RKC School of Strength

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kettlebell swing technique

How and Why to Fix the “Drinking Bird” Kettlebell Swing Mistake

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The Drinking Bird Toy in motion

When the kettlebell swing was first introduced, the idea of ballistically moving weight was a novelty. Other than Olympic Lifting, heavy weights were not lifted explosively. And the ability of moving the load behind the hips was unthinkable.

We take this for granted now after 20 years or more of kettlebell training. We all know the advantages of this type of ballistic training and the unique way it trains our posterior chain, a godsend for all athletes.

Teaching the Swing for Optimal Performance

Because it was so new and unique, we ran into problems with how to teach and perform the swing for optimal performance and effect. With many people quad dominant, it naturally turned into more of a squat style swing.

We worked hard to change that pattern and bring the swing into the hip-hinge dominant pattern it is today. There was lots of experimentation and drills used to find the right movement pattern. And I think for the most part we have succeeded. Today nearly everyone walking into an HKC or RKC Workshop knows the swing is a deadlift/hinge style pattern. Please note that I am not talking about the American (CrossFit) swing, which is meant to be an anterior and quad dominate movement pattern. That swing was developed to specifically mimic the Olympic lifting movement of a barbell snatch.

The “Drinking Bird” Kettlebell Swing Problem

The problem with something being “too good to be true”, is also that “too much of a good thing is no longer so good.” The swing has swung (pun intended) from a too squatty swing to a straight-legged swing, or as I call it the “Drinking Bird Swing”.

It seems that in every video I see, in every workshop I teach, my clients, even myself, people have been overcompensating for the squatty swing, by swinging with nearly straight legs. You could say we have taken the easy road to loading. Let’s face it, it’s more work to sit back deeper, I call it the “lazy butt syndrome”. And if you have flexible hamstrings like some of us, it is way easier.

Swinging with nearly straight legs puts all the power and loading into the hamstrings. It takes away from the quads, but it also takes away from deep glute engagement at the backswing, right where we need the most power. In other words, a “drinking bird” swing will have much less power.

If the hamstrings are on stretch at the backswing, the glutes are not back and down enough to fully engage, so the power in the upswing is diminished.

Imagine doing a lot of snatches only using your hamstrings? No wonder, the arms and back are doing so much of the work, they must make up for loss of power from the hips.

Troubleshooting the Kettlebell Backswing

Look at the photos below, in which position do I look the most loaded? I call this the “Goldilocks” of the backswing position.

1) My knees are very bent, and my hips and knees are nearly level.

An incorrect squatty kettlebell swing mistake
A “too squatty” kettlebell backswing

2) My knees are nearly straight, my chest down, my hips and shoulders are level.

A legs too straight "drinking bird" kettlebell swing mistake
A “drinking bird” kettlebell backswing

3) My knees are bent, my hips back and down, my chest and shoulders lifted slightly.

Andrea Du Cane, Master RKC Performs a correct RKC Hardstyle Kettlebell Swing Backswing
A correct RKC Hardstyle kettlebell backswing

Stand up and try each of these positions:

1) Stand feet shoulder distance, both arms in a back swing position, knees very bent, and hips in line with knees. What does it feel like? Where do you feel the most loading?

2) Same stance, this time hinge and keep the knees nearly straight, push the hips back, let the chest/head/shoulders face the ground- shoulders and hips level. What does it feel like? Where do you feel the most loading?

3) Same stance, this time sit back with hips, let the knees bend like you’re sitting back on a medium height chair, keep the chest/shoulders lifted. What does it feel like? Where do you feel the most loading?

My guess is that when you followed #1 you felt the most in your quads; #2 most of the loading is in the hamstrings; #3 you felt a little in the quads, a lot in the hips/glutes and some hamstrings. Picture #3 is the classic back swing position we teach at the RKC: Shoulders above hips and hips above knees.

How to Produce the Most Strength and Power with Your Kettlebell Swings

One of the key principles of Hardstyle kettlebell training is full body tension when we want to produce strength and power. If you don’t engage your glutes and quads and rely primarily on the hamstrings, are you not breaking that Hardstyle principle and losing power?

Yes indeed.

That’s Goldilocks for you. She lets us find the best position to get the most power. Try sitting back deeper into your backswing, I guarantee you’ll have more power, the kettlebell will fly, and you’ll feel your glutes more than you have in a long time.

