GS is boring

I generally don't care what other people do. Religion, eating, reading, wearing - whatever. You like Sex in the City - fine, though I will still think it's a shit movie. On the other hands some movies I watch make other people wonder if it is safe to let their kids near me. Anyway, what do I care. The same goes with exercise. There used to be debates about sports. Marathon running is inferior to weight lifting because marathoners look like this and lifters look like that. It is stupid of course: every sport develops certain quality, and weight lifters will fall out of the race after ten minutes. Most of them anyway. But who cares anyway? People tend to do things they like, and lifters become lifters not after some thorough analysis and research, but because they like it and probably are good at it. Not necessarily good though. I am a crappy runner, but I like it. So I run and don't really get upset when some schoolgirl wheezes past me.

When I came to South Africa in 1991 I saw cricket first time in my life. My first thought was "what a wanker's pastime". It took me good few years and some explanation from friends to understand the beauty of it. Same with rugby: I used to think it's the sport of retarded criminals. By the final of 1995 World Cup when South Africa took it from Kiwis I was ready to enjoy and appreciate this sport.

Most recent argument in the Net circles I hang around is about - surprise - Girevoy Sport. Just when I thought we are past it. I for one used get quite irritable when GS crowd - mostly AKC folks - slammed Hardstyle and Pavel for degrading the real art of kettlebell, lifting for reps in 10 minutes. That was crap. KB is a ball with a handle (or, as recently put on IGx, a handle with a ball!) and can be lifted in the variety of way. Press it, jerk, snatch, throw, drag - whatever takes your fancy, what's the problem?

The problem seems to come from the side of non-kettlebellers. I realize of course that most IGx "hate" is simple dick waving and baiting the uncorrupt out of boredom. Some of it is bordering on spiteful though. "Boring" is the first objectionable attribute of GS. Honestly, I don't see what's wrong with boring. For in depth discussion on boredom look up the article by Brad Warner, Zen Master and the author of Hardcore Zen, his argument is very appealing and close to heart. But in simple words - there are many boring activities. "GS is as boring as watching the paint dry". For your information, most of us would benefit a lot from watching the paint dry! Zen meditation is sitting and staring at the wall, and it changes lives! But Enlightement and other nonsense of this kind notwithstanding, many sports are boring. Running, cycling, walking,swimming - all cyclical activities. When you start running it is not only boring but also hard. But keep doing it and you transcend the boredom and fatigue and get to the next level where you are able to almost lose yourself. It is not really possible in GS - try losing yourself with 48 kg on your shoulders! - but you get the gist of similar sort. I am not going to exercise my writing skills by describing the "pleasure and pain of every rep" and crap like this. But you can try it yourself: surprisingly, it turns out to be quite addictive.

Boring or not - who cares anyway. I am bored watching basebal, yet the whole US is fascinated by it, so my boredom with it means nothing. Just like someone else's boredom with GS means nothing. But there is another argument against GS, this time from Hardstylers. Apparently in GS the technique of lifting is so perfect that it takes away the physical part away. According to this view trying to spend less energy in order to lift more is somehow demeaning to the idea of sport. Real men supposedly just deal with the weight. This, of course, is the opinion of one idiot on the Dragondoor Forum, but I heard it before.

In the recent years the Hardstyle movement has become strange mixture of really good and really bad. You have excellent Pavel's books with very efficient straightforward programs that work well. You also have VWC, mediocre though hyped up adaptation of interval training. Finally you have the Forum, bizzare place where idiocy is tightly interlaced with frank ass kissing, though occasional gems make it worthwhile for me to visit it every month or so. If anything is boring, by the way, DD Forum is it. But whatever, its members like it, what do I care.

Something posted on IGx brought my attention to the tread on how to lower the bell when snatching on DD Forum. The discussion by itself is pretty meaningless unless you do GS. Most of the effort in snatch is in sending the bell upwards, so what does it matter how you lower it? Sure, by throwing it down actively you create momentum that requires more effort to reverse the movement at the bottom... Blah, blah, blah... Take a heavier bell or do few more reps, you will get the same effect for all fitness purposes. But then somehow the topic developed into the GS vs.HS debate. Apparently HS carries over to other activities, while GS does not. You know what? I really don't give a fuck!

It's time to come to the conclusion of my ramblings. Why do people do GS? For the same reasons people do any sport: they like it. Will GS carry over to other activities? Let's see... If you can jerk two 32 kg bells for 10 minutes - I am sure you will be stronger and your endurance will be better compared to those who cannot. Are these qualities going to be better than if doing HS? I don't know. If you have decent GPP neither GS or HS will make a better skier, basketball player or swimmer. And if you are a beginner whatever you do will make you physically better off.

So those of you who think GS is inferior to other sports - fuck off. Just fuck off and go do whatever you like doing. It's all relative. My mom believes all olympic lifters and boxers are retarded, but she likes figure skating, so what does that mean? We do GS (or whatever you would call it in my case) because we like it and don't need explan or justify it to others.