Master of Sport in 16 months!!!

I first met Scott Tighe in the early spring of 2010, he had taken the World Kettlebell fitness trainer certification with me. I heard from Scott about a month later, he told me that he wanted to try to make rank and told me that he was interested in competing. We met that weekend to work on the specific demands of using double kettlebells. We also went over how to make rank with the WKC. He made his rank video with the 16kg in biathlon... At the time he was in the 75kg weight class, so he needs 58 jerks and 55/55 snatches. He made rank 3 witht he 16kgs so that meant he could compete with the 20kgs bells...

In May of 2010 we went to a small local competiton where he lifted the 20kgs and made rank 2 in biathlon... it was at this competition that Scott got infected with the GS virus!! I started formally coaching him after the meet.

The training that we used was strictly based on the method of training that I had learned from my coach Valery Fedorenko. Scott trained 5 days per week, one set of jerks and one set of snatches every day for 5 days in a row. For assistance exercises he did one arm jerks and one arm swings... His jerks sets were between 5 to 7 minutes and his snatch sets were 6 to 8 minutes. We made sure to put quality first, volume second and load third. So basically what that means is we kept in close contact and talked daily about how he was feeling and adjusted the load based on how he was feeling that day.

With this simple program Scott made rank 1 in biathlon at the Red Barn Meet completing 83 jerks and 123 snatches with 24kg bells. (one month from his first competition with the 20kg) Scott was now working mostly with the 24kgs for the lions share of his workouts but we still kept the 16kgs and the 20kg bells in the mix... As we started to transition into the 28kg bells, progress started to slow and the big gains stopped coming... He always moved forward but this is where is usually gets sticky with male lifters... you find out who you are when you pick up the 28kgs...

The next event we had on tap was the WKC Worlds in Chicago in August... Scott was hitting his snatch number for CMS without too much trouble, but jerks were another story... Ayway in that competition Scott managed to make his jerks, but on snatches he got to 54 reps on his first hand and then lost the bell... He learned a big lesson that day... Things are different on competition day!!!

After a competition, Scott has a hard time taking things easy... I usually just have him do a "fun" training block.. For example maybe do some strongsport/ fitness protocol stuff, or long sets... anything to have fun and stay active but without any pressure on numbers... 

The Next event for us was the Denisov sports camp at the Ice Chamber. Scott had been training the same with the the 28 a couple days a week and lighter bells the rest of the time. Scott made CMS rank in front of Ivan and Fedorenko! He Did 58 jerks and 55/55 snatches with the 28kg bells.

The next meet was the WKC Long Cycle meet in the spring of this year. Scott switched over to long cycle for a couple of weeks and make rank 1 with the 24kgs with 60 reps. He also competed in strong sport long cycle with the 32kg its a 4 minute event he did 25 reps per side!

In June we drove down the the IKFF/IKSFA meet in NYC, Scott lifted the 32kgs for the first time in a real competition. He did 53 jerk and 45/50 snatch.

September was the IUKL meet in NY . He was the only American to compete with the 32kgs! The whole Russian National team was in the United States for this competition! The best of the best!! Anyway, he went 10 minutes in the jerk completing 61 jerks and 94 snatches.

The Beast of the East IKFF meet was in October.. Scott did 54 jerks and 92 snatches with the 32kgs... this meet was just another chance for Scotty to get used to being on the platform with the 32kg before he took a serious swing at officially making Master of Sport in Chicago.

World Kettlebell Championships 10/20/2001 Scott Tighe makes master of sport with Ivan Denisov as his judge! He competed in the 70kg weight class and he did 55 jerks and 50/50 snatches to become only the second North American to Achieve this very difficult goal..

Scott is now training Long cycle and again his progress is amazing! We continue to stay with the basic framework that Valery Fedorenko laid out. I know that there are critics of this system but I am not one of them and neither is Scott!

 Oh and if you want to see Videos of any of these sets, you can find them on my youtube channel.... cduffa