The House that Pavel built.

I consider it a very interesting sign that my last article for Milo magazine, "Stones in the Afternoon", where I write about learning how to throw heavy rocks from 5 time World Champion Highland Games athlete Jim McGoldrick, was the same issue that Pavel's now classic first article on kettlebells was in.

In my article(where I got dubbed the "rifstonian" by the Big Chief McGoldrick), I also write about the simple pleasure of lifting and moving something so basic and primitive as a heavy stone, and how much it differed from the political and equipment laden sport of powerlifting I was so emeshed in at the time. Little did I know that just a few months later I would encounter the Russian Kettlebell Challenge video, Pavel and the kettlebell and my life would be changed forever.

ANd I was right. The joys of simplicity and minimalism that the kettlebell engenders is a wonderful respite from the relative complexities of 'breaking parallel, how long was the pause, etc' of that organized sport. Lifting, moving and throwing heavy things is such a basic pleasure to nutjobs such as myself. Pavel mentioned this in Power to the People refering to the non- linear dynamics term simplexity: " the emergence of simple rules from underlying chaos and complexity."
And yet when there are human involved somehow things always seem to get complicated.

With the recent departure of RKC instructors one comment was made was that there was no room to "evolve" within the RKC,especially for the Senior Instructors. This couldnt be further from the truth and even that the comment was made is perplexing. Pavel is KNOWN for his willingness to elicit ideas and opinions from his teaching staff, incorporate them into the system, AND credit those who came up with the concept. Usually in writing as well. His books and articles are peppered with these attributes.

ANy and every good idea that would further evolve the RKC system is given thought and weight by Pavel and the Senior staff.Anyone who took the course a few years ago would be amazed at how much it has changed; how streamlined and efficient it is and how it has not stood still at all but has grown and evolved,yet still remaining true to its essence. It is, after all, an instructor course, with the intent to teach people how to instruct the RKC methods of kettlebell training. And it IS a method, make no mistake about that, with specific techniques, corrections and progressions. Is it the ONLY method of training kbs? Of course not. Is it the RKC system? Yes. Does it work? You just have to ask anyone who has tried it that it does, and spectacularly at that.

Pavels genius at taking complex ideas and communicating their essence in the most basic way possible is sometimes mistaken, I beleive, for lack of sophistication or intellectual depth and nothing could be further from the truth.

So if the RKC system is not restricted in it's evolution of ideas and methods what else could it be? No one restricts me or any other Senior or RKC from charging what they want for training, seminars, workshops or magazine articles. Nothing keeping one from reaching for the stars there. There is no requirement that books, dvds or articles that one produces be published by dragondoor so whatever one can negotiate as far as a deal is up to the individual as well.
So where are the restrictions to one's evolution?

Oh yes, there is only one Pavel. Just like there is only one Arnold.So whoever would like to step up into those shoes has to be able to create the mystery and buzz that an original thinker like Pavel or Arnold did( does) and start their own revolution from scratch. Because no matter what anyone says, when someone mentions kettlebells in America Pavel, Dragon Door and the RKC will come to mind as they were the first, the orginal.Is it the best? If your goal is to be a competitive GS athlete then no, the RKC and it's Hardstyle method is not the way to go. But that amounts to a very small amount of people.

If your goal is to learn how to use the kettlebell in the safest, strongest and most productive manner possible for overall strength and endurance then yes, the RKC and its methods are the way to go.

Will there be others? Of course there will. But no one can ever be the original except the first and that is Pavel and his methods, which is the RKC
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Many have contributed to the RKC and it's methods, as I mentioned above. And they got their due credit.As will those future instructors that will help to further streamline and evolve the system. To use Sr RKC Brett Jones's analogy what these people, including myself, are doing is hanging pictures in a house. They might be brilliant, beautiful, transformative pictures; without which the house would certainly not look the same. But it is not our house.We did not build it but we are helping decorate it. Pavel built the house and that is not the same as interior design.

The RKC. The House that Pavel built.