How does ivan denisov train

What I discovered is that beneath the layers of physical armor and bionic work capacity, lays another dimension to his expertise which helps to explain his amazing success as both lifter and coach at such a young age. Turning our local Korean restaurant into Ivan's portable classroom. In addition to his historic achievements on the platform, Ivan Denisov is an engineer, teacher, author, and is self-coached!

He is currently completing a textbook on kettlebell lifting for graduate level students. In less than 4 years, he developed a team of athletes that are taking over the Russian Championships; he has already coached twelve of them to their Master of Sport rank. After watching some of his personal videos of his students in training, I was relieved to see something familiar: progress over time. Using his cool mini-notebook which he says he sleeps with in order to protect , he was able to turn an informal meal or a simple car ride in Bay Area traffic into a state of the art high-tech classroom.

He pointed out technical flaws demonstrated by his students on film and his face lit up every time he talked about the ideas he developed to help correct them.

Then he shared his own training clips — including footage of his performance on the day he earned his first MS rank — to point out more errors; it was disarming and also oddly heartwarming to hear him quickly scrutinize his own mistakes just as he had done to all of us over the weekend. Ivan Denisov is human after all. One of the most touching moments from camp was when Ivan told us how hard he has worked to keep his program free of cost for all of his students.

He currently has over thirty students in Chelyabinsk and at only 28 years of age, Ivan is proud to be a mentor for them in and out of the classroom. I help them in school, with homework, and in family life, if they need me. I was inspired by his generous spirit and his youth! I was also intrigued when Ivan told me that, in his opinion, the 24kg regulation for professional female lifters is killing participation in his country.

That sounded pretty controversial coming from the coach with arguably the best MSWC female champion in the world! Luckily he responded to the question thoughtfully. Ivan cited that there were over men in the Russian Championships last year, but only 15 women… and this disparity is not by coincidence.

The lack of 20kg kettlebells due to the high cost of purchasing a 20kg bell in Russia has simply forced women to adopt the 24kg even when they are not physically ready. Ivan believes there is a misconception that all women are snatching the 24kg in Russia without issue. He had a lot more say on this and many other interesting topics that I later requested by interview.

Ivan: I seriously participated in kettlebell sport since The first time I heard about kettlebell lifting was in when I arrived in the city of Chelyabinsk and enrolled to study in college. Maya: Who introduced you to Kettlebell Sport? Who is your coach?

Ivan: A fellow student introduced me. He proposed that I try to prepare for a competition, the championship of the institute I attended. Do you still practice on your technique? Between competitions I keep on training no-stop, changing the goal of the training process. Good technique requires constant correction. It should be every day of training focus on breathing, relaxation and posture.

Keep balance during exercise. And work on flexibility. If you had to choose only three exercises for the rest of your life, what would they be? A very difficult question. I like doing a lot of exercises and I change them periodically. The best exercise — long cycle. Running as a natural exercise that I really love. Also, probably playing games. I can play all the most popular ball games in Russia and I include them in the training process with pleasure.

Kettlebell lifting is a very difficult sport. We must learn to take pleasure from training. Current holder of absolute world records in all three competition lifts jerk, snatch, longcycle , Denisov was in Rome with another legendary lifter, Valery Federenko , founding head of the World Kettlebell Club WKC.

These, and other legendary athletes share a common denomenator: The ability to find an inner calm and dominate their surrounds with such ease. There is no rush, no huffing and puffing and no look of impending collapse. Ivan Denisov shares these qualities.

As a great champion, Denisov is perhaps on his way out of top competition and moving more into his role as a full-time coach, although he was coy about this when I asked him, and he still posts world class numbers.

He took us through the small details of the GS competition lifts with continual emphasis on efficiency and easy of movement. While I was struggling to refine my technique with the 20kg bell, Denisov was snatching and jerking the 32 as if it were a toy.

During the breaks, I was interested to observe Denisov and was struck but his calmness and focus. There was certainly a presence about him, he was after all cm and almost kg, yet not in the imposing way I would imagine a heavyweight boxer or an American football linebacker.

On day 2, Federenko informed me that Denisov would be demonstrating a snatch set after lunch. He found his solace, and prepared in the most relaxed way for a 5 minute set with the 32 using only his right hand. The set was almost perfectly timed at 20rpm, for a total of reps. No fuss, no stress. The breathing and technique were even throughout, and there was no visible fatique afterwards. A simple kg of lifting with one arm in 5 minutes. Denisov later completed the WKC strength and conditioning test 5 sets of 6mins with a maximum score using the Strangely there were no heavier bells, as he had previously negotiated the 48 to set the highest ever score recorded in the test.

Again, no stress, no panic. I realized quickly that masters of their respective games are able to find a zone whereby their efficiency equates to power output at a level few others come close to achieving. I often wondered during my rugby career, and even as a footballer, why coaches seem to think that whipping players up into a frenzy of blood boiling tension is suppost to help performance.

I never went along with that theory, even whilst I was in the changing room squeezed up against these sweating guys who seemed to have expended much of their energy before the match had begun!. They talk of sleep, of unwinding with movies, PlayStation, swims or walking.

Maybe this is the way the best performers save their energy for the times it really counts. I have a sneaking suspicion the majority of amateur competitors, regardless of their sport, fail to see this connection. Performance is as much about the ability to turn up on the day and win the match, dominate your set or your opponent, as it is the ability to stay calm and relax.