#pureperformance

Why does Kettlebell Sport look so much easier than it actually is?

Kettlebell Sport or Girevoy Sport - GS for short - is an interesting sport to watch, but only if you understand what is going on in front of you.  I got a little curious today and looked back over my videos for the last couple years of training.  I expected to see massive changes in my form and efficiency with the heavier bells over time.  Now, if I look very closely there are some changes I can see, but they wouldn't be noticeable to someone who doesn't know what they are looking for.  The best example that I can think to compare this to are dancers.  A skilled ballerina is trained to move with such control and a sense of outer calm that the audience has NO IDEA how difficult it is to complete the movements he or she is completing.  A great GS lifter is out to accomplish the same goal.  We want to move increasingly heavier kettlebells with the same ease and calm as we did when the bells were lighter.  As a result, a spectator is often shocked when they find out just how much the kettlebell I am lifting weighs.  

My form might change slightly over the vast gap in weight from an 8kg kettlebell to the 24kg kettlebell because my body is handling its center of gravity differently in relationship to the bell itself, but in reality the changes you see should be slight.  If it is obvious that the 24kg bell is heavy, I am not efficiently adapted to that weight yet.  As a lightweight lifter this concept fascinates me.  In GS lightweight lifters still lift the same weight of kettlebells in competition that heavier lifters lift, we just aren't expected to do it as quickly.  This means that as a 115lb female I will be lifting a 53lb kettlebell in competition eventually.  To put it into perspective, that is just under 50% of my bodyweight.  I can also say from experience, since I have jerked the 24kg (approx 53lb) kettlebell overhead before, this does not happen if my movement patterns are inefficient.