This article was written by John Myers, Jr., CST
Few days will go down in the history of my training, to compare to the morning after of CST Beta. Exhaustion is a good descriptive word, but it leaves out the dimension of mental "brain fry" we so often hear about. Sensory overload would be a bit more technical but we need not go beyond that to get my meaning. It’s a major info dump coupled with challenges you don’t often face daily.
CST brain fry comes from your personal attempt to place the elements of mind, body and soul into a crucible (a.k.a Training Floor) and extract the new product (a.k.a. You). You can’t do that in two days, no matter how long the day. But you can load the crucible, you can stoke the fire, and you can get the ore good and hot. Your brain fry comes because, the whole seminar has an air of camaraderie, and physical exuberance, and it infects you quickly. You simply push yourself to the limit in that atmosphere, seeking to go beyond even your own expectations in hopes of seeing that "new product" in you. Your days spent in Flow after your CST will reward you, as long as you do your diligence.
So, tired and sore as you are, you show up completely and utterly energized for day two of the CST. This is the big day, you gotta show your stuff via another execution of your Kinetic Chain. Then it’s onto the Clubbell®. The second element combined with the first, in our crucible of experience. It’s an ordeal of enjoyment, and I might add fulfillment.
Our Kinetic Chain presentation as a group went very well. I must say, some of the folks amazed me. It was beyond my expectations and a lesson to me in not underestimating human potential. Everyone represented themselves very well, as the performance aspects of this portion of CST Beta were not taken lightly. Passing the course was reliant on doing well on this demonstration of understanding. Everyone rose to the occasion and did great.
Then, it was time for the Clubbell®. My nearly two straight years of Kettlebell training with Pavel were definitely an asset in this portion of the CST Beta. But Clubbell® training had some hidden dimensions I hadn’t anticipated. And I could tell I was not alone in my surprise. Let me explain.
If you are not CST Certified, when you speak of the Clubbell®, you will often say. "These things are great for the upper arms" or "Wow, one of the best grip workouts ever." These statements are true, I made them myself and I’ve heard them said many times. But they are also the utmost basic level of Clubbell® understanding. Many folks are rightly amazed at the shoulder and upper body and even core training aspects of the Clubbell®, but they go beyond that too. And now I will explain what I mean.
The missing in most uncertified Clubbell® training is the legs. For most this is the longest part of your body, (on me, three feet) and also the one that interrupts flow, and forms a major weak point in the endurance and balance of any endeavor. Both mental and physical respond quickly to leg weakness, this lack of leg flow within your Body-Flow can be a real issue to face, and straining the legs can bring on fear to some. If the legs give out, you crash fast. Even strong legs are challenged by this area of club use.
Put simply, we did many basic Clubbell® movements with deep, body scorching, dips. Call to order, with a squat, pendulum with a squat, two ended swings with a deep, deep knee bend. Can you imagine the pain, you could see it on every face! But you could see the revelation too. Many of us had neglected this dimension of Clubbell® training.
But this was the first learned lesson of the morning. The novice thinks the Clubbell® provides a great upper body workout, the experienced user knows by about 11:00 AM, that the Clubbell® involves a total and whole body workout. Muscle, lungs, tendons and joints, they all feel it.
Nuance is a spice you can add to the synergy going on inside your crucible. The fluid flow of gripping tightly with the top fingers as you loosen the lower ones, or the timing for when you reverse that. When you swing a Clubbell®, you are the Warrior embodiment, you swing with the weight, you must brace against the shock and onslaught of gravities pull. Fire is your element as twenty pounds of steel and rubber swings out, loops back, and around your head and a mill is completed or a Rumali is done.
Much of the training with the Clubbell® during this day of training is very direct, just as the body flow was. You are there to learn the proper way, so you can in turn show others the proper way. So after lunch was done, and we picked up our Clubbell® and returned to the learning, we knew the time was coming when each of us would be called on to demonstrate our ability to pass on our Clubbell® teaching ability. We learned and tweaked the rest of the CST GPP (General Physical Preparedness), and I’m sure no one would argue, our muscles were very worked when the days end drew near. When you learn like this, within such a situation, you don’t dwell on how much it hurts at the time. My only thinking on this effect is simply...it’s a gas training with Scott and a room full of devout Clubbell® swingers. I gravitated toward the experience and didn’t want anything removing me from it.
If you are a warrior while you train yourself, you are the King when you teach others. Having assimilated a days worth of concepts, ideas, methods and living lifting techniques, it was time to bring the bounty of circular strengths boon to another (or ultimately to everyone). Enter the contemplative Monk aspect. When you ask someone questions to help better them with the Clubbell®, you must bring nurture and understanding to the table. Everyone has something physically limiting them, and in a situation like this they will share greatly and willingly. Your task is to listen properly, free of ego and the self "I" and genuinely try to help them heal or strengthen that "something" with the Clubbell®. As a trainer, it is of utmost importance that you appreciate physical weakness in another as much as strength. You are not training you, you are there for them. This is what the Monk lives for.
Ultimately at this time, you are the King / Monk, bringing the boon, but listening with both ears, mind and spirit. At the CST you just want to get it right, but eventually you will meet clients or friends who are not so open, not so emotionally available and at that time, the patient Monk aspect will serve you well as you start a path to unbound flow and awaken strength with Body-Flow and the Clubbell® combined.
My partner and I had a very good time working out our Clubbell® routines, and I thought we both did really well. Our task was to find out what the other needed, and then as a group each pair of students was tested. Again, I was very impressed, both at the creativity and the focus. I was proud to be a part of such a capable and astute group of modern athletes.
When the CST ended, we received our certificates at that time. That was a nice touch. Not everyone passed, and that can’t be an easy thing to do, or to experience. But each person who did not pass is welcome to submit a video and try again. And they have all of the current CST Instructors at their disposal if they need help (or at least me, if anyone else says they are busy, my email is below.)
Finding the point where Body-Flow and the Clubbell® meet is the warrior quest of each new CST Instructor. You must daily do battle and face the defeat your body and mind can hand you, but never allow your spirit to experience the temporary loss. For it is in the small moments of wielding a Clubbell® or moving into Body-Flow that the triumphs arise. One such triumph can overshadow a thousand defeats on the training floor, our Body-Flow is that powerful. And when you become the moving crucible between Clubbell® and Body, Mind, and Flow, then what follows will flow from the gates within into a new mold.
Then emerges the unbound new you.
John H. Myers Jr.
John H. Myers Jr, CST, is an instructor at the Summit Martial Arts Center in Manheim, PA where the CST Beta was held. Mr. Myers works as a personal trainer combining Kettlebell, Clubbell®, and Body Flow. His other interests include western long sword and Japanese swordsmanship. Science Fiction and the writing of Sci Fi. Layman science and astronomy and ancient military history. And lets not forget, good & old B movies.
Posted by Vic on July 26, 2005
