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Submitted Articles... • A Concept for Functional Fitness (PDF) • Scientific Evidence for the Russian Kettlebell • 17-Year Old Tactical Athlete • Conquering Tactical Pull-ups • Power to the People + H2H Drills
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Sun, Sand, and Bells
Day #1: We all mustered at the State Police Barracks in Revere, a hundred-year-old building across the street from the beach. The group was an interesting mixed bag, an Aussie recon sniper, a South African RKC Instructor and Wing Chun sifu, members of the Massachusetts State Police, and me. I’m easy to see in the class photo. I’m the one who doesn’t look like any of the above! A 32 year old out of shape paramedic who looks exactly what you would expect for being locked in an ambulance 24 hours at a stretch. Right off the bat, I knew this was going to be something different. Jeff ran us through joint mobility drills for the warm-up. The immediate difference is that these exercises develop range of motion with strength, rather than simple flaccid extension. This kind of flexibility is critical in the field where you have to generate force at odd angles. Since the tactical environment doesn’t always allow you to adjust, you better be able to do it from wherever you are, whenever you need it. After warm-ups, we went straight to the weight pile. Our first lift was the Dead Lift. I did have some passing familiarity with the exercise, but listening to Jeff talk about it - it sounded a lot more like a martial arts class than weight lifting. “Grip the bar like you’re trying to crush it. Take the slack out of the shoulder, breathe deep into the abdominals, tighten the sphincter, and grip the ground with your feet.” We ran through each of these principles individually, and the amount of effort it took to put up the weight seemed to melt. Then we added weight, and did it again with the same effect. Then more weight yet again. Teaching the body to recruit strength from other major muscle groups other than those actually supporting the weight was definitely an eye opener.
The Tactical Athlete program is designed to train the skills crucial to operators while minimizing the time needed to train, recovery time from training, and the risk of injuries. This concept can be seen throughout Jeff’s curriculum of Dead lifts, H2H drills, and maybe his crowing achievement - his Tactical Athlete Pull-up System, or TAPS. Climbing is one of those things you’re gonna be required to do, whether it is gaining entry through a first floor window (which in New England may be 7 feet off the ground), scaling a wall, or jumping a fence. While the reasons to do it are many, the one thing that you can almost guarantee is: you won’t be doing it in shorts and a t-shirt. Jeff’s Tactical Pull-ups start off with the overhand grip, no thumb (just like grabbing the top of that 8 foot cinderblock wall guys). Integrating all the lessons we learned in the Dead Lift, we forced the body to move as a unit, rather than like a wet sack of rope. By breathing into the abs, you recruit baroreceptors in the body that respond to internal pressure with great increases in strength. It also saves your back from injury, which is why Russian weightlifters never wear belts. Of all the KB drills I have practiced, the hardest for me to learn was the Pistol. I honestly thought there was no way I’d ever get down into a one-legged squat and recover. Jeff started us off with the basics of the technique using the Box Squat. We trained each individual component of the exercise using the universal principles outlined in the Dead Lift, and got to work. One of the most impressive things I saw was a state trooper, former collegiate wrestler, and runner of the Boston Marathon doing Rock-Bottom Pistols with a 53 lb. kettlebell. While I am not doing rock-bottom pistols yet, I did get a pretty good Box Squat going with a 36 lb. kettlebell. I’m still working on it, and I am practicing to get lower and lower. It’s just a matter of time!
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| Design by: BHCP | Copyright © 2007 Tactical Athlete Training Systems, Inc. |
Jeff’s H2H video was my first exposure to kettlebells. I was instantly impressed with the tactical efficacy and boredom-proof material. It was easy to see how juggling a 53 pound (or in my case 36 lb.) iron ball forces you to remain on task at all times. When I heard Jeff was coming back for a class in Massachusetts, I knew I had to go. 
In soft-style martial arts we talk about these kinds of things all the time, but I had never heard of this kind of thing in weightlifting or calisthenics. In just three sets, we were up to 200 lbs, and it felt lighter than the first set of 135.