Kettlebell Training in Japan
By: Taikei Matsushita, RKC
 
Kettlebells in Japan can be traced back to the early 20th century. I once personally saw an illustrated description of an amateur wrestler floor pressing a couple of hand made kettlebells. The document, published in 1937, stated that frequent visits by Russian strongmen had influenced a small minority of fitness groups in our island nation.

However, for reasons unknown, kettlebell training faded away for over half a century. In early 2004, a fitness equipment company began local distribution of kettlebells, a kettlebell manual, and an instructional DVD published the American kettlebell instructor, Mike Mahler.

Ever since, kettlebells have been popular among Japanese martial artists, weight lifters, and small pockets of people in the general population. This happened despite the fact that we only had the instruction manual and a few articles and DVDs from Mike Mahler and Steve Maxwell. Russian mixed martial artist Fedor Emelianenko's presence boosted the popularity a bit as well. However, there were no qualified instructors to teach the proper kettlebell training technique until my involvement.

In June 2007, I became the first certified and active Japanese RKC kettlebell instructor. Then, in October, I opened the first kettlebell workshop in Tokyo.

Prior to the workshop, most of the attendees had learned kettlebell techniques through their individual research from my blog and YouTube video clips. Due to the nature of being a non-English, non-European nation, most of our training population do not have access to or the ability to read English written information. Pavel Tsatsouline has provided all this great material in "Power to the People" and "Naked Warrior", but the basic information had to be delivered through my interpretations.

I found that the basic principles adapted well to the Japanese students. An arm wrestler who was ranked second in the nation had a perfect link to his experience when I taught him to "push your shoulder down, and connect it to the lats (main power source).”

"Exactly! It makes sense in our world!” he said.

"Two kinds of arm wrestlers. Ones that contract the abs and pushes, and ones that pull away the arm."

As he took a person's arm to arm wrestling position, he pointed out the opponent's arm.

"You’ve already lost. Your armpit is wide open."

Present day Japan is a bicultural world. There are traditional cuisine and McDonald’s hamburgers next to each other. We have Gold’s gym franchise (ironically they were the first to implement kettlebells in modern day Japan) and the ancient tradition of martial arts. People who are tired of trying to get fit with traditional machines and barbells are quite open to seeking out better solutions. I am excited to offer a fresh option with kettlebells.