12/13/08
Meet Location – Atlanta Barbell & Kettlebell Club
Saturday December 13th marked the date of the first ever major kettlebell sport competition in the southeast region of the US. When I announced this meet at the beginning of 2008 I anticipated maybe 10-15 people tops. Was I wrong! We ended up with 26 lifters (15 men and 11 women) who travelled in from all over the country to compete in 35 events. The events contested were traditional biathlon (jerk+snatch), long cycle and twenty minute one-arm long cycle.
In addition to the competitors we had 20-30 spectators over the course of the day, two vendors and a support team made up of members of the AKC, IKFF and NAKF. This meet was a huge success due to the help of these great people.
We ran three lifting platforms simultaneously in every flight and the entire competition lasted about six hours.
For the official meet results please click the following link:
http://www.atlantaironsports.com/events.html
This was the meet as I saw it through my role as meet director. I wish to express my sincerest thanks to Lorrain Patton who taught me, in an extremely “cordial” tone, what my role as meet director was. “Scott,” Lorraine said, “your job as meet director is to open your gym, smile and shake hands with everyone, and stay the HELL out of Ken’s, Matt’s, Cate’s and my way so we can get the actual work done. Oh, and stop taking my notebook and pen and asking your stupid questions!” Thanks Lorraine! I look forward to the job assignment you have in store for me at the Arnold Classic in March!
The Competitors
These are the people that truly make the competition memorable. I was bitten by the “iron-bug” years ago and cannot imagine going through life without stepping onto the competitive platform. I am a powerlifter and have recently become a kettlebell sport lifter. I can’t help it. It’s an addiction that goes beyond “training for health and fitness”, not that there is anything wrong with those goals might I add. For my brothers and sisters who have the iron coursing through your veins, whether you are a powerlifter, weight lifter, kettlebell lifter or strongman competitor, you understand what I’m referring to.
There is nothing more inspirational to me than seeing my brothers and sisters of the iron, who spend hours and hours sweating in their gyms, basements or garages, stepping onto the competition platform and saying “this is me, and this is what I do”. For me there is no greater moment of clarity than when I’m at a powerlifting meet, on deck and chalking my hands, and the meet director comes over the PA announcing “The bar is loaded!” There is enlightenment on the competition platform.
This was even more evident this past weekend when I saw the lifters who came prepared to leave it all out on the platform, struggle and strain to get that last rep. Just watching these exceptional men and women, novices and veterans, young and old, pour their guts out onto the platform to demonstrate the hours and hours they spent in preparation causes all those emotions you feel yourself on meet day to come rushing back. You can feel the excitement build as the lifters were chalking the bells and hands and you feel the fatigue as they struggle to make a full ten minutes or get that one last rep.
There was one moment, closing in on minute 8 or 9 of an early flight, and the lifters looked like they were about to die, when my wife Lisa, who was viewing a kettlebell lifting meet for her very first time, turned to me and said, “it hurts me to watch them, why do they do that to themselves?”
For those of us who’ve been bitten by the iron bug, we know why. It’s for that one moment on the platform where we define ourselves, what it is we do. Why we don’t want to go through life feeble and weak. Some do it for world records and to beat their competition knowing full well that the biggest competition we will ever face is the person we see when we look in the mirror. I guess that’s why we do it. That emotion must have shown on my face because my wife looked at me and said “Oh my god, you look like you are about to cry.”
One of the most inspirational things I’ve ever seen is someone taking the competitive platform, after hours and hours of solitary training and labor and allowing themselves to be judged in the sport they love.
To each and every one of you who picked up the bells and participated in my competition I wish to extend my sincerest thank you – it was an honor to watch you lift.
Team Angry Goat Athletics – Chris, Colin, Conner and Celia Wells. Thank you for making the trip out from Alabama to participate and watching 10 year old Colin, who barely weighed in at 30kg, go a full 20 minutes in the one arm long cycle with an 8kg bell was incredibly impressive! My hat’s off to you Colin, and your team, you were all awesome! Thanks for the support!
Team Ice Chamber – Maya and Steve Khuong and team members Jessica Dibiase, Surya Fowler, Sara Nelson and Heidy Cassanola. What can you say about this crew? They win the award for travelling the furthest to compete – from Berkley, CA! Not only did they compete, they kicked some serious tail. Congrats to Maya, Sara, Heidy and Jessica who all achieved the rank of Candidate for Master of Sport and to Heidy who won best overall female lifter! Also thanks to the Ice Chamber crew for the T-shirt! You are outstanding lifters and incredibly dedicated to this sport – I hope to make it out to California to visit and train with you – from the results I saw this weekend I would learn a ton. The Ice Chamber team rocks!
