above, Matt will be the new Spokesman for Billy Boy Condoms :). Matt and Susanna also spent a lot of time coordinating the uniforms that were generously provided by the AKC. Thanks to David, Andrew, Ashley, Susanna and Lorraine for competing and providing a great representation of KB lifters from the USA!

Thanks to Steve Cotter and his lovely family for attending the competition and supporting the team!

Last but not least, thanks to our Head Coach Valery Fedorenko. It was rewarding that the Europeans had noticed our significant improvement. We fit in well this time. I had several folks come up to me including the IGSF figureheads and congratulate me. Even though we didn’t speak the same language, it was clear that they were impressed with our collective performance. We’ve all come a long way and I don’t believe our improvement since our last International Competition would have been possible without our Coach!


CI

AKC Classic and Training Update

It's been too long since my last blog post. But, I've really been focused on my training.

May 3rd the AKC Classic was held in Las Vegas. As always this was a great time to catch up with many friends like Ken Blackburn and Steve Cotter (and of Course Fellow Team Captain Marty!) and there were also many new faces. I was very happy to finally meet Scott Shetler. I feel like I know the guy from seeing him post online. He didn't disappoint. It was great seeing Steven and Maya again. They brought down several folks from the "Ice Chamber" in Berkeley, CA to compete. Kevin Jodrey brought in several impressive athletes. This competition was very cool in that Gyms and Clubs were represented!

In addition to having many new men and women step onto the platform, we had several Junior athletes (under 18 boys) compete. I'm told there were 40 competitors. There were many inspiring performances and the attendance at this meet I believe signifies the growth of this sport in the USA.

On Saturday, we got to see Ivan Denisov attempt to break his own World Record. He fell a little short. But, how many times do you get to see someone do 169 jerks with 2-32kg bells in 10 minutes?

My performance was lackluster compared to other competitions. This is the first competition where I didn't hit what I expected based on my training. There were several factors or excuses :) I'm not going to dwell on those. It was just not a good day and it wasn't for lack of preparation. Head Coach Valery Fedorenko looked at this meet as a training day and further preparation for Hamburg.

Regardless of my disappointing performance, I had a great time. I got to spend more time with Ivan Denisov (Towering over me above). He came over and helped several of us at the certification. He's a really cool guy with really nice thighs :) The man is an awesome athlete and did several jaw dropping demonstrations that I'm sure will be on Youtube soon...stay tuned.

On Sunday and Monday, I assisted at the AKC Certification. I did several demos. Some of which included a 6 min 20kg Jerk set, and 6 min LCC&J set with the 24kg with one hand switch. I also managed to Jerk the 36kg bell. I was happy I could do this since I wasn't feeling "quick" all weekend. Before this weekend, I hadn't put anything over my head except the 16kg bell since early March.

It was great meeting several new folks at the cert and catching up with friends like Lisa Shaffer and Mike Mahler who attended the cert. Thanks to the folks in my Squad. You were a great group and I enjoyed working with all of you.

Thanks to Chris St. Onge, Jon Hoskins, Valery Fedorenko, Michael Stefano and of course Eric Liford. Thanks to all who helped Judge and Organize the Competition and Certification. These events would not be possible without your great effort. Thanks to all the competitors for traveling and stepping onto the platform!

Valery gave me most of last week to recuperate from the Competition, Certification and Travel. Of course I didn't actually need recuperation from Vegas itself. Kelly and I didn't partake in any gambling or "Show Girls" even though we had the hookup (Mahler ;) !

This week I'm back to training for Hamburg. Now is the moment of truth. I've got some very definitive but challenging goals in terms of what I would like to accomplish with the 16kg snatch before moving to the 20kg. It is now or never. So, I'm dropping most jerk work for the next few weeks and focusing on the snatch, swings and some rowing.

My next blog will likely be the Hamburg blog after June 9th!

