The third and final day of any given RKC workshop is always intense – and the last day is always very emotional for most people. You may have read my account of the Orlando RKC 2011 – and the last day there was certainly no exception to this emotional experience.
The teams first gathered to warm up with joint mobility – I got there early because the word “recharge” was on the schedule and thought it might be an opportunity to do some qigong like we did in Orlando – alas I was mistaken. The air grew thick with anticipation as the teams began to start in with technique testing. Following that, the formidable kettlebell snatch test – now performed at the END of the workshop instead of the beginning like it used to be. So you have ONE SHOT to get it right. Not to mention its been the RKC workshop weekend – I kept asking to see people’s hands all weekend – hope that wasn’t annoying – but I proud to say that a LOT of the participants had taken great care of their hands – I got some new hand care tips from some of them as well. (its in my notes, I’m in the Chicago airport writing this right now, so look for that in a future update to this entry) Anyhow – after the testing period they took a brief break before the always valuable marketing lecture. I sat in on that as marketing is something that I always need to work on – having only over the past year discovered that it isn’t the exclusive domain of cheeseballs, con artists and other annoying people I don’t like. And not to mention you DON’T have to be a cheeseball to get things done – contrary to what some people believe, there isn’t just one way to market. Even though I didn’t have my RKC manual with me – which has the “big ideas to implement” (my paraphrase) page where you jot down ideas that may come to you during the lecture, I did have my notepad. Even though I have heard a version of this lecture last October, I came up with 51 new ideas to implement across my various projects and DBAs – (woohoo gonna make that accountant work for it this year). John DuCane delivers the marketing lecture and it’s chock full of his personal experiences with building Dragon Door, how it got started, etc. For those of us who have struggled and continue to struggle on our way to establish our training or information businesses this presentation is especially encouraging. So many people present this type of info with such a rosey tint that when you don’t first succeed you feel like something is wrong with you – or that your personality isn’t “right.” Something else I like about the presentation is that you are challenged to find ways to communicate your value as a person, a trainer, etc. as part of your marketing – to NOT hide your personality/individuality – blandness may sell initially, but after a while most people will detect this fake act and drift away from you and your product – no matter what kind of gimmicky hard sell techniques you try to dish out. Or maybe it works, but what kind of fun is that anyway. For me and my… “distinctive” personality, its reassuring to hear that maybe that might not be a detriment to my businesses and maybe even a plus point. Maybe I’m too “hardcore” for the mainstream, but since when did I care about that?
Admittedly, I did discover over the weekend exactly how much of a (please pardon the phrase) hardass instructor I really am – fellow RKC Level 2 (and honorary big brother), Tim Shuman would be proud as I am carrying on our tradition of nit-pickery in the quest for constant and unending improvement of our performance and instruction of the RKC style of kettlebell lifting. From the sidelines it was fun to watch for movement problems in the candidates and to think of which cue I would give and how I would handle the correction if they were in one of my classes. The key is – don’t try to fix everything at once – you don’t want to overwhelm the person in question, but at the same time they need to know what to fix first to avoid injury and to also avoid getting into a bad habit. Basically, don’t come to me if you just care about banging out meaningless sloppy reps, you’ll just be angry that I don’t blare your favorite pop music tunes and I *gasp* might make you do corrective drills. Come to my classes if you want to learn, if you want to get stronger – you will probably also “accidentally on purpose” lose a lot of fat, become more fit, flexible and (reaching for an airline barfbag right now because I hate this word) more…. TONED. GAAAHHHHH!!!! More on “the ‘t word'” later. For now if you want to read about the kettlebell physique click here for my article on that. Remember this will all only happen if you’re serious about your training and you’re training with someone serious. Ok enough yelling and ranting, because this brings me to the next subject…. I wanted to be a victim!
Heard it through the grapevine that they were a tad short on local participants for the teaching of complete strangers how to do basic kettlebell exercises, so I volunteered to “forget everything I know” and be a “victim” (that’s the pet name they have for kettlebell students/clients/etc.). There were several reasons I wanted to do this – and not all of them were purely selfish:
- As a member of the RKC community I wanted to be sure that everyone had a good workshop experience and no one was shorted out of the teaching portion of testing. This little scrap of “real world” experience is so important – it makes you use all the corrective drills and info that you’ve learned over the past few days. I wanted to pay that forward.
