Yes, I will coach your pants

As I am constantly working to improve my kettlebell coaching, I have recently come to the conclusion that I will coach anything. Anything. Need help with a certification in NJ? I’ll coach that. See a drunk friend at a party poorly mimicking the kettlebell swing? I’ll coach that. Bear witness to a tragic kettlebell training video on YouTube? I’ll coach that right through the monitor. If you told me you had a pair of rust colored corduroys that really wanted to learn kettlebells, I'd coach them too. Those pants will be doing windmills in no time.

So when my friend and North Shore CrossFit manager Danny Vadala invited me down to Beverly to guest-coach a kettlebell class, guess what I said?

I drove down last night for their 6 PM session. It was a small group, which was perfect for the skill work I wanted to go over. After a great warm-up (lots of up-and-back drills, like lunges, bear crawls and Rockette-style kicks), we got down to business. I went through the windmill and all the variations, and then showed them how they can work the windmill in with a TGU to make a damn effective warm-up drill. I also showed them the get-up sit-up… deceptively simple but killer on the core.

Finally, the class went through a quick workout (KB front squats, renegade rows, plank hold and push jerks) while I helped Danny check form and offer feedback. (Danny and I did jump in on the plank holds, though. Couldn’t resist. Two whole minutes –suck it, plank.)

The students picked up all the moves really quickly, and seemed to like the variations. Danny really let me run the show with respect to the skill drills, but he jumped in with some prompts for things I forgot to mention (like proper breathing) and gave me a few encouraging nods when I touched on solid points. He also practiced the skills right there with his students, which was a nice touch.

He runs a great program down there. The two North Shore affiliates do all their own programming, and from what I’ve seen, it’s both innovative and challenging. Plus Danny just came back from his Level II certification, and told me he is now even more dedicated to using a variety of coaching and workout styles in his classes. As a result, his students get a broad and balanced mix of strength training, met-con, technique practice, skill work, joint mobility and stretching. As an added bonus, Danny runs a really relaxed class, in terms of PC-ness. I’m not gonna lie, it felt good to be able to relax my vocabulary a bit. Because upon hearing you still have 30 long seconds to go in a plank hold, there is truly nothing else to say but, “Fuck me”.

Big thanks to Danny Vee for letting me come down and play. And for those of you interested in the TGU/windmill warm-up drill, I took some video last week, this should help you put it together. I promise you, it will test how well you know the TGU, since you come up on one side and down on the other. It’s like a flowing series of yoga postures, but with kettlebells. Which is a cool concept, now that I think about it. But I promise I am NOT going to give is some retarded name like Kettle-Om and then market it with a purple energy-cleansing 4# kettlebell in recyclable cardboard packaging.

P.S. Yesterday was the biggest reader day ever, with over 1,000 visitors. Thanks to CF NYC for the links - I'm honored to be included. And for the CF Ireland boys and girls - stop by anytime (and thanks for the link, Will).