Training with kettlebells is no longer uncommon, if it was ever considered at all. Nevertheless, the videos that appear on social networks with kettlebells as protagonists can be so different that it is normal for them to confuse anyone who is not very familiar with the subject. To understand what we see and to differentiate between the different technical kettlebell schools, we interviewed Guillermo Pajuelo, specialist and founder, along with Aarón Cordero from KettlebellMe; As always, clarifying when it comes to explaining the specifics of this type of training:
Alfonso M. Arce: Can we talk about different technical schools in the kettlebell world?
Guillermo Pajuelo: If a layman observes several kettlebell workouts, he may not notice any difference, that is a fact, another thing is that there is none. Can we talk about two great schools or kettlebell training approaches, Sport and hardstyle, the movements are the same for both and the technical differences have small nuances, even if both versions look very different. It’s like BMX or road cycling. Both involve cycling, but they have nothing to do with each other. Although the movements are the same, the will and goals of those who practice them have nothing to do with them.
Alfonso M. Arce: How would you describe its characteristics to differentiate between the two?
Guillermo Pajuelo: Inside hard style What you want is to keep lifting kettlebells more and more difficult or do it with more Performance. Inside Sports What you’re looking for is to move them most often in a while determined, which is usually relatively long. With this in mind, in terms of maximum strength and power, hardstyle would be the best option, as this style requires few repetitions, whereas in sports a one-minute series could already be considered very short. The really interesting thing about complete sports preparation is know how to combine and understand both.
Visually, hardstyle practitioners are more robust; when they press with one hand, the other arm is tense; you can usually even see them clenching their fist. It is a very warlike attitude, in fact we are not talking about a press, but about a military press. In sport you aim for the opposite and use your entire body and its rotations to tire yourself as little as possible. Nobody could clench their fist with maximum tension for six minutes, that’s not very efficient. In hardstyle you look for the greatest possible tension, in sport you look for the greatest possible relaxation. This is also noticeable in the type of breathing, in the first it is very pronounced and strong, in sports it is slower.
Alfonso M. Arce: Is it difficult to switch from one technique to another?
Guillermo Pajuelo: If you move a kettlebell technically well, you can do it in both cases; the challenge lies in the type of training more than in the technique. In general, exercise can result in heavier repetitions and shorten time. However, the transition from hardstyle to sport is more complicated, unless of course they reduce the load, but a long series with the weights they move is something they are not suitable for. They are prepared because it is not their focus. It is logical.
Alfonso M. Arce: And are these two schools the only ones?
Guillermo Pajuelo: Although there isn’t a school as such today, I wouldn’t be surprised if one eventually did Juggle, which are more of an exhibition than anything else and although they are still niche, they are gaining more and more followers. There are even competitions that assess the complexity of the elements used. From the outside, it is the handling of a kettlebell in which the kettlebell is thrown into the air and thereby spins around itself in increasingly difficult combinations. There is no needto confuse juggle with flow because they have little in common. While juggling involves releasing the kettlebell and moving air, flow involves trying to chain together ever more diverse combinations, where it is important that the KB is not released at any time, but that everything happens in the same order.
Both in juggling and in flow, the didactics are that of challenge or success. See if you can achieve a specific movement or sequence. These are methods that focus more on playing, in contrast, sport and hardstyle focus on improving physical condition: strength, power, resistance.
Alfonso M. Arce: What technique do you like to teach in your KettlebellMe classes?
Guillermo Pajuelo: Although we touch on all approaches to kettlebell training, we tend to lean more towards sport.
Alfonso M. Arce: Explain to us what a weekend course looks like for you
Guillermo Pajuelo: We will first focus on the basic movements, namely handling and power movements. These would be the basics and from them we will move on to the inertia exercises, namely the swing, the clean and the snatch, which are the traditional exercises of the kettlebell sport, although the exercises, as I tell you, in all schools and schools are the same What changes is the approach.
Then we move on to the fluid movements, which, as we have already explained, include rotational and compound exercises, to finish with juggling as the last course, which seems very complicated but with a few pointers in the end it can be done very well and also safe. . The course is suitable for anyone who wants to learn and improve.
And that’s it for the interview with Guillermo. Remember that you can register for KettlebellMe’s online courses by clicking here and visiting their website to find out the dates of the face-to-face seminars that they organize throughout Spain. These are the most immediate confirmed dates:
October 7th and 8th: CrossFit Singularbox Madrid
November (Dates to be confirmed): CrossFit Singularbox Granada