- Wanted to see if they had some new corrective drills for a lot of the common problems I see with my own clients – so I made sure to try and replicate some of the common things I’d seen over the past year.
- I wanted to be sure that these guys were tested well… and see how well they knew their stuff.
- It was fun to pretend to know nothing – and to tap into my old past awkwardness – though I really really hope no one saw that intentionally crappy plank/wonky swings/fake mobility issues I did for the sole purpose of hoping to hear their corrections (they did great, I am pleased to say). Though one of the candidates was quick to point out that while I did the drills incorrectly that when I was just moving around and/or picking up items from the floor etc my good movement patterns betrayed me. BUSTED!!!!
- This was another opportunity to start a dialog about teaching techniques – how to relate to others. We had a great discussion after and during the break about the physical and psychological boundaries men and women have – body issues and how to make sure your client is comfortable with the learning situation. Personally, I have pretty good proof that my clients don’t mind being “karate chopped” in the abs/rear/etc. but not everyone is “blessed” to have such willing participants. Its always good to ask first before delivering any of our RKC “tough love.” Other areas of discussion took me way back to summer camp, when a camp counselor talked to us about body dysmorphia and how some people are extremely sensitive to particular wording and descriptions when talking about their (and others) bodies. We need to think ahead on how we can make sure that our clients are learning full body tension – without intruding on their personal boundaries. I was shocked to find that a collegue’s former client had NOT been activating his abdominal muscles AT ALL during kettlebell swings – and discovered this only due to some tough love. We’ve been fixing this bad habit with a brutal mix of “extreme planking funtime*” and of course more swings and more tough love. But it has been a harder obstacle than I would have originally imagined – you MUST make sure your ‘victims’ are keeping their abs tight the second they even touch a kettlebell.
Following the teaching test and a brief break, Shaun Cairns, Sr. RKC and the FIRST Beast Tamer (yes we had a rather involved discussion about this!!!) led the Grad Workout. Winter Park Small Group: you’re doing this workout on Wednesday… Not going to give it away here – but just know it was a great example of the simple yet elegant way kettlebell workouts can be created for maximum effect in a minimum of time/space/equipment. You don’t need loads of gimmicky crap and filler bunk to get massive results with kettlebell training, and this workout was proof positive.
After the grad workout I ran around like a maniac trying to get everyone else on my list of “must have” conversations – while team leaders and teaching assistants worked hard to determine everyone’s results. Tension and anticipation hung heavy in the air. Following all the verdicts people collected their belongings and began their journeys home – all forever changed by the experience of the RKC weekend. My mind was certainly racing – and I wasn’t even a candidate! No matter the end result, everyone left with a powerful experience and more information to be absorbed. No doubt lives were changed – I know mine was at the Orlando event.
I stuck around to help pack up the remaining kettlebells and was amused to put my 10+ years of internet mailorder retail mad tape-gun skillz (skillz with a ‘z’) to work. Its all in the wrist btw, the quick snap at the beginning and end of the single taping stroke is the secret – as is setting the tension of the tape roll clutch. Don’t make me write a pdf of the hardstyle method of box taping. It was fun to work side by side with some of the best fitness leadership in the country, and especially carrying boxes around with Chief Pavel himself, as he pitched in on this task as well.
While I enjoyed some very good food over the weekend, I do miss my kitchen and its seemingly endless source of bacon/eggs/beef/veggies….
Real quick… many RKC candidates came up to me and said that they read GiryaGirl.com – please contact me if you were at the Chicago RKC and are a GiryaGirl reader – I want to have a special article about YOUR experiences – contact adrienne @ giryagirl.com for more info. Please contact soon or I will be forced to read through the roster and track you down individually – and don’t think that I won’t. Can’t tell you how honored and humbled I am that so many of you read and keep up with this website – still getting used to the idea that anyone reads it!! THANKS for your continued readership and support!
*everyone loves “extreme planking funtime” right???????
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