What a Master RKC says about me!

Andrea was my Master RKC Instructor for my HKC certification. She was an absolute pleasure to work with. After the class I was able to talk with her one on one and developed a nice repoir.

From that chat I was able to write the "My HKC Experience - and what I think you should know" post (both on my blog and on Dragondoor's website.)

Here is her public reply in the DD thread:

Sean
I could not have said it better than that.Thank you for taking the time to interview me and write down your thoughts and recommendations. Everything you said is so important to anyone thinking about attending an HKC.

Sean's attitude is the kind we are looking for: serious about becoming an HKC, professional and willing to work hard. As I told my group, by becoming an HKC, you have not just passed a cert, you are joining the RKC family. When you walk out that door you are representing me, Pavel, John and all the other
Masters, Seniors, TLs and RKC's around the world. It is something that is earned, not just given by showing up.

For those that do not pass right away, it's not the end, but the beginning.You have 90 days (3 months) to retest.

For most of my group, it was an issue of needing more reps - more time to get the form down. Or in case of teaching, getting experience of teaching movement to others. I fully expect my entire group to become HKC's within a month.

It was a pleasure and honor working with every participant. I look forward to them continuing on their journey to become RKC's.

I would like to thank Keira and her assistants for their help and
expertise. And a special thanks to Keira who's professionalism made the HKC experience a success.

Andrea

Man, she is one top notch kinda lady!


Surround yourself with people who are better than!

The Hammer and Sickle

This Saturday I go to the Party Re-education Kamp at Komrade Newton's dkbfitness.com (they are taking the barbwire down for this weekend only!).

Czarina Andrea DuCane will be there to whip us loyalists into shape. Should we fail, it will undoubtedly be Komrade Newton's job to hide the bodies.

Not the first time I suspect. You don’t get to be a Level II RKC without proving your worth to The Party.

Failure is not an option for me. I have WAY too much riding on this. Actually, only my ego is riding on this, but my ego is very demanding. Its a guy thing.

Saturdays’ goal: HKC Certification.

With that in mind I wanted to push hard today and take Friday off so that I will be rested for all the Czarist torture DuCane will be dishing out.

So technically this is part of Brett Jones's RKC Prep routine. (Winter-2008 Hardstyle Magazine.)

Warmup:
Z-Health
Clubbells
16kg Halos 2x10 each direction
16kg 2H Swing 1x20

The Hammer: (no rest allowed comrades!)
24kg C&P 5/5 (left/right)
24kg 1H-Swing 10/10
16-24kg Clean Front Squat 5/5 (16kg in one hand, 24kg in the other.) Switch hands and repeat**
24kg 1H-Swing 10/10
24kg Turkish Getups 5/5
24kg Hand-to-Hand Swing 20
24kg Snatch 5/5
24kg 2H-Swing 20

The Sickle: repeat, but using 16kg. Again no rest
16kg C&P 5/5 (left/right) (easy compared to 24kg bell!)
16kg 1H-Swing 10/10
16kg Clean Front Squat 5/5 (no split here, jsut 1 armed C&P each side)
16kg 1H-Swing 10/10
16kg Turkish Getups 5/5
16kg Hand-to-Hand Swing 20
16kg Snatch 5/5
16kg 2H-Swing 20

Mobility/Rehab:16kg RKC Armbars 5/5

Foam Roller work - Upper body/shoulder emphasis.

** I was at work and only had a 16kg and a 24kg to work with.

1 Week till HKC!!!!

Still struggling w/ Tactical Pull Ups

Damnit.

I may ask Andrea DuCane if she'll let me attempt the pre-req pulls ups tactical style but allow me to do chins if I fail the TCPU.

Conditioning is ok. Next week I need to focus on TGU and Swings.

Swing Torture ala Keira Newton

Swing workout from Keira Newtons HKC Prep class.
2# Clubbell Warmup

16kg Halo's x2

16Kg 1H-Swing 10x2

4 Tactical Pullups

32kg 2H Swings 5
5 jumping jacks
32kg 2H Swings 10
10 jumping jacks
32kg 2H Swings 15
15 jumping jacks
32kg 2H Swings 20
20 jumping jacks
(No rest in between)

Squat-Swing-Plank sequence:

1 Goblet Squat - 5 1H swings (each side) - 10 Pushups
2 Goblet Squats - 6 1H swings (each side) - 9 Pushups
3 Goblet Squats - 7 1H swings (each side) - 8 Pushups
4 Goblet Squats - 8 1H swings (each side) - 7 Pushups
5 Goblet Squats - 9 1H swings (each side) - 6 Pushups
6 Goblet Squats - 10 1H swings (each side) - 5 Pushups

Shoulder Rehab:
16kg RKC Armbar 4/4

PVC Rolls per Pavels Mobility Bonus file from KB Secrets

Goblets, BUPs & Swings, OH MY!

