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After my last weeks training in Slovenia, this was a chance to put into practice some of the new techniques that Gregor had taught me. I was really looking forward to trying them out and seeing what would happen. Would I improve my lifts? Would I hit a rank? Would it completely ruin me?
After an early start on Sunday morning, we met up at the studio to load the truck up. With a truck full of kettlebells and people we headed over to the Peacock Gym to set up for the competition. The main conversation was about weight and how to lose it quickly. So I'll not go into that topic anymore than to say that I did a very good job of losing a few kilos pre comp!

As you can see by the photos, the Peacock Gym is the perfect place for a kettlebell competition. We had 4 platforms and plenty of space for spectators. The lifters started to appear at about 9 O'clock and after registration and weight ins, we were ready to get lifting. The judges and lifters were briefed on the rules and regs, the stop watches were ready and the timetable of lifts was on the board.
So to my performance! I was quietly confident about my technique and was feeling pretty good after a good weeks training. Jerks were first and after chalking up my t-shirt and taking a few last sips of water, I cleaned the bells into position and got set into the rack. This position has changed a lot for me since learning where I should actually be resting! The first minute went buy quickly and I put in 10 reps, oops! I was supposed to do 8, but it was feeling so easy I had reached 8 in 40 seconds. What was I supposed to do, rest for 20 seconds! This feeling good, continued for about another 4 minutes and so too did the reps. I was trying to keep them to 8 but the bells were just flying up. I have learnt a lot about how to utilise the thoracic in the drive and also use my breathing correctly. Both of these have made a massive difference. In fact a lot of the time, the bells were going up to easily and I was getting the timing slightly wrong. Now I knew what was going to go first, my fitness and rightly so, it did! By applying so much more power to each and every rep, it seems to be my heart rate and CV that hits me first. Whereas with my old technique it was the arms that went first. This is actually a really good thing, as fitness is an easy thing to work on, just do more! By the 5 minutes mark I think I had hit 49 reps and I had running through my head, get to 68 and get there as quick as possible. Probably not the right thing to think as I kept the rep rate up and that really made me fatigue quickly. So by 60 reps I was really struggling. I was moving around in my rack position to try and open up the lungs but that wasn't helping my legs at all. So this is something to work on next time. I reached 68 with a few very poor jerks to finish off with and let the bells fall to the floor. Thank god that was over. Well I didn't do exactly what I was hoping to do, would have loved to get 70, but that mental strength is so critical, physical strength is important too! It's a work in progress and the more experience I get the better I'll get at pacing myself.
With the body in bits and my arms burning I went straight over to the bars to stretch off and get some water on board. Thankfully I had about an hour to recover before the snatches. I hadn’t really done much work on the snatch since the trip to Slovenia, so this was really a chance for me to see how long I could hold on for. As I'd learnt in Slovenia, the snatch is so technical and every rep has to be spot on to give you the chance to get those big numbers. With my kettlebell chalked up, I waited for the countdown and off I went. Setting up in the lock out for the first time, I had a quick pause to gather my thoughts and then off I went. Again I went off too quickly and found myself having to pause and wait at the top to try and keep to my 14 rpm. I was closer to 16 -17 rpm in the first 3 minutes. Everything was going well and I could feel that target of 65 coming my way, until I hit the wall. Literally it came out of nowhere and my forearm had nothing left to keep a good grip. So the techniques changed and I started to just get out as many more as I could, thinking that I could muscle up a few more and get to 65. Unfortunately I was wrong! As I stood up for my 57th rep the kettlebell was no longer in my hand but floating in mid air! Oh Bol*cks! I couldn't believe it, I'd let it go, I'd lost my grip and it was all over. After feeling so good I'd completely let me self down and committed a sin! With the game over, I kicked the mirror behind me and thought to myself, what an idiot!!
Anyway as it was a chance for me to train, I picked up the bell and carried on with my left arm. With the motivation gone I got to 50 reps in as quick a time a possible and stopped. Totally gutted about dropping, but on the positive side I did feel really good with the technical side of it.

To round up on the day, although I didn't do as well as I wanted I did feel really good and can see the light! There is an end to this challenge and I know that with the things I've learnt I will be able to achieve big numbers in a very short space of time. The training plan that Gregor has set me is a 6 day a week plan. This is going to be really hard to stick to especially with all the travelling I've got to do over the next couple of months. But I'm going to give it a go and try my best to do as much of it as possible. I am actually really excited about it now and keen to get straight into it. Today is supposed to be a rest day, but I think I will do some snatches anyway. As Gregor says 'You've got to love your snatch'!
There will be a full round up of the competition available on Thursday in our newsletter. So look out for that.

To download the competition results, please go to: