Practice Activities Explained
What are Practice Activities?
Some lessons or topics may have practice activities, these are activities where you complete the given instructions with your kettlebell. A practice activity is performing an exercise or movement repeatedly to acquire or polish a skill.
It is highly recommended that you perform self-assessments on your practice activities, this means that you film what you’re doing and then assess and compare it to what you saw in the demonstration video(s). You then make notes on the areas that need improvement and keep practicing/drilling until you have perfected the activity.
Practice activities are a way to get familiar with the exercise or movement. The activity will specify what to look out for, and what to do, but it will usually not specify for how long. One should practice the given activity for as long as needed until everything is as expected.
Even if you have enrolled in level 3 or up, it’s highly recommended that you complete these activities as you only have a certain amount of allowed resubmissions for your physical assessments, meaning, if you have to redo your assessment more than allowed, you fail the certification. However, if you spend time performing the practice activities and self-assessing, you will have a higher chance of passing the first or second submission. If you have not enrolled in a level 3 or up course, then this is the time that you are your coach.
The Number of Reps and Days?
The number of reps to perform or the number of days to keep doing the practice activities is not defined as they should be based on the number it takes to understand and perfect whatever movement you are working on. Whatever the number is that you think it is, multiply it by 3 and you’re probably getting closer.
The focus should not be on getting your sweat on, it should be on understanding and perfecting the exercise, this means you generally do not need to do consecutive fast reps to get your heart rate up. You do not want to fatigue your muscles or tax your cardiovascular system. This means you should pause, reset, rest, and go again.
Don’t lie to yourself and cheat yourself out of what you paid for, do not move on while knowing that you have not fully understood or perfected the exercise or drill.
Use a weight that’s light for drills and a weight that’s just right to provide the right response for exercises but doesn’t risk overtraining or injury.
Perfect the Skill
Practice activities are not to be confused with a workout. Everything in the practice activities is about perfecting the skill. It’s generally not about lifting more weight or doing more reps (unless the practice activity calls for it). It’s about showing control, mimicking the movement exactly as demonstrated or within the bounds of safety and efficiency.
Assess
After you have practiced and filmed your activity, you should review your practice and assess it unless you purchased a course that provides the assessment for you. Assess your practice by slowing it down or pause-framing and analyzing the important key movements/positions. Compare to the demonstration given. Make notes on the areas that need improvement and practice again, repeat the process. All this does not need to take place within one day, in fact, it’s best not to overdo it with the practice in one session. Splitting practice into chunks with 30 or 60 minutes of rest in between on a day is good, and splitting it into several small sessions over days is also good.
Invest time to get the most out of your kettlebell journey.
Key points
A great way to practice is to write down the key points from the video or course material and work on those. We generally do not provide all of the key points, as watching the video and taking note of them is a much better way to get the content to stick. Thus, make sure you have a pen and paper ready when watching the course material.
Free Help
We run many online kettlebell communities in which you can always post your practice activity and ask the community for feedback. You have to be specific when you post, and it’s best to refer back to the exact course and exercise as people in the communities all have different views.