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Course: Kettlebell Instructor's Toolbox

Lead Instructors:  Andrea Chang ,  Zar Horton ,  Vic Verdier
 Access:  Public   Status:  Active   Course:  Not Available for Purchase

Coaching and instruction is more than just working your student(s) into the ground. Good coaching means making the right choices for the goals in mind: visualizing MORE options, not LESS. Having the most tools in your toolbox means finding the right “fix” for your student becomes easy when THEY are struggling to own a skill, and YOU are struggling to help them own that skill.

Every student responds to unique stimuli, and the more options you have as a coach ensure your student will learn quickly and effectively. Once your student understands and can perform a difficult skill-set safely, you are now the go-to expert. The K.I.T. (Kettlebell Instructor’s Toolbox) Course and accompanying workbook are designed for kettlebell instructors and movement coaches in mind – we all need those “fixes”, tricks and ways to see progressions to help guide our students to safe healthy movement and into skilled strength practice.

Solid instructional foundation comes from a comprehensive understanding of the elements, sequencing, cueing and troubleshooting for each movement pattern. Knowing what movement patterns create what problems and understanding what can fix them requires experience and a large arsenal of fixes — the same cue that works for John might not work for Sue. Having as many options as possible to solve the same challenge is the key to effective movement instruction.

K.I.T. (Kettlebell Instructor’s Toolbox) was developed over many years by StrongFirst Instructors, Zar Horton, Vic Verdier, and Andrea U-Shi Chang, and is a thorough collection of many unique drills and form fixes that enable the instructor to sharpen their eye, and to coach safely and effectively.

Course Lessons (8)

Part of Course

Module 1: The Elements of Kettlebell Instruction

All the kettlebell lifts and skills incorporate some common elements. It is therefore very important to fix any inefficiency in these elements in order to avoid recurring problems.
Part of Course

Module 2: The Deadlift: The Beginning

At first sight, the Deadlift might look like an easy and very intuitive lift. However, it is based on some important elements and concepts that shouldn’t be overlooked.
Part of Course

Module 3: The Swing: The Cornerstone

The Swing is a multilayered, powerful, athletic, ballistic exercise. It is the foundational movement from which all the kettlebell ballistics grow. It takes continual skilled practice and awareness to keep this single exercise from degrading.
Part of Course

Module 4: The Clean: The Prerequisite and the Standalone

Kettlebell cleans are simple but not easy. They are not only used as an intermediary movement for upper body movements like the Press and lower body movements like the Squat but are also a very powerful stand-alone exercise.
Part of Course

Module 5: The Get-Up: Steering Strength and Mobility

The Get-Up is an old-time strongman movement. The goal is to put something really heavy, something so heavy that you cannot lift in any other way, over your head.
Part of Course

Module 6: The Front Squat: The Hidden Core

The squat is the most fundamental movement of all. Contrary to the more modern and erroneous perspective that a squat is bad for the knees, the rock bottom bodyweight squat is where most of humanity has spent, and still spends, a great deal of time.
Part of Course

Module 7: The Press: Strength and Power

The Military Press is a classic test of strength and grit. A true grind, the principles of tension, stable core cylinder, postural alignment, and steering power are front and center.
Part of Course

Module 8: The Snatch: The Ultimate Conditioner

The Snatch is the one-stop-shop of the kettlebell ballistics. In fact, many call it the Tsar of all the kettlebell lifts.

Course Specs

Course Lessons

Course Goals

  1. Understand the Course topic.
  2. Refine your ability to execute the techniques presented in the Course.
  3. Become familiar with drills that can be used to develop your skills.
  4. Achieve significant proficiency in the material.

Test Your Knowledge

There are not currently any tests related to this course.

Lead Instructors

Andrea Chang
StrongFirst Certified Master Instructor

Andrea U-Shi Chang, StrongFirst Certified Master Instructor, FMS Instructor, Ground Force Method Global Instructor, Z-Health Movement Coach, and advisory board member for R2P (Rehab 2 Performance), has specialized in movement training and kettlebell coaching since 2005. An early member of the instructor staff of kettlebell pioneer Pavel Tsatsouline, Andrea became editor of Pavel’s online newsletter and authored several articles in StrongFirst and Dragon Door. In 2009 Andrea opened the Pacific Northwest’s FIRST kettlebell gym—Kettlebility —her Russian Kettlebell Instruction and Elite Performance Coaching studio, in Seattle.

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Zar Horton
StrongFirst Certified Master Instructor

Zar Horton is a 30 year veteran of the Albuquerque Fire Department currently serving as a Battalion Chief. He has been training others in the use of Kettlebells since 2004. For the last 13 years he has devoted himself to bringing safe, functional, strength-training and fitness, along with greater quality of life and longevity, to fire service, law enforcement and our military members. He currently holds the position of StrongFirst Certified Master Instructor. He has instructed across the United States and internationally.

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Vic Verdier
StrongFirst Certified Team Leader

Vic Verdier, BExerSc, CSCS, StrongFirst Certified Team Leader, FMS2, GFM2

Vic Verdier has been a sport enthusiast since his childhood in Paris, working as an instructor for more than 35 years and training more than 3,000 instructors worldwide in disciplines from Scuba diving to fitness.

Following in his grandfather’s footsteps, Vic first taught physical training and other military-related activities as an officer in the French Commandos, the French Navy’s special operation forces. After ten years in the military, Vic spent a peripatetic two decades teaching elite cave diving and mixed-gas deep diving around the globe—in the process becoming one of the planet’s deepest explorers. Vic held a 2006 world record for the deepest shipwreck dive (650 feet, in the Philippines), using state-of-the-art rebreathers that, Vic says wryly, “no one in their right mind would be stupid enough to use.”

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