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Kettlebell Immersed

by Catherine Imes
AKC Coach

Have you truly immersed yourself in something? Martial Arts? School? Immersion often requires sacrifice. It may mean that you can’t do 10 things you like to do. It might mean that you have to focus on one thing.

MartyWhy immersion? In my opinion, immersion is the way to gain a deep understanding of something. Immersion allows you to see things at a very primal level. You become intimately familiar with the subtleties or nuances. You start understanding for yourself why things work the way they do. Immersion requires dedication in terms of time, focus and consistency. When you decide to immerse yourself, you dedicate time to your endeavor. You dive and then submerse yourself in the endeavor.

Immersion is not a short term concept. Yes, immersion will enable you to grasp concepts more quickly because the focus is much greater. The decision to immerse yourself for a year may save you 5 or 6 years of struggling if you just dabble here and there. But, one shouldn’t underestimate the time required.

I must reiterate the the time, focus, and consistency aspects. You find that some days everything is foggy during the Valeryprocess. Things that were smooth yesterday or more easily understood are difficult to grasp today. Tomorrow, that fog may lift and that understanding has returned. Next week or next month, those very things may be ingrained to the extent that you will never forget them. That’s the process. But, until you put in the time and consistency and immerse yourself, you cannot expect to have an ingrained understanding of something. You can dabble aimlessly forever and still not ever gain the understanding that you would if you immerse yourself for a year or two.

I’ve been Kettlebell lifting since April of 2003. I really was attracted to the ballistics, the swing, the clean and the jerk. Without any real understanding of the movements or coaching, I saw the conditioning benefits. Even with relatively poor technique, my strength and athleticism improved.

In 2007, I decided to immerse myself. I decided to abandon other forms of training for Kettlebell Lifting. Why did I find total immersion necessary? Like learning a foreign language where only that language is used, I felt that I must only do Kettlebell Lifting. Therefore, I couldn’t continue to do it in conjunction with other training modalities if I expected to gain a deep understanding. I wanted nothing in my way while trying to learn the movements. I found this necessary to fulfill my goals of becoming an adept Kettlebell lifter and a Coach. To know whether this stuff worked and to really see the benefits, I couldn’t do something else that may directly or indirectly interfere with improving my technique or that would skew my progress either positively or negatively.

What did this process entail? I followed a fairly strict regimen of snatches, swings and one arm Jerks. I watched and re-watched all of Valery’s youtube videos. Over time, this focus allowed me to understand the similarity between the movements. For example, the lockout on a jerk is similar to the lockout on the snatch and that is why the one arm Jerk is such a valuable supplemental exercise to the snatch. I started to understand the timing components in the jerk and the snatch. This understanding and awareness became invaluable not only in my quest to better my numbers, but in my ability to coach others in the movements and to develop training plans for others.

Is total immersion necessary to put up decent numbers in something like a 16kg snatch or even respectable numbers in the other lifts? No, not for everyone. I did 200 in 2006 before I really understood the snatch technique. I sort of understood the training protocol I had learned from Valery, but did not have a solid understanding of the technical concepts. Granted, I had to be doing something technically correct. But, I didn’t understand what I was doing right at a technical level. I was inconsistent and not very focused. Furthermore, I would be hard pressed to tell someone else how to do it. At that point in time, I would have been totally ineffective as a coach.

Immersion does something else; It gives you an appreciation for the relative difficulty of something . After immersing Scottmyself in KB Lifting, I have empathy for anyone who tries it. I understand the frustration of trying to learn the technique and on some days just not having it. Somedays, everything just feels wrong or out of place. I understand that some days it is nearly impossible to get motivated for a long set or even a short set. But, I understand how to safely get past these phases and stay consistent with my training so that I keep progressing. Until you’ve immersed yourself in something (not only KB training), you may not have that level of understanding or empathy.

Immersion develops patience not only with yourself but with others. Once you become immersed, you understand what it means to be greedy and how this can impede your progress. You develop an instinct and an intuition that will guide you through your own training and the coaching of others. The awareness that you develop will help you decide when to push harder and when to go easier.

If you are an aspiring coach, competitor or just someone who wants to gain a deep understanding of a certain skill, try immersing yourself for a period of time. Of course, it may be at the sacrifice of other things, but I believe the process will pay big dividends. You’ll not only learn about the endeavor, but you’ll learn how to learn. It will help you identify and overcome your weaknesses while teaching you to utilize your strengths.