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Andrea Du Cane is a Master RKC Kettlebell Instructor, CK-FMS, CICS, and RIST, ZHealth certified, she has a BA in Psychology from the University of Minnesota and is also a Pilates instructor. She is the author of several books and dvds including The Ageless Body, The Kettlebell Boomer, and The Kettlebell Goddess Workout.  She has over twenty years of aerobics, weight training and fitness experience, with an additional background in… Read more here.

How To Fix 4 Common Kettlebell Swing Mistakes

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How To Fix 4 Common Kettlebell Mistakes

The kettlebell swing is a phenomenal exercise. I think it should be part of every training program. It addresses explosive power, the posterior chain, anaerobic conditioning and even grip strength. The kettlebell swing has many awesome qualities!

It’s also the foundation for more advanced kettlebell movements like one-arm swings, cleans and snatches. Before progressing to those more advanced movements, make sure that your two-hand swing is dialed in and that you can maintain proper technique with heavy kettlebells and high reps.

Let’s dial in our kettlebell swing technique by avoiding these four common mistakes.

Common Kettlebell Swing Mistake #1:
Poor Setup

There are several key concepts to remember for the kettlebell swing setup.

How far away are you from the kettlebell? If you’re too far from the bell, then you might shift too much weight forward and shrug your shoulders up to your ears while reaching for the bell.

Ideally, you want to sit back with your shoulders pulled down and the kettlebell tilted toward you.

Also, make sure that your hips are below your shoulders. If your hips are too high, then you may not be able to generate a lot of power with your first rep. And the swing is all about power.

Common Kettlebell Swing Mistake #2:
Arms Disconnected from the Body with Wrong Hip Hinge Timing

This mistake can cause discomfort or even injury to your lower back, so let’s dial this one in!

Each time the kettlebell is swung between your legs, even from the initial hike, your arms should connect to your torso. Upper arms connect to your ribcage and forearms connect to your inner thighs.

This will allow the hips to propel the kettlebell forward creating much more power.

Once you’ve reached the top of the swing, you want to stay standing tall for as long as possible while the kettlebell comes back down. Essentially, you’re playing chicken with the kettlebell.

Pushing your hips back too soon—while the kettlebell is still out in front of you—can cause unnecessary stress on the lower back.

The hips push the arms forward, the arms push the hips back.

Towel swing drill

Common Kettlebell Swing Mistake #3:
Using Your Arms and Shoulders to Raise the Kettlebell

The kettlebell swing is an explosive hip hinge, not a shoulder raise or shrug.

If the kettlebell is drooping at the top of the swing, or your shoulders and neck are feeling it, then you’re using your upper body way too much.

The arms are simply a tether holding onto the kettlebell. They shouldn’t do the heavy lifting. If you’re having issues with this, then check out the towel swing drill in the video below.

Common Kettlebell Swing Mistake #4:
Not Fully Locking Out Your hips or Knees at the Top of the Swing

In order to fully express your power, you must have full extension from the hips and knees. This doesn’t mean hyper-extending your knees, rather straightening your knees by flexing your quads.

You also don’t want to leave your hips back. You MUST contract your glutes hard at the top of the swing for maximum power and to protect your lower back.

Watch this video to see each mistake and correction.

I hope these tips help you master your kettlebell swing. When you get the swing dialed in, it’s one of the best exercises you can do for your fitness.

Keep Swingin’!
Ryan Jankowitz, RKC II

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Ryan lives in Maryland with his wife and two dogs.  They love to go hiking and spend time on the beach.  When he’s not telling his dogs to stop chasing squirrels, Ryan enjoys spreading the RKC message and teaching others how to train with kettlebells.  He’s got a 90-day coaching program that helps busy adults get into shape, look and feel better by working out with kettlebells and eating healthier so they can elevate their self-esteem. Visit his website rjkettlebell.com or schedule a free call with Ryan: https://go.oncehub.com/RyanJankowitz

4 Standards To Master The Kettlebell Swing

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Four Standards For Mastering the Kettlebell Swing by William Sturgeon

To begin learning how to perform a kettlebell swing, you must master the most fundamental movement of the exercise—the hip hinge. Learning how to properly hip hinge, hike pass, deadlift and perform a dead-stop swing will set you up for guaranteed success with the kettlebell swing.

Master Your Hinge:

The foundation of the kettlebell swing is built off a strong hip hinge. When you are able to teach your clients how to optimally use their hips, they will get the full benefits for the proper muscles used in the swing. You will also keep your clients safe and reduce their exposure to injury.

