Saturday 5/3/08 – AKC Classic KB Meet

Ahhh back in the Vegas!  Lisa and I got in late Thursday and stayed at the Excalibur this time.  Great weekend.  Walked the strip from Mandalay to the Venetian on Friday.  Ate at some new and some favorite places.  Burgers at the Burger Bar at Luxor are always a winner and the sushi at Shibuya at MGM was awesome.  I can’t get over this place – it’s the greatest.  Blackjack was awesome for me this time came back up which is always good.  Saw Pete Rose at the wax museum at the Venetian – I guess when your celebrity time is up you go to Vegas!  LOL! 

The kettlebell meet.  Took place at the Alexis Hotel just a few minutes off the strip.  Very nice hotel and the AKC put together one hell of a competition. 

My results: Long Cycle, Amateur, >90kg (weighed in at 92kg) – 20 reps in 5:00. 

This was bad for me.  I’ve done 25 reps and gone 8 min in training and I was really anticipating going the full 10 min.  Especially when Valery walked up to me early that morning and said “Are you ready?  You will go 10:00.”  Then walked away.  Having him watch my set is the equivalent of when I had Steve Goggins backspotting me during my squats at the APF GA State meet back in 2006.  NO pressure what-so-ever, yeah right!

Again, the AKC put together one hell of a meet and there were a ton of competitors.  This meet started around 10:30am and ran until about 6:00pm with about 21 flights of anywhere from 2-5 lifters per flight.  They had 5 platforms with excellent AKC/WKC back drops.  5 warm up plats and all the kb’s you would ever need.  Top 3 in each division got a medal, certificate, t-shirt and a VERY generous gift certificate redeemable for AKC merchandise.  Considering they did NOT charge a competitors entry fee, NOR did they charge spectators, this was EXTREMELY generous.  Valery, Eric, Jon, Krystina and all those involved with the AKC/WKC need to be commended on an excellent job not only for developing a top notch coaching/fitness certification, but putting on an incredibly well organized, well run meet.  They are doing the right things to grow this sport in the US and judging from the talent that showed up to lift some people have accomplished some very amazing results using the AKC’s methods in a short time and it won’t be long until the US has a team of lifters not just going to international competition but becoming a strong force to be reckoned with.  Again to the AKC – EXCELLENT job on the classic!  It was an outstanding meet!

Highlights for me include:

-seeing Ivan Denisov do 169 jerks in 10:00 w/32kg bells.  This guy is a machine.  Unbelievable.

-sitting at the Alexis bar while Denisov was eating and speaking with Marty.  It went something like this – Denisov to Marty “you are in the American military?”  Marty to Denisov “Yes, I’m a captain”  Denisov to Marty “I did not know they let monkeys into the American military.  Captain Monkey!”  Then as we were walking back to the meet Denisov puts Marty into a headlock and says “I love Marty!” then he pushed him into the wall.  Good times!

-getting to talk with Valery one on one outside the hotel about kettlebells and their carry-over to absolute strength.  Valery is a brilliant guy and knows his shit.  Forum trolls will not get this.  It’s not even worth repeating our conversation because most people will still misconstrue it.  Valery is a solid cat, more people need to learn from this guy.

-finally meeting Cate Imes and getting to see her lift.  Cate is super cool and a badass kettlebell lifter.  Oh and she was unhappy about getting 412 reps in the 1-arm snatch/1-arm jerk biathlon.  She’s a badass!

-getting to meet another exceptional female lifter, Kelly Moore.  While I didn’t get to talk to Kelly that long I was shocked when she says to me “Ahhh, so you’re the infamous Scott Shetler”.  Infamous?  I was to scared to ask what she’s heard and tried my best to convince her it wasn’t true.

-getting to meet the legendary Andrew Durniat.  Could easily win the title – coolest guy in kettlebells.  Super nice guy and a total badass to boot.  Had a great time talking shop with him and know I could learn a lot from this cat due to the fact we are both into the same strength disciplines.  His feats of strength were amazing as well.  Tearing a phone book in half and snatching 2 32kg bells with one hand?  Even Denisov was taking pictures of that!

-meeting Ken Blackburn – aside from him being a strong mofo he’s easily one of the coolest guys in our industry.  Always laughing, joking, and loves to make fun of Marty and Cotter, my kind of guy!

-speaking of Cotter, while he wasn’t lifting it was awesome he came out to support the meet.  Always great to see him and have a few laughs at Marty’s expense!

-on to Marty.  What can I say?  There’s a reason he’s the best American lifter in the kettlebell sport.  No one in this country is more dedicated to their training.  He did long cycle at this meet.  Let’s just say 41 reps in 10:00 with the 32kg bells and on the verge of being the first male to MS in biathlon AND long cycle.  By rep 6 the guy looks like he’s not going to be able to do one more rep, but he does.  And he keeps doing reps until the time is up.  I think 41 was a 1 rep PR for him.  He’s a badass.  Congrats on your lifting brother, as always it’s inspirational to watch you lift.

-lunch with Marty at the Alexis.  Still laughing about some of our conversation!

-watching Eric Liford work the camera.  the guy knows how to “find his hip” with his elbows – who says kb training has no functional carry-over to daily life?  Eric’s a good dude.  He gets a bad rap because some people on popular internet discussion forums don’t like what he says.  I like Eric.  He’s a straight shooter and says what he thinks.  More people should be like him.

-walking out of the meet to go to the bathroom and seeing about 10 people standing in the doorway watching.  They asked me what was going on and I proceeded to give them the low down on kettlebell lifting, the competition, etc etc etc.  Funny.  So many people talk about how BORING of a sport kb sport is but none of these bystanders thought so.  They were in awe of what the lifters were doing and had a greater appreciation after I told them what was going on, the weights people used, numbers of reps, time etc.  Despite what some “American GS Experts” might have you think, the sport is not boring.  But wait, rest assured their technique is JUST FINE.  They should know.  Who am I kidding?

-Meeting wayyy to many new people.  Some include David Zink, Phillip Humphries, Nico from CO, Richard Sherrod, Rick Diliello from Conneaut, OH (great to meet someone from my old stomping grounds!), and everyone else I get to meet.  It’s nice to have some faces to go with forum names, it was great meeting and talking with you all!

-Getting to see my buddies Jim Eggers and Ken Love again.  Great lifting guys!  Ken rocked the snatches man!  Excellent stuff!

I know I’m forgetting a ton of people, but again – this is one first class group and I’m honored to be affiliated with them!  Hopefully we’ll see some of you at the Atlanta certification in a couple of weeks and at the AKC affiliated kb meet I am hosting on December 13.

Thanks again to the AKC for a top-notch event!

Scott