Seminar memories

I was planning to do a big review of the seminar with Ginko in Sydney that took place three weeks ago. The problem was, I went only to Level 1, and this is all I can comment on.

Was it wirth it? Definitely. Vasily's teaching is not focused on GS, but resembles - in a way - the approach taken by Dragondoor: he promotes kettlebells for general health, strength training, building muscle and - for those interested - GS. The lifts are taught in progression from the easiest to most difficult. For instance you learn two arm swing first, then one arm, then swinging two KBs, then outside swing, with one and then with two bells. Other lifts follow the same teaching pattern.

Separate part of the seminar was juggling, and that was something I haven't seen or heard to be taught by anyone else. We were shown basic moves, also from the simplest to more complex. That was a lot of fun and caused extensive damage to the lawn at Fox Studios where we trained! At the end the Maestro gave a demonstration that lasted good several minutes. Very, very impressive.

I cannot comment on Level 2, but consider this. On the first day my wife came home at 7 pm., and on the second - the day of certification - at half past ten! I was preparing dinner in the honor of the Russian guest, and the barbeque got cold. Thankfully another friend (also Russian) visited our house that evening, and we started warming up with wine and lamb chops well in advance.

When Vasily finally arrived we had dinner. Obviously, I tortured him with questions about him, his training and training methods used for GS in general.

Unfortunately, a lot of the stuff he told me is copyrighted Level 3 material, and I cannot disclose it here. But without going into details I can tell you this: there is no big training secret carefully guided by Russians, like some of the IGx posters believe. There is no secrets whatsoever. I already mentioned that Russian EDT template and its variations are quite popular among Russian gireviks, and principles laid out in various articles from Rostov GS site are used a lot in that part of the world. Ultimately it all comes to general principles of the science of sport training and common sense.

In summary, the seminar was very useful, and I managed to improve certain aspects of my technique in all relevant lifts: snacth, jerk and clean. I highly recommend training with Ginko to anyone interested in kettlebells, for GS or any other purpose.