CrossFit Certified Kettlebell Instructor

My KB cert was so much fun, I don't even know where to start. I'll probably have to talk about the weekend in installments, since there was so much going on.

Let's start with Jeff Martone, one of my new favorite people. Ever watch King of the Hill? You know Boomhauer, the neighbor? You can't always understand every word he says, but you always get the gist of what he's saying. That's Martone. There were a few times where I think he just strung random words together while inserting,"You know what I mean?" every 17 seconds. He'd get done talking and we'd all look around like, "We actually aren't ENTIRELY sure what you mean". And then his wife Maureen would translate. The Jeff Stories were one of the best parts of the weekend. More on that at a later date. (Below - me with Jeff and Maureen Martone.)



I learned a few new KB exercises. I dialed in on my clean technique, refining the drop. And we totally rebuilt my snatch (hee hee) from the old-school swing style to the more efficient high-pull style. I learned a ton of assistance drills and joint mobility exercises, and practiced a whole host of new coaching cues and techniques.

I passed all skill elements the first time around, no retesting necessary. Our class as a whole was really good, we got through the material faster than most and had a really high pass rate overall. Big thanks to Max the Swede and Daniel Deranged for being so cool, helping me stretch (nothing like two hot boys each grabbing a leg) and making me laugh. Big thanks to North Shore CrossFit manager and trainer Dan Vadala for offering great coaching feedback while still managing to make fun of me.

For those interested in taking the cert, here are all the tested skill elements. I don't even want to think about how many reps of each we did during the weekend - the skill test required anywhere from 5-20 reps of each exercise.

• Russian swing
• Russian power swing
• American swing
• Swing release
• One hand swing
• Alternating swing - 1/2 rotation
• Alternating swing - H2H
• Floor press (single and double)
• Armbar stretch
• Turkish get-up
• Dead clean
• Clean
• Bottoms-up clean
• Double clean
• Snatch
• Military press
• Push press
  
• Front squat
• Thruster (double)
  

Finally, every single muscle in my body hurts, my hands have burst into flames on several occasions and I can't stop eating. Or sleeping. Sixteen hours of slinging kettlebells is an awful lot of work. Luckily, I didn't rip too much (no blood), although my hands aren't exactly the picture of femininity right now. But who cares about ladylike when you can clean and jerk a 20K?