The First "Strong First Girya" Croatia! Part 1

It's Tuesday, late morning, one week since we left home, five days since arriving in Croatia.  The first four days we had pretty nice weather, but we were kind of busy, well, Mark was, as he was the one teaching and leading the first Croatian SFG Instructor Certification course (many pictures and details to come soon).  

I say "first" because we've been invited back next year and I couldn't be more thrilled.  Of course I'm thrilled to come back, but even more so for the athletes, trainers and coaches in Croatia to have the opportunity to earn their SFG certification, the gold standard of kettlebell training.

On the first day, Friday, I was lucky to lead the group through one of my favorite swing routines, a very short, but brutal, power swing ladder I call my

"PowerFUL Swing Ladder" (8 minutes).  I've shared it here in my blog and it's a routine I lead at most every workshop and guest teaching class.  I continued on afterwards, "next door" with 30 more minutes of my own swing workout w/16kg with a dozen rounds of Sinister Swing.  Short of 45 minutes of training, but it was enough!

The next day I tried to start early with some GS sets.  I had 16kg jerks and snatches to do.  I felt as if I had been hit by a bus!  My jerk set was a disaster so I had to try and find some sort of redemption! I modified the workout by doing some shorter sets and one last long set with the 12kg (150 jerks, 15rpm, 75/75, 10 min set).  On to my snatches...

The Saturday before I left I did a 16kg 20 rpm six minute set (60/60) and the bell felt as if it were floating!  No so much on Saturday!  In fact every rep felt like a lead brick.  Looking at the video it didn't look that bad, but technique flew out the window and I just had to gut out every last rep.  In fact I was watching the clock mentally begging the six minutes to be over!  We've all had those sets, haven't we?


At that point I put the comp bells away because I knew I had one more swing workout to lead the SFG candidates through just before lunch, another short but "powerful swing" workout.

Later that second day (Sat), Marla, a friend and fellow KBer from NM traveling through eastern Europe on her sabbatical met up with me here in Kastav!  I was able to set her up in the apartment next door and we made plans to travel to a nearby town the next day.  Sunday is the last day of the course and the final day of testing strength, technique and teaching ability, so I'm not needed, and I also like to stay out of the way.  It's the most important day for the candidates, but I do like to be there first thing, during the snatch test, and last thing, the Grad workout!  In between I felt was the best time to sneak away and do a little tourist-ing!  Off we went to Opatija....part 2 coming soon!