The Heartbeat of Hardstyle Kettlbell Ballistics
On my bookshelf is The Pose Method of Triathlon Techniques by Nicholas Romanov, Ph.D with John Robson. Not only did it help tremendously with my running form, I also found it a fascinating insight into a particular way of thinking about movement, which is, not to put too fine a point on it, through the lens of the Pose Method®.
I do not claim to be a teacher of the Pose Method®, but I think its system of defining critical points of a movement and then focusing on on hitting the "pose" at those points is a great way to examine any exercise. Let's try to bring that perspective to hardstyle kettlebell ballistics.
In my breakdown, hardstyle kettlebell ballistics are comprised of two main poses: the hip hinge (or hike position) and the standing hardstyle plank. Yes, there are a lot of subtleties, like the starting hike, what to do with your arms, and countless other items. Movements like snatch and the clean add complexity and have more components than the swing. Those are all important, but the core of ballistic movements are the hinge and the plank. If you can nail those two positions (or "poses," if you will), everything else is just details.
Once a kettlebell student is advanced enough to start a proper hardstyle swing, or if you are working with a student who is already swinging but needs refinement, I have found that drilling these two poses goes a long way towards dialing in their form, explosiveness, and provides a solid base for filling in all the other details.
For each pose, I find it useful to emphasize hitting it precisely and hitting it hard.
First the hip hinge. While teaching the proper hip hinge position, slowly help the student find it and own it as taught during the certification. Once they do, have them drill snapping into it. You don't want a gentle slide back into the hip hinge, you want to pop back like they're trying to break a hole in an imaginary wall behind them with their butt. And once there, you don't want them to just loosen up. Stay there for a second or three. Make sure they own the position with strength. Transitioning poses will come later. At the beginning, just practice hitting that pose and owning it with strength and power.
Once they can powerfully snap back into a hip hinge and own it with strength, it's time to move on to the standing plank. It should go without saying that before a student can work on the standing hardstyle plank, they must be able to perform a hardstyle plank on the ground. If they have not owned this yet, now is the time for them to learn it. I would not recommend moving forward until they do.
The standing hardstyle plank seems pretty obvious… it's a hardstyle plank standing up. The key, though, is to hit it fast and hard from a relaxed state. Have the student stand and then BANG – hardstyle plank. Hold it for just a second or two and then relax. Repeat this process. Get them used to INSTANTLY going into the plank. I've noticed a tendency for students to curl their shoulders forward and/or hollow out their chest. This is where an instructor must be diligent to ensure the student is fully upright with shoulders packed, abs tight, glutes clenched, kneecaps pulled up, feet gripping, and heels driven into the ground. It's easy to let some of this slide, and it's easy for the one doing it to forget. Make sure they can hit the position reliably and instantly. Only once they've owned it do you progress to putting the two together.
Assuming one has separately owned the hip hinge and the standing plank, then it is time to tie the two together… after a short aside.
I've seen lots of swings, both online and in person, of people trying to make a kettlebell swing look like a swing on a playground: a very rhythmic up-and-down with a corresponding rhythmic sense of force. Almost a clock like sense of exertion and movement with a consistent tick-tick-tick sort of effort. This is not the type of swing the hardstyle school teaches.
Instead, think of a heartbeat. Yes, it has a cyclical rhythm, but it's a two parter. The part we're most interested in is the double firing part of the sequence: bam-BAM ... bam-BAM ... bam-BAM. Focus on the "double bam" sequence: bam-BAM. Now mate the poses to the beats: "bam" is the hip hinge. "BAM" is the plank.
bam-BAM ... bam-BAM ... bam-BAM ... bam-BAM ... bam-BAM ...
That's the rhythm with which we want to hit our poses. Visualize them. Demonstrate them. Practice them.
bam: hit the hip hinge pose BAM: EXPLODE into the plank pose
bam-BAM ... bam-BAM ... bam-BAM ... bam-BAM ... bam-BAM ...
Do this without a kettlebell to reinforce the patterning. Practice hitting the poses without worrying about what to do with the kettlebell itself. Make sure the plank is hit properly without jumping or overextending the hips. Once one can hit these poses quickly, reliably, and explosively, then it's time to add the 'bell and tie it all together.
The hip hinge. The standing plank. These two poses are the heartbeat of hardstyle kettlebell ballistics. Thinking in terms like this will help you dial in the sharpness required of the standard and will instinctively guide you into where to appropriately apply the force required by the technique.
This paradigm can be applied to all kettlebell ballistics. Swings, pretty straight forward as described. Snatches and cleans have a triple beat: the first two are identical to the swing and are the most important; the third is a smaller, less intense plank. You will still need to teach or learn arm position and tension, grip, and all the other finer points, but the heartbeat will give the solid foundation upon which to stack on all the other details.