Week at the USA Kettlebell School in Mpls

On vacation in Minneapolis so naturally I attend class at Ron Morris' USA Kettlebells. Ron is in Sturgis and other places, so class in Run by his own "Certified Trainers". It's really not that different without Ron, except maybe the humor and the focus Ron brings.
Class was run by RKC Barb and assisted by Ron's "Certified Trainer" Angie F. The focus was all about form and the absence of ego. When you talk about ego I always think its about grabbing too much kettlebell to show that you are strong and brave. Its also about grabbing too light a kettlebell to "look good". So I tried to grab what I call the appropriate size kettlebell.
There was a very good turnout, about 25 people. Some new, some veterans and some in between. As I wrote before, the class was all about the form. Swings, cleans and some combinations. At USA Kettlebells the combo of choice is the "Man Maker". So many different combos can be combined in this drill - its awesome. What's really great about it, is that everyone should be able to do them, even beginners!
It's nice to go to classes to get some pointers. I found that sometimes I do not get my shoulders completely over the kettlebells and on the Swing with very light kettlebells my form takes a break.
I also brought a friend to class. It was his first time swinging a kettlebell. He is strong, but lacks the stabilizer muscles of the core. Do you think he needs to swing kettlebells?

I decided to wrap up the entire week with one posting. Everyday we did something different, but stayed with the core drills. Swings, Cleans, Presses, Rows and Bear Crawls with some kettlebell push ups and planks.
The cool things about this school is that people of all abilities can co-exist. There is no ego or talk about how heavy, or how many reps you can do. They don't even talk about different styles of lifting.
What they do talk about is safety and form. The use of proper form on every rep, every move is the essence of USA Kettlebells. Without proper form, your just wasting your time and possibly risking injury!
The classes are a little different. They don't count reps at all so the "workouts" are done by time and the duration of the exercise is up to the teacher. You don't know when the drill will end so what you do, is you go to what they call "Hanzo" (Your inner energy) and keep your form. You quit when your form fails or the teachers says stop. Its hard to prepare yourself for this kind of workout. You have no direct control of the exercises, so you just stay within yourself and focus on your form.
I discovered through the use of light kettlebells that I have no hip snap on the swing. Well if I don't have a hip snap, I'm using the wrong muscles on the swing. This has a carry over to almost every other move with the kettlebell. I'm wasting the most important part of the swing (The initial hip movement) so I never benefit from the energy the lower body creates.
Carry this to the clean, the snatch, the jerks etc. and I'm not using my lower half to it's potential.
Anyway to sum up my experience at Ron's school... He's got it going up there. He was not even there...and the school was great! The teachers were fantastic and the workouts were challenging. 25 to 30 people everyday, that alone shows you what they have going.
The key for this school is that Ron and his teachers care about everyone who steps through the door, but they do ask for a couple things in return.
1) Take responsibility for your own well-being.
2) Make a commitment to improve your own well-being.
Its that simple - Ron and his teachers will take care of the rest!