Kettlebell Snatch Video

http://www.kbnj.com/snatch_28_low_res.rm (The higher res video I prepared
was too big for my web host but this one looks good enough.) It's about 7
megs in length or about 1 minute to download on a high-speed connection.
The kettlebell competition sport requires a combination of strength,
endurance, and aerobic fitness. (I used to be a runner and my resting pulse
is still in the low-40's now that I do this instead.)

This is me doing 4 minutes and 20 seconds of "continuous" snatches with a 24
kg (53 lb.) kettlebell in preparation for a competition 8 days from now. I
weigh about 69 kg or 152 lbs. In no particular order:

* This is a new PB for me - 25 was my previous best, which I tied last week,
and broke with today's 28 - whee!

* There are two distinct style of kettlebell snatch - the one learned first
has come to be known as the 'athletic' or 'power' or 'strength' snatch - the
kettlebell flips directly over the wrist on the way up and also on the way
down, and the top is reached with a vigorous punch-up of the hand. The
style I'm doing on this video is the "competition" style, where the weight
corkscrews from the outside in on the way up, the weight is stopped at the
top with as little effort as possible, and the weight is corkscrewed back to
the outside on the way down. The older style is still available to see on
my web site via the link on the main page. In competition, the rules allow
resting with the kettlebell overhead but in no other position, one hand must
immediately follow the other using only a single swing to switch, and if the
bell at any point touches the platform, the lift is over. A judge counts
each successfully completed rep out loud during the competition after the
weight has been paused for approximately 1 second overhead.

* A maximum of 10 minutes is allotted in competition. As you progress in
Girevoy Sport, you first learn to snatch continually for 10 minutes, then
you work on speeding up to get more reps in during the allotted time. Not
many people in the US can yet snatch for 10 minutes straight except with a
very light weight that wouldn't be acceptable in competition.

* The Girevoy Sport as practiced in the republics of the former Soviet Union
uses only 32 kg. kettlebells for men in competition, even for men of my
weight and less. Weight classes go down to 60 kg and up to 90 in 5kg
increments. In the US, competitions include both 24 and 32 kg categories
for men. In the former USSR, the national ranking system allows the use of
24 kg bells up to a certain point, obviously requiring more reps with a
lighter weight to achieve a certain ranking.

* GS competitions feature a two-kettlebell jerk for repetitions as the first
lift (one clean, many jerks from the chest to overhead), a pause, then the
snatch that you see in this video. As second kettlebell sport is the "long
cycle" in which the pair of kettlebells is cleaned before each jerk. Long
Cycle competitions feature only this one lift - clean to the chest, jerk
overhead, lower to the chest, swing down and clean again, jerk again, etc.

* GS has just formed its national organization, elected its first board of
directors, and will be holding its first Nationals in May in Virginia, where
both my wife and I will compete in the traditional, two-lift Girevoy Sport.

-S-
http://www.kbnj.com