CI

Test Days

If you've been doing KB Lifting for a while and sticking to a prescribed protocol of Jerks and Snatches with the same weight, every once in a while you get a hankering to do something different. I call these test days. How I conduct my test days will change depending on the circumstance and how I feel. The last AKC Training day in December was a test day. I did a 20 min LCC&J set w/24kg switching hands on the minute and then followed it up with a 20 minute 12kg Snatch Set (one hand switch).

My test days may be something like 1000 reps with the 12kg. Every once in a while, I will test my capacity for other things and do thrusters, rowing, bodyweight stuff but not KB Specific stuff.

Some of you may have read about the triathlon challenge (created by David Zink), that is 10 minutes of LCC&J, 10 Minutes Snatches, and 10 min Jerks. These are performed all back to back with no rest. If you are a guy who is well versed with 24kg Jerks and snatches, you would try this first with the 16s. I've done it with the 12s and the 16s. Actually, last time I was in Madison, Kelly and I did this together. My pace was nothing like Mr. Zink, but like most people who do a triathlon, I was just happy to finish.

Yesterday, I started out with a couple of sets of 32kg Jerks. That's nothing out of the ordinary. But, I've been curious as to whether or not I could still do Jerks with a pair of 24s. I rarely train with a pair of 24s and don't do that much double work right now at all. Most of my training right now is single 24kg Jerks and 16kg snatches. Much to my delight and surprise, I could still knock out 20 reps. I've done 20 one other time, but I actually paced myself this time and went just over 4 minutes. All the reps were strong, and I focused on getting under the bells quickly and getting a very solid lockout. I had a few reps left, but wisely ended it at 20. Someday, I'll go for a PR and break 20, but I won't do as many 32kg Jerks beforehand.

After that, I wanted to snatch. However, I knew that the 16kg may be a little challenging from an overhead stabilization standpoint and I was "feeling" the need to go light and really break a good sweat to contrast the heavy work and loosen up a bit. So, I thought well I'll try a 20 min Snatch set with a 12kg and I'll try to maintain a 20rpm pace. I didn't know whether I could maintain the pace but I knew I could do the 20 minutes. I made it...200L/200R = 400 reps with one hand switch. It was tough especially in the last 2 minutes. But, I felt good after I was done.

So, if you've been training a while on a healthy diet of Jerks, Snatches or Long Cycle, give yourself a test day. I think it is a good way to display how training a couple of lifts consistently will carryover to other challenges. For some, a test day may be going out for a long run or row and finding that you've got the conditioning to complete it. I recently did a 10K row. I've only done that one other time and this time I did it in less time and without puking. It may be grabbing a bell and doing a non-stop set for 30 min or an hour. If all else fails, give one of the things I stated above a try. Of course, this assumes you have a good grasp of the basics and that you've done an adequate pace and duration with the traditional lifts.

In addition to being a good "test", Test Days are a great way to give yourself mental break from the rigor of the usual timed sets that one may perform especially when training for a competition.

CI

Continuing Minimalism in 2008

I'm always hesitant to state New Years resolutions. So, there was no obligatory New Years Post because well, I rarely feel obligated to do anything. But, since we're into January and I've had time to reflect, I'll be happy to give my thoughts on my goals. I won't call them "resolutions" because they are not really that. They are a refinement and further commitment to things I've already been doing.

I'm not one to set a bunch of goals for the year for training or anything. Now, I do have a couple of goals and yes they even have numbers attached to them. However, these goals will be the results of higher level goals or initiatives. Those initiatives and their proper execution are what matters; the results or the numbers usually take care of themselves.

Continue Minimalism. That's the high level goal; the goal in which all other goals and initiatives are derived. If it doesn't fit in under that one, it is an antagonist..

This takes the guess work out of a large part of my training. I don't have to worry about doing 10 different things. I can stay out of analysis paralysis hell. I can continue to pour my focus and my energy into a few movements and in turn, I will continue my journey to mastery of those things.