Use these coaching cues:

  • Start in a tall & tight position with your feet shoulder width apart.
  • Have a slight bend in your knees.
  • Reach your hips back.
  • Drive your hips forward and stand tall.

Master Your Hike Pass:

The next step in the kettlebell swing is to master the hike pass. This motion begins to teach you the momentum of the swing. Learning the hike pass teaches you how to properly propel the kettlebell behind you. The back of the hike pass shows you what the bottom position of the kettlebell swing looks like.

Use these coaching cues

  • Get into your hip hinge.
  • Tilt the kettlebell towards you and break the handle in half.
  • Sit into your hips and toss the bell high into the thigh.
  • Keep your chest up & eyes forward.

Master Your Deadlift:

Next is the deadlift. When teaching the deadlift, you are helping your client understand how to properly load the hips. The deadlift teaches you to snap the hips and fully lock out at the top. This is important because this teaches how you should be at the top of the swing.

Use these coaching cues

  • Start with the kettlebell between your feet.
  • Go into your hip hinge.
  • Break the handle in half.
  • Punch your feet into the ground and snap your hips forward.

Master Your Dead Stop Swing:

The last step in mastering the kettlebell swing is the dead stop swing. Mastering the dead stop swing puts all of the other steps into one. You begin by starting in a hip hinge position, next you go into your hike pass, and lastly you go into your dead lift. Each rep is initially starting the swing back over and enforcing all the skills you have learned prior to this step.

Use these coaching cues

  • Start in your hike pass position.
  • Toss the bell back.
  • Explode through the hips and let the bell float up.
  • Wait for the bell to push your hips back and park the bell.

To get the most out of your swing and master the basics, review and practice each of these steps.

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William Sturgeon, RKC Team Leader, RKC II trains clients at his gym, Restored Strength. Contact him through his website at RestoredStrength.com or follow him on Facebook: facebook.com/restoredstrength

 

Transform Your Kettlebell Swing with Two Simple Cues

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Matt Beecroft kettlebell swing

There’s no doubt that the swing is the center of the kettlebell universe. Mastering the swing should be one of the first goals of your kettlebell journey. It is simple—if you can swing well, you will probably clean and snatch your kettlebell properly too. Besides, the swing should look exactly like your clean and snatch, the hips do all the work and the arm guides the kettlebell to where you want it to go with some “steering strength”. While I consider the swing a basic, nailing it so it becomes a thing of power and grace can be difficult. “Basic” doesn’t mean “easy”.

My previous post, “Regress To Progress” steps out the progressions we use in the RKC to teach the swing. It explains how most kettlebell swing issues can be resolved by going back to master the progressions. Likewise, mastering regressions can really improve your kettlebell swing, no matter where you currently are in your practice.

In my opinion, great coaches give cues which can instantly and radically improve technique. I learned the two cues in this post from former Master RKC Geoff Neupert in my few years training with him. With these two cues, I feel like I can really transform a swing. I use them every time I teach at an RKC Workshop.

The timing of the swing movement is seldom discussed in detail, and yet it can play a very powerful part in making your swing a thing of grace and beauty—and powerful as hell!

One of the benefits of using kettlebells is working with the eccentric phase (the backswing) or downward phase of the kettlebell swing. The “overspeed eccentric” technique is a method to increase the intensity of the kettlebell swing in the RKC. This technique adds an active acceleration of the kettlebell on the backswing in addition to the ballistic concentric acceleration of the kettlebell during the forward swing phase. Instead of simply letting the kettlebell accelerate downward with gravity, a partner pushes the kettlebell down from the top of the swing. This assisted acceleration also increases the posterior chain’s eccentric muscle contraction speed.

During this eccentric muscle contraction, the muscles lengthen from the external load of the kettlebell while contracting under tension. Research shows that eccentric muscle contractions are capable of producing more force than either isometric or concentric muscle contractions. Maximum eccentric strength is estimated to be between 1.5 and 2.0 times that of maximum concentric strength. Put in other words, you get strong on the negative phase of exercises. This is why concentrating on the negative or eccentric phase will build the strength required for both phases of the exercise. For example, learning how to do a push up or pull up by focusing on the eccentric phase is the way to build the strength to do your first full push up or pull up.