Team Crossfit Outer Banks – Sara Hallas and Tracey Maurice travelled out from Outer Banks, NC to represent Crossfit Outer Banks and OBX Weightlifting. Represent they did. This was their first kettlebell sport contest and they decided pretty last minute to compete and both did exceptionally well for their first meet blowing away the requirements for a level 4 ranking in the WKC. Time to move up to the 16kg’s ladies and we’ll see you at the Arnold! Just don’t tell Gene that we convinced you to do the kettlebell meet over the weightlifting meet! 
Ken Love from Montgomery, AL – Ken is the man, plain and simple. Not only does this guy make the snatch look easy he can pull 450+ in the deadlift. Thanks for coming out Ken, always a pleasure to see you my friend!
Ross Gilling and Diana Pendleton came down from Charlotte, NC and did great! Ross and Diana are exceptional lifters. Ross went 10 min in all of his events and put up some impressive numbers and Diana did exceptionally well for being so new to the sport and will no doubt accomplish some big numbers!
Steve Duke – Steve is from Gwinnett County here in Georgia and had a great first meet!
Phillip “P-Hump” Humphry came down from KY to compete and did very well. I met Phillip for the first time at the AKC Classic in Vegas and it was great seeing him again. Nice lifting P-Hump!!
Joe Williams came down from Atlantic City – great meeting you Joe! Nice lifting and I promise I’ll be up to play your tables in AC soon!
Chris “C-Duff” Duffy… What can I say about C-Duff? This guy is the man plain and simple. Amazing lifting Duff! Big numbers for sure. One of my favorite C-Duff moments, after we subjected him and Andrew, two guys who’s four basic food groups are: red meat, red meat, red meat and red meat, came the morning of the competition. Duff comes in to weigh-in, looks at me and says “Scott, here’s where you went wrong last night. A meal should consist of the following: beef appetizer, beef entre, and for dessert, well beef of course.” I said what should we wash all that down with Duff? He looks and me and says “a glass of melted butta’!” Anything else C-Duff said to me this weekend I either deny or plead the fifth on! Great meeting you my friend!
Martin Kelly came down from Indy. I met Martin in Vegas at the Classic and he lifted very well this past weekend. Sorry we couldn’t come up with any more events for you to compete in Martin, but I thought 4 would be enough!!
Joey Troup competed from Marietta, GA. Joey has been a long time friend of mine and it was great to see him do well. Thanks for the support Joey!
Marty Farrell – my brother from another mother! Marty is the man plain and simple. Awesome work with the long cycle and MS is around the corner. Overheard this at the meet “look, his hips are like boney little shelves for him to rest his elbows on!” And Marty – you definitely impressed the waitress at the Loafing Leprechaun with the pectoral atrophy! Thanks for using your skills to get us the Guiness brother!
Andrew Durniat came down from Wooster, OH – this guy is the man, plain and simple. I was hoping to see him achieve his goal in the snatch, but today wasn’t his day. That will come very soon though! Andrew I feel like if we’d have taken you to Outback instead of sushi the night before the meet you would have gotten higher numbers! Nice lifting, 139 snatches w/ the 32kg and overall male lifter on a bad day?!?!?! Wow!
Mike Sherman and Rachel Suh made the trip down from Toledo, OH (being an Ohio native myself if was great to have all these people from the Buckeye state visiting!) Mike and Rachel both lifted exceptionally well. One of the most memorable moments of the meet was when Mike wanted to drop the bells at around 8 minutes in the long cycle – everyone in the gym got behind him and cheered him on to the full 10 minutes. That’s what it’s all about people! Nice lifting Mike and Rachel!!
Terri Parker made the trip down from CT and had a great first meet going 107 reps in the long cycle. Nice lifting Terri!
Again, thank you to all of you who competed and helped make this meet a success!
The judges, supporters, the guy behind the guy, and… oh yeah, Lorraine and Ken!
