***(in the most sarcastic tone possible) Thank you so much Youtubers for your unsolicited advice. What would I possibly do without you?***

Just recently I received comments regarding my technique on two of my older kettlebell videos, along the same lines, but from different people.

I call these people fools not because of their technical advice…

But because they think there is only one way to do something.

That, my friends, is the bigger mistake. That is Foolish with a capital F.

The first was on a video of me doing 250 kettlebell snatches in 10 minutes with a 24kg kettlebell.

Fool #1 states:

“sorry to say…but you have to work on your technique…shoulders not locked…lifting heels…no proper hip hinge…pulling with the shoulder instead…wrong breathing…this way you will hurt”

Lifting heels, not exclusively hip hinging, pulling with shoulder, anatomical rather than paradoxical breathing. Those aren’t wrong. Those are elements of the girevoy sport style of lifting. Fool #1 is unaware of this entire branch of kettlebell technique, that is in stark contrast, often directly opposite, what is taught in many places.

All of which has its place in certain circumstances.

My favorite is this fools’ last line:

“this way you will hurt”

LOL

No. This way I will not hurt because I know how to use my body, unlike you do.

I can run technical circles around Fool #1 because I can switch up my technique based on what I’m going for…not because I’m locked into a single method of doing it…and I can do it safely.

Onto Fool #2 who wrote on my video of doing 300 swings with the 48kg (106lb) kettlebell.

“need to be more explosive”

Why? Because you want to spend more energy when doing a test of endurance?

That’s exactly like sprinting during a marathon. Do marathon runners get the same comments on their videos?

An endurance test is all about efficiency. Guess what I was going for?

Again, explosiveness with kettlebells is great…if that’s what you’re going for. In fact, that may be one of the best ways to use kettlebells.

AND there’s a time and place for swinging kettlebells with a minimum of explosiveness. Like when you’re doing hundreds of reps.

I’d like to see either of these Fools do what I did in the videos.

I would laugh with glee as their technique hamstrung them to lower performance.

My advice to you, solicited since you signed up for my emails, is not to follow fools advice.

Beware anytime someone says this is the ONLY way to do something.

Realize there is more than one way to do anything, swinging and snatching kettlebells just a prime example of a much bigger overall pattern.

(Also, beware when someone doesn’t know about the shift key. It tends to give the fools away.)

If you want to truly master kettlebells, learning how to use them in multiple different ways is key.

If you want to exert super strength, there are certain things to do.

If you want to be maximally explosive, there are different things to do.

If you want to go fast, still more is different.

If you want to endure, that changes things up a bunch more.

A great place to start is The Next Level Kettlebell Training video, which goes into detail on some of these key methods of altering your technique for these different purposes.