Friday morning began at a merciful 8:15am with many of us piling onto the shuttle bus to the Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports complex. I just kept thinking… how my P.E. teachers from the past would really get a laugh out of ME doing something like this – I was never a “sports” person by any stretch of the imagination, and usually last to be picked for kick ball. Then there was the whole issue of the black socks thing… but that’s another story…
Having just taken small sips from a large bottle full of water and unnamed sports drink (lol let’s see if they have an affiliate program haha) and itsy bitsy bites of a Greens Plus Protein Bar (I love these…. nom nom nom). Even though I knew I’d weigh in well under 123.5lbs, I wasn’t about to take any chances at this point. At the RKC, women who weigh in at 123.5 or less can use the 12 Kilo kettlebell for the kettlebell snatch test (part of the requirement for becoming an RKC). What is this test? Well, you must, regardless of bodyweight, complete 100 regulation, strict form kettlebell snatches in 5 minutes. I’ve been able to for several months now, and have been doing the test at least once a week for said several months – just because I didn’t want to get all stressed out about it. And… the weight of the kettlebell used for the test also determined the weight of kettlebells you would use throughout the weekend.
We arrived at the Wide World of Sports quickly enough, and bounded off the bus with our “omg we will not sue Disney under any circumstances, and yes, Disney may use our pictures/images/videos to promote us FOREVER!” waivers (I kept thinking of Metalocalypse and their “pain waivers” lol) in hand. Now… imagine a place that’s as big as a theme park… but is made up of baseball/softball/football(American)/football(soccer)/volleyball/track/etc fields….. make each of these areas flawless, perfect and pristine… that’s the Wide World of Sports, and its frankly almost a little intimidating. I had a brief moment of “what am I doing here!!!” but got over it quickly as we assembled into a large field which was covered with a GIANT canvas canopy – something that none of us would take for granted. I was slathered in SPF70 as usual, and conditioned to train outside in the sun at all hours, however, shade would certainly give everyone an advantage AND would cut down on potential medical emergencies. John DuCane gave us a brief greeting, followed by Pavel who stated his expectations of us for the weekend. Cortez Hull lead us in a joint mobility complex (I love this stuff), then Franz Snideman introduced the snatch test rules and expectations. Immediately we assembled back into our teams and began the snatch testing process – I weighed in at 119.7 (whew) and grabbed a 12 Kilo kettlebell with a nice smooth handle. Franz stood by with a stopwatch and began counting my reps – I did 20 on the right, then 20 on the left, then 15 and 15 (I think), at this point I started getting into the zone… I wasn’t going to stop until I heard him say “100”. I had trained to go without stopping…. “good pace!” I heard him say a few times, but I was zeroed in… looking at the far wall without seeing it, just hearing the counting, and thinking of the form making every single snatch the best possible one I could. All the sudden I remember hearing him say 97… I started slowing down… 98.. because I wanted to remember forever the moment he said… 99 and then 100. Time slowed down and nothing felt real for a few seconds.. I did it… holy crap I did it! At this point I’m parched and not thinking – a little from exertion, but mostly from accomplishing something I have had in my head for over a year. Franz said something numbers to me that I somewhat realized was the time I took to do it, and I tried to smile and nod while catching my breath. Because its me, I immediately felt bad that I wasn’t able to carry on a full convo (I’m weird). After chugging some water, jogging around a little in place and shaking my hands like a crazy person, I felt rather normal – and most importantly… my hands were intact… because as everyone now knows, the snatch test – is JUST the beginning…
To be CONTINUED!
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