You see, I don't think it is necessarily easy or natural for many of us to narrow our focus to a few things even in training. It is counter-intuitive in our complex culture. I see it at work all the time. We get inundated with many initiatives and information. Consequently, we get overwhelmed. The end result is usually low and/or sub-standard productivity even though we work harder and longer.

Prioritization seems to be a rare skill in my work and in some of the training I witness. Commitment is also rare. If you prioritize things, you inherently make a commitment to something; You've made a decision to elevate something above everything else. So, the inability to prioritize is also the inability to commit, and it is also the inability to decide.

That's why minimalism will continue to be my friend. It is easier to prioritize things when the list is shorter. It is easier to make commitments when you don't over extend yourself. Decisions are easier to make when you have fewer choices.

So, the lower-level goals (and I'll stick to training and personal goals):

Training: Jerks and Snatches 4-5 times per week and progressively increase the volume when training for the competitions. Row 10-15K meters per week. Do some sort of joint mobility and squatting everyday even if it is for 5 minutes. If I have time and energy, do a few circuit or met-con workouts per week. It won't be at the expense of the Jerks or Snatches. It will provide a break from any monotony I might feel and provide an additional conditioning challenge. When I'm not training for a competition (and that won't likely be until after September), then I may take up learning a new skill like Weightlifting.

The goal of that training will yield results and those results will be a noticeable improvement over the last competition. The other and equally important goal of that training will be to maintain strength and continue to enhance my mobility and conditioning.

Diet: When I'm not traveling, continue to consume large servings of veggies through the vitamix. I find that when I do this, my diet naturally gets cleaner and my cravings for crap diminish and my appetite is reduced. Drink 2 liters of water per day. My bodyweight will drop further if I stick to this plan.

Other: Travel and spend more time with friends here in St. Louis and in the rest of the country. Attend Martial Arts class when possible. Read a couple of books per month. Write a couple of blog entries a month. These goals will enable me to be a good friend, keep my mind active, and maintain balance.

CI

1000 Snatches

The article is up on the American Kettlebell Club Blog Now!

http://www.americankettlebellclub.com/blog/?p=87

Looks like a fun time

My friends Ken Blackburn and Steve Cotter recently did another Bootcamp in Fenton Michigan. Here are the highlights. Sorry I missed it..(Same weekend as San Diego)

Rain on our Parade

As some know, AKC Team America traveled to San Diego in hopes of competing in the IGSF World Championships. Needless to say, it was a gloomy weekend and I'm not just talking about the weather.....

A little back story. My original intent was to go and watch with my friend Lorraine Patten. She has traveled to Eastern Europe for more meets than any other American and formed many friendships with some of the best male and female KB Lifters in the world. So, we definitely wanted to see our European friends while they were relatively close in the states.

Since I knew Dmitri Sataev was organizing this meet and based on my prior experience and the experience of others, I knew I wanted nothing to do with being a member of his "Team USA". Dmitri heads the USGSF. USGSF is an obvious "For Profit" organization. Unfortunately, he is the IGSF representative which is really a "Not For Profit" organization. See the problem yet? If not..you will.

Sherbina is the IGSF President. My coach Valery Fedorenko had contacted Sherbina 4 or 5 times to ensure that we could compete. We would compete independent of Dmitri's "Team USA". We would pay the same registration and license fees that our Eastern European counterparts paid. We would not pay the ridiculous $170.00 fee demanded by Dmitri.

Even though we were told by Sherbina we would compete, we still suspected that there would be a snafu because of the prior dealings with Dmitri. Needless to say, he exceeded expectations.

Lorraine and Valery represented our team in meetings on Friday morning because it was clear that Dmitri had no intentions of letting us compete as independent guest lifters. After a 2 hour battle, they reached a compromise. We would pay the $170.00 to compete. We would be independent and not represent the USA. Lorraine and the AKC offered to pay part of this registration but all of our teammates were willing to contribute their fair share. We paid. We weighed. We registered. After doing this, we were all approached by Dmitri who was clearly upset. He kept babbling about his "Business" and "insults" and his house. He kept trying to bait us all into an argument and we just ignored him and went to lunch.