Cate Imes – Cate it was great to have you down to the meet! Sorry I didn’t get to see you put up some big numbers with the 20kg bells, but all your help with the meet is greatly appreciated! Plus having the Marty-Speak Blog recital at the Leprachaun after the meet was way too cool! Oh and Cate, nice shoes, wanna see my inch dumbbell? I like to lift weights and stuff…
Nico Rithner – This is Nico in a nutshell. My phone rings at about 8am Saturday morning, “Scott, it’s Nico from CO. Look man, I’ve been up since 8:30am yesterday, I just flew in from Denver and just checked into the hotel. I am so tired I can barely see. Just let me get a shower and some food and I’ll be there.” Shower and food? Nico, take a nap!! Thank you so much for coming all the way out to help judge and to just support the meet. Your help, and friendship, is greatly appreciated!!
Matt McNamarra from Salt Lake City. I’m convinced Matt just “appears” at kettlebell events. I haven’t seen him since March 2007 at the AKC cert. We’re at Blue Fin Sushi Friday night for dinner, the waitress sits a bottle of saki down and Matt just morphs out of thin air. The guy is amazing – “Scott, what can I do to help with the meet?” Well, we need a time keeper and judges and someone to list all the flights in advance, Matt is that cool? “Sure Scott, one of two things will happen, the meet will run smoothly and go off without a hitch or I’ll screw everything up royally, either way it’ll be interesting!” Matt, thank you sincerely for all the help and it was great seeing you again! See you in Columbus in March!
Lorraine Patton came down from NY – why? Basically to show me how little I know about running meets! Lorraine was awesome! “Scott, this would run so much smoother if you would stop talking to me and let me run your meet. And by the way, I will own you at the Arnold – be ready to work!” Lorraine, thanks for all the help, this meet certainly wouldn’t have happened without you, thanks again and it was great to finally meet you!
Ken Blackburn from MI. This is Ken “Scott, I heard you’re having a meet, I’m coming down to help out but not lift, if you need anything let me know.” Ken is straight up one fo the nicest people in the world. Funny thing was for six hours his heads buried in his laptop during the meet. I just think he’s entering lifter’s info and repetitions, was I wrong. He’s sitting there updating his Facebook page and playing blog pranks on Scott Helsley. He’s worse than a 14 year old girl! Seriously Ken, always great to see you and I appreciate the help with the meet, like I said to Lorraine, it couldn’t have happened without you! I was joking that Ken and Lorraine are like some special ops team – having a kettlebell meet? They pull up in a black van, jump out with laptop, pens, and notebooks in hand ready to ensure you don’t screw up your own meet!
The Judges – off the top of my head I remember Nico Rithner, Ken Blackburn, Ken Love, Martin Kelly, Andrew Durniate, Cate Imes, and Valery Fedorenko helping out with the judging – thank you all! If I missed anyone who sat in I apologize! Your help is greatly appreciated.
The American Kettlebell Club
This sport wouldn’t be happening the way it is now without Valery Fedorenko and Eric Liford of the AKC/WKC. Thank you to Valery for bringing his expertise as a former world champion lifter to the US and sharing it with us through his work in the AKC. American lifters have excelled in a very short time due to these methods of training. Thanks to Eric and Krystina at the AKC for taking care of the kettlebell trophies, AKC rank certificates, AKC and WKC banners and everything else they provided. The AKC is a superb organization and I am honored to be affiliated with them. Thanks!!
Family and Friends
I would like extend a very special thanks to my family and friends that came out to support the meet. My mom, cousin Jeff, Uncle Bill and Phil for all coming out to spectate and show interest in the event, your support means a lot! Holly Byram for all her help and taking pictures at the meet. Jane and Sherman Ledford from Quest Nutrition for supporting the meet. Hugh Kinney for his help in contacting local news and media about the event and for the support he’s provided to my gym. Thanks to Cathy Marshall, Terra McCurdy, and Tony Hood for coming out to support the event. Thank you to all the lifter’s friends and families that attended to support the lifters and the event. A special thanks to AKC Coaches Eric Fronczak, Steven Mosley, Randy Smith and Matt Minter for providing their kettlebells for the meet. All the lifters and friends I train with who came out to support the event – thank you! Thank you to everyone who purchased bottled water at the meet – all of the water sales money my gym collects goes to the Forgotten Animals Animal Rescue to help get innocent little animals out of animal control and either adopted out or into no-kill shelters. A very special thanks to my beautiful wife Lisa who is very much the backbone of my training business – without her help none of this would ever have exceded the planning stages, thanks babe!
Again, thanks to all the competitors and people who made this event possible! If I missed anyone I apologize, it wasn’t deliberate. Let’s make the AKC Southeast KB Sport Championship next year even bigger! See you all at the Arnold in March!
Scott
