The RKC Time Warp - Reflections on the RKC Certification

                    Team Rif with assistant RKCs Zachariah Salazar and Betsy Collie after the Graduation Workout

Now that I have been home for 2 days, I have had some time to reflect on the incredible experience I had in St. Paul.  Prior to the Cert my focus had been on the physical requirements needed to pass the certification.....the snatch test and the graduation workout as well as general overall conditioning.  What I did not prepare for was the enormous mental and emotional strength that was required to succeed at this course.  Although I have never been through military basic training, I have endured some very physically and mentally draining experiences in my life, including many years of high school and college football, and 7 years of post-graduate medical training requiring 100+ hour work weeks and severe sleep deprivation.  From the moment the course started Friday morning I entered the RKC Time Warp.  It became clear very quickly that the only way to survive was to live for the moment and focus on each 20-30 minute teaching segment or man-maker.  I had no sense of the time or day.  The only way I new the day was coming to an end was the setting sun.  But in the Time Warp my mind was focused on only one thing.....Hardstyle!!   There were no deadlines, no beepers, no cell phones, no crying kids, no bosses.  It was just me, my kettlebell, Team Rif,  Pavel and the other instructors.  It was in this vacuum that the transformation happened.  Clear from all other responsibilities, my mind was able to soak up and master tons of information and through hundreds of repetitions my central nervous system was rewired for Hardstyle.  By the second half of Saturday, the transformation that Rif and so many other Team Leaders frequently describe had arrived.  Team Rif was now a lean, mean, Hardstyle machine.   The RKC Cert is truly an amazing experience and one that I will not soon forget.  The friendships made during such utter suffering are like no other and I am proud to be a part of the RKC family and look forward to working with all of the wonderful people I met in the near future.