We returned from lunch, and long story short...We were told we would not be competing. Dmitri had raised enough of a stink ( I Suspect he threatened to pull the entire competition) to get our registrations nullified. We were all stunned and extremely disappointed, but we left it alone because we respected the fact that our friends from Europe had paid a great deal of money for travel and we didn't want to ruin the meet for them.

I can say with absolute confidence that the best lifters in the USA did NOT compete in the IGSF World Championships this weekend.

We had decided that we would attempt to be spectators on Saturday so that we could cheer for the Ukranian women.

On Saturday, we paid $20.00 to watch (that was just for Saturday!). One thing I can say is that Dmitri gave absolutely NO THOUGHT to the competitors when spending his money on this competition. I was almost glad I wasn't competing. The platforms were too small. They were on a shaky stage. Did I mention that there were no digital-visible counters? So, the spectators had no clue as to the count. They used these card counters that were not really visible to some of the competitors. They screwed up the flights and consequently people were not prepared to step onto the platform. The clock didn't work for the first few sets. The height of the professionalism of this meet came when Dmitri counted for his wife Elaina's set and could not figure out how to use the card counters. Who knows if he screwed up her score or not. To be fair, She did a pretty good job and went the 10 minutes.

There were also little things. For example, when the teams walked out in the opening ceremony, they couldn't seem to get the appropriate National Anthem with the appropriate team in some cases. However, when Dmitri took the stage the "Rocky" music was flawlessly synchronized with his grand entrance.

He claims to have spent a lot of the money on the competition. Perhaps he spent it on the absofuckinguseless jumbotron screens. Maybe he spent it on the security guards that were onsite to make sure our team didn't start trouble :) Perhaps he was too obsessed with who was talking to Valery to make sure his own meet was running smoothly? Did I mention that he tried to have security remove Valery from the meet on Saturday because a competitor approached him to talk to him? Sherbina intervened and Valery stayed.

Our Eastern European friends were less than complementary regarding this meet. I've been to my fair share of meets. In all the meets I've attended with > 20 competitors, this was the worst as far as organization and supplies. Maybe it was because Dmitri himself has very limited experience in the competitions. We know for certain that he didn't attend the World Championships in 2005(Moscow) or in 2006(Latvia). How do we know? Because members of our Team attended both meets. Dmitri sent one competitor in 2005, and no one represented the USGSF in 2006.

Trust me when I say I haven't even captured 1/2 of the drama here...As awful as this all sounds....The sun came out on Sunday and I had a great training day with my teammates. Many thanks to AKC Coach Rich Sayen for providing us with training facility and AKC Professional Bells. I would be remiss if I didn't thank Steve and Tracy Cotter for making sure we got an additional set to use.

Things I learned from this experience.....

I will never take the AKC or Valery Fedorenko for granted. They care about the sport and the competitors as evidenced by the meet in Miami and their gestures in San Diego. While they are in the business of training to make money, they know where the line is drawn for competitions. We were disappointed that we could not compete because we really wanted to showcase what we had learned from Valery.

Lorraine Patten is one of the most passionate supporters of this sport. I actually already knew that, but it was constantly reinforced this weekend. She went to bat for all of the AKC athletes. In fact, the IGSF was going to present Lorraine with an award at the competition but after the debacle with Dmitri, they had to present it to her in a Midnight Ceremony. This was recognition for all of her hard work in promoting this sport in the USA and going above and beyond many times to provide USA representation in IGSF competitions in Europe.

As long as you are with your friends you can make a bad situation good. We had a great time even though we were not able to compete. It reinforced once again that our sport and the events are not just about the competitions , medals and ranks but they are also about the friendships we forge. Our friendships and our team grew stronger this weekend. Thanks to all who made the trek to San Diego. I love you guys!

CI