I am old enough and wise enough to know that RKC was never going to be the end of my kettlebell learning journey, just a marker along the way. Sure enough I came away with a head full of new ideas and questions, full of awe and wonder at what others can do. My day job is a little like this too. Everyone thinks that someone in my position (I’m a Head Teacher) should be the person who knows everything about everything. In fact I’d rather see myself as the chief learner! I learn something new everyday, particularly as I have the privilege to go into classrooms and watch others teach on a regular basis and am frequently humbled by the skill and creativity of the people I am watching.
Therefore the decision about whether to continue to train with the RKC who introduced me to Kettlebells was not a hard one. It’s good to work with a mentor whose skill and knowledge still goes far beyond anything I know, if nothing else he keeps my feet on the ground. What has changed is that I am beginning to know what I need to ask and I’m breaking down what I need to know into smaller components. Sounds complicated but each component is simple and it’s really easy to get way too complicated.
We have been working on the pistol for weeks and I have trained religously for weeks but have made really slow progress. In fact we had to take a little detour a few weeks ago to stop me getting too frustrated. Every week the poor guy has asked me what I’m thinking when I’m doing the pistol.
Now a Head Teacher’s head is full of many things. We have to know about finance, staffing legislation, education legislation,health and safety rules, social work rules, psychology, teaching and learning and a lot about children and families. The hardest part is switching between all of them quickly throughout the day. One minute I can be talking to 5 year olds about their work and the next discussing a complex staffing issue with a room full of adults.
When I pick up a kettlebell all that has to go for my own safety and well being. It’s easy to shelve the factual information; what is harder is to slow down and concentrate. My mind is still working very quickly so I tend to think too much and over complicate what I’m working on. I think: grip the floor, straighten the leg, glutes, abs and where is that surface I’m aiming to sit on? For the last month he has been saying 2 focus on your glutes”, but all that extra information kept getting into my head. I didn’t really understand what he was getting at until this week, then the penny dropped-doh! During my training this week I’ve taken to saying to myself glutes, glutes, glutes as I go down, sit back and stand up again – my partner thinks I’m a little crazy. However it works!!! I’m making progress – even my temperamental left side. I get down to the level I am on (box pistol) under full control and then get up with far more power than before.
Lesson learnt-keep it simple…
