Till Sukopp Workshop Nov. 2009

I spent the last two days in Cologne, attending an instructor- workshop hosted by Dr. Till Sukopp, www.kettlebellfitness.de , doctor of sport science, to be certified with his organisation.

I´ve got to admit, i wasn´t looking forward too much, because i knew that the main topic would be kettlebell-exercises á la "hardstyle".
For my understanding, the hardstyle-variations, this concept of tension, usage of the bells for low-rep workouts, etc. are mainly a way to get started with kettlebells.
I learned all this quite a time ago, admittedly i had to learn it the do-it-yourself-way from books, short videos on youtube, but i did a good job and did not expect to learn much. Maybe a hint here and there to make a exercise harder or some corrections about minor technical points. But i had already progressed to the "fluidstyle", the competition-sytle of kettlebell lifting, which i consider much more athletic and beneficial to combat sports or overall athleticism.
But i thought "Well, at least i get another correction of my basics, it can´t hurt."

So i took the next plane to Cologne and was waiting for the workshop to start.

The first thing i learned about Till was one of the most positive: his flexability concerning the structure of the workshop and it´s topics.
Two of the four attendees had only time to stay saturday, so we re-structured and completed a monster-workshop from 0900 till 2040 including one lunch-break.

We started with the most painful, dreadful and exhausting part of the whole workshop: the snatch-test.

I learned a few days earlier that one had to achieve a certain amount of repetitions with the 24kg Kettlebell and only one hand switch was allowed.
I was frightened, since i had never tried this before with the 24kg Kettlebell.
I tried it to see where i was standing, 3 days before the workshop and failed. I have to tell you...I was nervous AS HELL!! :-D
In addition i am only used to competition-size bells with a fairly thin handle and Till placed a fitness-kettlebell with a handle as thick as my nightmares about it in front of me. :-D
But the atmosphere of hard working people(not necesarry the other guys in the gym we were working out) immediatly caught me and i went first.
I just thought: "ah...what the hell...just FOCUS, and KEEP ON GOING...one repetiotion after another".
Or as the US. Navy SEALS like to say: "One evolution at a time."

I grabbed the enemy(;-D) and started snatching. I really concentrated on the finer points, the drop, absorbing the weight, drive with the legs, all to conserve the grip which is the limiting factor for me...
I started my mental programm for the intense workouts i created for myself during the last weeks and only "zoomed out" now and then to hear how far Till had already counted my reps.
And pretty soon i hit my number, 56 reps for 77,6kg bodyweight.
I have to tell you...That´s a damn nice feeling!! Knowing i just stepped over another limitation i had only days, even moments before...That´s one of the good things that keep motivating me to push myself.

After we all worked our a**es of, we went on with the technical part.
We dissected all the basic exercises like the swing, the turkish get-up, cleans, presses, snatches, etc. into their small parts, analyzed the movement patterns executed the ourselves under the watchful eye of Till.
The most beneficial part, if you ask me and even if you don´t, was, since it was an instructor-workshop, the special focus of Till on failure- perception and corrective methods and exercises.

I already attended the IKFF Level 1 Kettlebell Instructor Seminar with Steve Cotter last june and Steve taught the exercises, the fluid style variation, with great skill and i still haven´t had a moment of regert that i invested the time or the money.

But for upcoming or already well-established instructors Till offered a tool-box full of ways to enhance the way of moving and increase the level of safety for ones trainees.
Plus you get a crash-course in the basics of marketing and business-planning.

Not to mention the several trainees Till provided, volunteers who never had any contact with kettlebell training before or even sports in some cases and we had to teach them the basic 2arm swing und turkish get-up plus design a little 10min workout for the in about 40 minutes.
That´s some supervised experience-gathering i can recommend!!!

In addition since myself and another participant had some time available on Sunday(the other two had already left) Till offered us to think about topics we would like to discuss and learn about.
So we worked through the basics of the famous Warrior Viking Conditioning / VO²max rouine, basics of regeneration, Self-Myofascial Release- Methods, etc.

I can only highly recommend this workshop.

Not only because i learned a ton of new things to apply in my own training and the training of my clients but also because i got to know Till a little bit over dinner after the heavy, first day and i am really looking forward to work with him in the future.

As always, if you got questions for me just drop a comment or write me a email.

All the best,
Harry