Now that we are Kettle Krazy I think some honest feedback needs to be addressed here. We are seeing a murky area of what is fitness and what is athletic performance. I think Kettlebells are great, but we are seeing a dilution of clarity of what the role of a piece of equipment can do. With regards to power development Kettlebells have limits and they are more fitness or general conditioning. If I was getting hunted down Apocalypto Style, I am not going to do swings to prepare me, I am going to run. The same for power. When D1 SEC football teams are testing with one rep max swings to get guys to 50 inch verticals I will drink the dragonberry punch. I like the swings for fitness and for variety as they are tools with value, but with limited time let’s create clarity. Tempo running and power development with classic approaches have worked for 60 years or more and I am not seeing freaks. TRX lunges are just lunges with new wrapping paper, and bodyweight exercises should progress to something more standard. If one can coach athletes to do both great KB swings and heavy and technically sound olympic lifts, those coaches have the right to use what they feel is effective. If you can’t coach the olympic lifts learn from good people, and then decide later.
