On the 1st and 2nd of September Ivan Denisov graced Iron Edge with his supreme athletic presence and invaluable coaching expertise. For anyone who hasn't heard this name before, in the kettlebell world he is a god - the absolute world record holder in both biathlon and long cycle, and a highly accomplished coach with several World Class Master of Sport athletes among his athletes.
This was Denisov's first trip to Australia and he got the authentic Melbourne treatment with Customs holding him up for 3 hours and sun followed quickly by rain on his trip to The Zoo. Denisov didn't let any of it bother him, though, and beamed the whole weekend - that man has a magical and infectious smile. Even the animals seemed drawn to him and he got mobbed by a bunch of kangaroos at The Zoo.
Denisov did his own training at Iron Edge, preparation for a 24kg biathlon competition in Moscow this week. He seemed pretty happy when we showed him where he'd be training and proceeded to walk around testing all of the equipment! All of it stood up to his massive 110kg frame pulling and pushing on it without any trouble at all.
While in Melbourne, Denisov went to the sports science lab at the Australian Catholic University for some testing. James Ross (one of the Iron Edge Kettlebell Workshop instructors) is currently preparing a paper on the kettlebell snatch so was pretty stoked to have the world record holder participate in the study (Denisov has done 232 snatches with a 32kg kettlebell in 10 mins).
James performed technique analysis and a VO2 max test while snatching - the results were staggering, as soon as they're published we'll let you know! Denisov is a keen scientist, his first degree was in mechanical engineering and he was very happy to have the tests performed - in Russia there isn't much money put into kettlebell sport in terms of science so he doesn't usually have access to the sort of equipment in they had in the ACU lab. He was so enthused that he suggested they perform more tests! Denisov endeared himself to the lab staff with his jokes, relaxed nature, friendliness and genuine interest - Denisov is no prima donna.
Over the weekend there was a kettlebell training camp at Iron Edge, where Denisov teamed up with one of the all-time greats of kettlebell sport, Valery Fedorenko. Denisov and Fedorenko make a powerful team; you know when two truly great coaches agree that you're getting priceless information. Those who attended the camp got individual technical advice and programming, as well as getting a lot of hard training in.
The enthusiasm with which Denisov and Fedorenko talk about kettlebell lifting is contagious, and their keenness to impart their priceless knowledge is clear as soon at they start talking. They gave everyone honest, helpful feedback - there was no sugar-coating of their advice and if you were making a mistake you got told, but you also got told why and how to fix it, which is key to improving so everyone left a far better lifter.
A highlight of the weekend was watching Denisov test 40kg jerks. He switched from a smiling, happy-go-lucky guy to a serious, world champion athlete as soon as he started preparing for the set; quite an incredible transformation to witness. When he prepares to lift he looks like he goes into a sort of trance and his eyes roll back into his head - he is a man who clearly has great control over his own mind and this is something that has allowed him to excel in his sport. In 3 minutes, Denisov did 56 jerks with a pair of 40kg bells, which to our knowledge is a world record.
It was an enormous honour to have both Denisov and Fedorenko at Iron Edge and we hope to have them out again in the next couple of years, so if you love your kettlebells stayed tuned for more information.