More HKC Prep:

Strength:
Goblet Squat 5 reps
BU Press 5 reps
Repeat 5x

Conditioning:
16kg 1H-Swings 30:30
20 minutes

Tueday Night Might!

Tonight's numbers:

3 Chin-ups (elbow tweaked, so I stopped. I really should have warmed up first.)

Trying to amp my conditioning, so following Jordan Vezina's (RKC) plan from his Corrections PDF, I am striving to do 20 minutes of 30:30 2h-swings. Later on I will work on 1h-swings with the same numbers.

Swing Conditioning:
10minutes of 30:30 2h-swings w/ a 24kg bell.
But I had to break up the last three sets w/ longer than :30 rests. Oh well, not bad for day one.

Next up, my continuing work on Brett Jone's RKC Prep:

24kg Clean & Front Squat 5 reps l/r
Snatch 10 reps (I switched this w/ the swings at the bottom so I would be fresher for the snatches.)
24kg Clean & Front Squat 5 reps l/r
24kg C&P 5 reps l/r
24kg Clean & Front Squat 5 reps l/r
16kg Get-up 5 reps l/r
24kg Clean & Front Squat 5 reps l/r
24kg Swing 10 reps
(skipped) Clean & Front Squat 5 reps (skipped)

3 more Chinups.

Why chin ups and not tactical pull ups like a real man should be doing?
turns out the HKC test allows for Chins or Pulls. Well, since I have less than 2 weeks to secure 5 chins/pullups, I have decided to focus on getting a success right out of the box. I will switch to pull-ups after the HKC...Well, I might work a few Tactical Pullups in here or there.

Sunday's HKC Prep w/ Keira Newton

On Sunday I attended a small tune-up class to make sure we were on track for our Jan 16th HKC.

As always, Keira (dkbfitness.com) is a fantastic instructor.

There were two other students, both in shape women who would put me to shame later on in the class. More on that later.

We began by trying the pull-up test.
For ladies, its either a 25 second hang above the bar, or 1 pull up. both ladies failed.
For men, its 5 pull-ups. Interestingly enough, we are allowed to do chins, which I may do just to make sure I pass.

I initially failed at my fourth tactical pull up (tactical = no thumb)

We moved on to practicing naked getups.
This is another classic example of why people need to see a trainer in person. I own the Kalos Sthenos DVD and have viewed it many times, but it was not until Keira provided finger feedback that I really started to "get it". ("push against my finger" "do you feel that" , etc...)
DVD's can only impart so much knowledge.

Next we worked on our Goblet squats.
These were different than I thought. I assumed GS went rock bottom, but we did not do that. We bent our thighs to 90 degrees and touched our elbows to our knees. You must maintain a nice flat back for this and press your chest forward. This helps bring your back more vertical. The 90 degree bend in my legs became quite tiring after a while. I didn't realize that rock-bottom squats give you a brief rest.

Next on deck, swings. the only real new info here was that over the past 2-3 months, I have been noticing a tightness on my the posterior side of my knee. I was thinking that this meant I was twisting slightly. Sure enough, when I demo'd my swing in front of everyone, they picked up on a few things.

1. my uninvolved arm was reaching far behind me, causing me to slightly twist on the down swing. They recommended that I keep my uninvolved arm even w/ my torso.
2. Keira noticed that my shoulder/lats were not staying engaged. A little more conscious thought helped some. Another tip that helped was to keep my thumb pointed back when I was at the bottom of the swing. What this ended up doing was forcing my to engage my lats more on the upswing. This tip came from a gal who is going to February's RKC.
3. I was too loose on my grip at the bottom. this was causing the bell to bonk my butt slightly. Just a bit more grip and my swings were back to where they should be.
   

So after all of our tunes ups, Keira had us do some "conditioning" work.

why is conditioning in quotes? Because saying it was conditioning would be akin to calling water-boarding a brisk shower.

I am pretty sure she was trying to kill us.

Well, actually the other two students (both full time disciples of Keira) were doing just fine. Me on the other hand. Well, I'm pretty sure my heart exploded inside my chest cavity. Several times.

It was more or less something along these lines:

Partnered Swings.
You do 5 2H Swings. Your Partner does fast & loose drills.
Partner does 5 2H Swings. You do fast & loose drills.

Next do 10 2H swings. with appropriate fast & loose drills.

Next do 15 2H swings. with appropriate fast & loose drills.

finish up with 20 2H swings. with appropriate fast & loose drills.

We then moved to a Squat-Swing-Plank sequence like this:

1 Goblet Squat - 5 1H swings (each side) - 30 Sec Plank
2 Goblet Squats - 6 1H swings (each side) - 30 Sec Plank
repeat till this final set:
6 Goblet Squats - 10 1H swings (each side) - 30 Sec Plank

all in all, it was a great 3 hour class.

T-12 days till my HKC cert!