Monday, December 7, 2009

AKC Southeastern Kettlebell Sport Championships Review

Well, overall the competition was a good experience. Scott Shetler put on a nice event that had a nice turnout of both seasoned lifters and first time competitors. Unfortunately, I was not able to make my goal of CMS rank in the 90kg weight class. My jerk set was first starting around 11:30 AM. I was able to hit my CMS numbers in just over 9 minutes (73 reps) working at a pace of 8 rpm. The video of the set can be seen below:



Since Scott was only running 2 platforms, I had about 3 hours and 30 minutes between sets. I thought this was going to work to my advantage. Heading into the snatch set, I felt quite fresh and my hopes were high for hitting my numbers of 70/70 with the 28kg bell. Unfortunately, things just didn't go my way. I decided to go out at 14 rpm with the plan of working the entire 10 minutes. However, just around the 4 minute mark on the left side, my grip died and I had to switch arms after only 55 reps. On the right side, things didn't fare much better as I was only able to hit 47 reps before suffering grip failure (see video below):


Heading into the competition I didn't think I was quite ready to make my CMS snatch numbers, but I thought I would at least make it into the 60's range on each side. Justin Case also came up just short of making CMS numbers in biathlon (85 kg class) with 68 jerks and 55/65 snatches (needed 65/65 snatches). Mike Sherman had a good showing in the (80 kg class) also falling short of his CMS goals with 41 jerks (needs 65 jerks) and 65/65 snatches.

The good news is that my coach, Catherine Imes, was able to pick up a technical issue with my snatch that once addressed should help me reach my goals. Watching from the side, she noticed that I was still catching the bell too low on the snatch descent causing the bell to pull my arm down and adding extra strain to my grip.....hence the grip failure. After my set, we spent about 15 minutes working on getting into the "hook grip" while the bell is still around eye level. This allows the hook (thumb over index finger) to self tighten as the bell drops between the legs. Once perfected, this should greatly decrease the fatigue of my grip and hopefully put me over the edge for CMS. I am going to take the rest of this week off and then re-focus with the goal of hitting my CMS goal at the upcoming meet January 30th, 2010 in Toledo.


9 comments:

Eric Liford said...

It was a pleasure Judging your Snatch set Matt. Your fixation is great. Very "easy" looking... You'll get CMS soon! -Eric

David said...

It was a pleasure meeting you, Matt. Don't be discouraged by not meeting your goal. It was very obvious to me that you are going to make CMS (and MS) sooner than you think. Good luck-David

MKSchinabeck said...

Thanks Eric.
David, it was very nice meeting you too. You had an impressive showing yourself and will quickly be joining the ranks of CMS and higher in the LCCJ.

Howie B said...

Nice job, Matt. Keep it up, you are almost there!!

Boris said...

Nice job Matt - I'm sorry that things didn't go as well as you had hoped, but I'm looking forward to seeing your progress.

mikeC said...

Matt
Nice work bro. Jerks look solid (as usual) I see that u changed your snatch style. I think CI is rt too, looks like your catchn that bell low and stopn or slown down the natural back-swing. Still great work. Hopefully I will be in OH for Toledo. CMS for both of us!
MikeC

MKSchinabeck said...

Thanks Mike. Have you moved yet? Hows the new job. Hope to see you in Toledo.

Mark Reifkind said...

man you might have not hit your numbers but you your form is great!it's only a matter of time and mad props for getting on that platform and looking like a pro.
that's what's it's all about; at least to me.

MKSchinabeck said...

Thanks Rif.