“Overspeed eccentrics” result in an accumulation of kinetic energy from greater force production and elastic energy. Studies that have shown that training programs which utilize eccentric contractions at fast velocities remove neural inhibition. Normally, neural inhibition is a mechanism for injury protection as exemplified by the stretch reflex phenomenon. The rapid stretching of the posterior chain muscles in the backswing causes sensory muscle spindles—which are distributed throughout the fleshy part of skeletal muscle—to activate. To protect the muscle from being overstretched, the spinal cord is notified that the muscles are being lengthened. Next, the spinal cord reacts by contracting the muscle being stretched while inhibiting the contraction of the antagonist muscles. This process bypasses sending any messages to the brain and is known as the “stretch reflex”. Taking advantage of the muscle’s elasticity and the stretch reflex is also known as the “stretch-shorten cycle”. The faster the muscle is stretched eccentrically, the greater the force will be on the following concentric contraction. In other words, you will get a stronger and a more explosive swing.

To take advantage of overspeed eccentrics during the two-arm kettlebell swing, two things must be present: a fast backswing and a rapid switch from the eccentric muscle contraction of the backswing to a concentric contraction of the forward swing. This technique can be implemented with the kettlebell swing when a partner forcefully pushes the kettlebell down from the top of the swing at chest height as it we do it in the RKC.

Coincidentally, a common kettlebell swing technique error is to not get deep enough with the backswing. An insufficient backswing results in a lackluster swing without much force. The overspeed eccentric drill is one cure for this—along with other “A-HA drills” you will learn at an RKC workshop.

mattbeecroftswingsetup

What if you don’t have a training partner?

Then, play chicken with the kettlebell! Yes, you read that correctly. Remember earlier in the article when I mentioned timing? We know that kettlebell swings are really ugly when your hips break and your bum goes backwards as soon as the kettlebell begins its downward or eccentric phase. That ugliness is usually just a timing issue.

Instead, try letting the kettlebell drop—or better still—pull the kettlebell down between your legs like a gridiron “hike pass”. Wait for the kettlebell to come down towards your hips, and for your elbows to connect to the rib cage, then right at the last second, forcefully “break” at the hips. You will hinge your hips down and back out of the way, getting a nice and deep backswing. The result will be similar to the overspeed eccentric drill. You’ll follow this with a powerful upward, concentric phase, giving you a much stronger and forceful swing. This is what I call “playing chicken with the kettlebell”. I probably don’t have to tell you what will happen if you wait too long… it will only happen once!

Breaking at the hips should not happen as soon as you reach the apex of your swing. Wait for the kettlebell to descend before hinging back. Be patient with your swing.

mattbeecroftkbswingupDon’t Rush the Kettlebell Swing

Rushing the kettlebell swing is another one of the biggest technique errors. Lock off your hips for longer at the top

The second cue is probably something you probably think you’re already doing. You might think you’re using your glutes and hips effectively. Finishing your hips strongly at the top of the swing, just like a deadlift lockout, is paramount to using the glutes properly, protecting the back, and strongly completing the movement. But if you observe an average kettlebell swinger, you’ll see that their hip/glute activation or “lock-off” at the top of the swing only lasts for a split second before they turn it off again. Have someone video your kettlebell swing. For an exercise that is touted as a strong posterior activation exercise and glute developer, it’s surprising how many kettlebell swingers hit the top of the swing and don’t keep the hips/glutes locked for longer than a split second. In fact, many won’t finish with the hips at all on their swings. The remedy is to simply to keep your hips locked and glutes engaged for longer at the top of the swing.

This will also change the timing of your swing—you will find that your kettlebell will start to “float” for a second at the apex of the swing. This must happen in our swings if we want to snatch well since the “float” also requires relaxing the shoulders a little (while strongly gripping the kettlebell with straight arms) at the top. This is very different from many incorrect “swing” attempts that are really just a squat with a front raise.

Try the Two Simple Cues…

Play chicken with the kettlebell and work on your timing. Let the kettlebell drop or forcefully pull the it down. Only “break” and hinge at the hips at the last second. Be patient.

Lock your hips and engage your glutes for longer at the top of your swing. Try to “float” the kettlebell with your hips. Feel the change in timing and technique. It will radically power up your swing.

Let me know how you do in the comments section below.

 

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Matthew Beecroft is a Senior RKC, PCC and CK-FMS certified instructor. He is also a GFM and Animal Flow instructor and Expert Level 2 instructor with Krav Maga Global and a Muay Thai coach who has trained amateur and professional Muay Thai champions. He can be contacted through his website www. realitysdc.com.au or Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/MeetLifeHeadOn/