by Catherine Imes
AKC Coach
Have you truly immersed yourself in something? Martial Arts? School? Immersion often requires sacrifice. It may mean that you can’t do 10 things you like to do. It might mean that you have to focus on one thing.
Why immersion? In my opinion, immersion is the way to gain a deep understanding of something. Immersion allows you to see things at a very primal level. You become intimately familiar with the subtleties or nuances. You start understanding for yourself why things work the way they do. Immersion requires dedication in terms of time, focus and consistency. When you decide to immerse yourself, you dedicate time to your endeavor. You dive and then submerse yourself in the endeavor.
Immersion is not a short term concept. Yes, immersion will enable you to grasp concepts more quickly because the focus is much greater. The decision to immerse yourself for a year may save you 5 or 6 years of struggling if you just dabble here and there. But, one shouldn’t underestimate the time required.
I must reiterate the the time, focus, and consistency aspects. You find that some days everything is foggy during the 
process. Things that were smooth yesterday or more easily understood are difficult to grasp today. Tomorrow, that fog may lift and that understanding has returned. Next week or next month, those very things may be ingrained to the extent that you will never forget them. That’s the process. But, until you put in the time and consistency and immerse yourself, you cannot expect to have an ingrained understanding of something. You can dabble aimlessly forever and still not ever gain the understanding that you would if you immerse yourself for a year or two.
I’ve been Kettlebell lifting since April of 2003. I really was attracted to the ballistics, the swing, the clean and the jerk. Without any real understanding of the movements or coaching, I saw the conditioning benefits. Even with relatively poor technique, my strength and athleticism improved.
In 2007, I decided to immerse myself. I decided to abandon other forms of training for Kettlebell Lifting. Why did I find total immersion necessary? Like learning a foreign language where only that language is used, I felt that I must only do Kettlebell Lifting. Therefore, I couldn’t continue to do it in conjunction with other training modalities if I expected to gain a deep understanding. I wanted nothing in my way while trying to learn the movements. I found this necessary to fulfill my goals of becoming an adept Kettlebell lifter and a Coach. To know whether this stuff worked and to really see the benefits, I couldn’t do something else that may directly or indirectly interfere with improving my technique or that would skew my progress either positively or negatively.
What did this process entail? I followed a fairly strict regimen of snatches, swings and one arm Jerks. I watched and re-watched all of Valery’s youtube videos. Over time, this focus allowed me to understand the similarity between the movements. For example, the lockout on a jerk is similar to the lockout on the snatch and that is why the one arm Jerk is such a valuable supplemental exercise to the snatch. I started to understand the timing components in the jerk and the snatch. This understanding and awareness became invaluable not only in my quest to better my numbers, but in my ability to coach others in the movements and to develop training plans for others.
Is total immersion necessary to put up decent numbers in something like a 16kg snatch or even respectable numbers in the other lifts? No, not for everyone. I did 200 in 2006 before I really understood the snatch technique. I sort of understood the training protocol I had learned from Valery, but did not have a solid understanding of the technical concepts. Granted, I had to be doing something technically correct. But, I didn’t understand what I was doing right at a technical level. I was inconsistent and not very focused. Furthermore, I would be hard pressed to tell someone else how to do it. At that point in time, I would have been totally ineffective as a coach.
Immersion does something else; It gives you an appreciation for the relative difficulty of something . After immersing 
myself in KB Lifting, I have empathy for anyone who tries it. I understand the frustration of trying to learn the technique and on some days just not having it. Somedays, everything just feels wrong or out of place. I understand that some days it is nearly impossible to get motivated for a long set or even a short set. But, I understand how to safely get past these phases and stay consistent with my training so that I keep progressing. Until you’ve immersed yourself in something (not only KB training), you may not have that level of understanding or empathy.
Immersion develops patience not only with yourself but with others. Once you become immersed, you understand what it means to be greedy and how this can impede your progress. You develop an instinct and an intuition that will guide you through your own training and the coaching of others. The awareness that you develop will help you decide when to push harder and when to go easier.
If you are an aspiring coach, competitor or just someone who wants to gain a deep understanding of a certain skill, try immersing yourself for a period of time. Of course, it may be at the sacrifice of other things, but I believe the process will pay big dividends. You’ll not only learn about the endeavor, but you’ll learn how to learn. It will help you identify and overcome your weaknesses while teaching you to utilize your strengths.
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-Catherine Imes is an AKC Coach and the first Master of Sport from America. She is also Women’s Team Captain for Team America, and is a Champion Kettlebell Lifter with several years competition experience, having placed Nationally and Internationally among the best in the World. She can be reached from her website www.catherineimes.com for Coaching, Workshops or Kettlebell Fitness.
To all our European Kettlebell Lifters, we are happy to be able to tell you that the first-ever Pro-Grade Competition Kettlebells are available in Europe NOW! A few free Kettlebells are owed to some of the Fitness Course participants, but this truly marks the opening of World Kettlebell Club activities in Europe with available stock for the population. “Fedorenko’s” as they have been dubbed in the USA have been proven alrady to be the most comfortable and results-producing design in Kettlebells today! This is the modern Kettlebell design too, not the classic’s with varying sized balls that were intended for weights for Merchants during the time of Czars, not Fitness. 
These are the same standard Kettlebells used for decades in Eastern Europe that have the same dimensions from 8kg-40kg. They were intelligently designed for Mass Fitness, and later made the Sport Standard by Professional Athletes and Sports Officials. When Coach Fedorenko came to the USA there were no Kettlebells of any kind for him to use! Can you imagine an Honored Master of Sport with no Kettlebells? He had the first Kettlebells in America sent to him from Russia directly, and began his introduction of the tool to Trainers and Coaches. Since then, he has revised the design and made his own model, which is immediately available in Europe! Secure your needs now before the first batch is sold out!
Gregor Sobocan has been appointed Head Coach of WKC’s Slovenian Kettlebell Club and is the first distributor of the World Kettlebell Club mission outside of AKC. He attended the first European Coach Certification last Summer in Greece, where he met Coach Fedorenko’s Coach, Coach Fedorenko, and the Greek Lifters. Gregor was also present at the first European Fitness Course last month, and is a Master Trainer of that Protocol. 
It’s clear that with Gregor’s amazing athletic ability and understanding of Team Sports and Fitness, he is a perfect first Head Coach of a European Kettlebell Club, and will establish the Methods and Protocol of WKC throughout Europe. He is available to license Trainers in the Fitness Program and has agreed to give a 1 hour free lesson at this gym with the purchase of a Pro-Grade Competition Kettlebell (1st purchase only). Special shipping can be arranged for large orders as well! Check with WKC for details!