An RKC weekend in LA

This outstanding weekend completely revolved around the RKC system!

Saturday was the Kettlebells for Rehab & Prehab workshop at the Inosanto Academy. It was both well-attended and well-appreciated. I don't think I've ever received as many calls and e-mails of thanks within 24 hours of teaching any class. There were only 5 exercises on the syllabus, but each of those five exercises dealt with the two most clinically common areas of pain that I see in my clinic - the lower back and the shoulder.

One of the comments that was made to me really struck home. While many instructors can teach you how to use a kettlebell and mimic gross form, it's a whole new ball of wax when you can KNOW that you're using a kettlebell in the proper way. One of the attendees commented to me that the feedback mechanisms and cues that I gave were some of the clearest he'd ever heard (even after working with other KB instructors). That really inspired me to work harder at perfecting my craft as an RKC Team Leader.

The response for that workshop was so good that I'll probably be teaching that same format again in the near future.

Today's (Sunday) beach class was a surprisingly PACKED house, in spite of the time change! At an almost painfully early 6:55am, the quad was already packed with folks, and a few more continued to trickle in on Chinese Standard Time. The class was divided between 2 portions: instruction & workout. The instruction portion focused as usual on perfecting the RKC Level 1 exercises. The workout was two-fold: the legendary circuit & the VO2Max. Normally, we finish with the circuit by itself. Today's circuit was no easy task. The stations were bear crawl, deadlift/swing, hot potato, snatch, tactical lunge, pistol, & front squat (I think).



After going through that circuit twice, the students were then put through another bit of added love by a guest instructor - Diane Lee-Swanson, RKC, from Campbell, CA. Diane was a member of Team Rif during the San Jose RKC, and she put those who still hadn't had enough pain through 10 cycles of 30:30 VO2Max snatches.

What a weekend! What an organization! What a way of life!