Greek Sport Camp Report

It's been a little while since our last post - we had to find something suitably epic to follow Andy Fitting's incredible interview.  A sport camp in Greece with the likes of Denisov, Fedorenko and Filikidis certainly seems worthy.

Filikidis' Gym

April 13th - Day 1

The training camp was at Filikidis' gym, near Korinthos. 

All of the equipment was old, some of it looked like it had spent the better part of 20 years there and there was nothing fancy - mainly lifting platforms, squat racks, barbells, plates, chin up bars and kettlebells.  No air con or heating, not even any fans.

One of the Photos of Valery at the Gym

Just goes to show that you really don't need much to get impressive results in training (given that champion weightlifters, arm wrestlers, Greco-Roman wrestlers and gireviks have been produced there).

All around the gym there were photos of lifters and lifting, including plenty of Valery in his younger days.  He had the most increible legs!

The first day was dedicate mostly to the World Kettlebell Club Fitness Trainer Certification (taken by Catherine Imes).

There were some breaks with demonstrations including  Pavlos Georgidiadis doing 145 jerks with the 32s (to put this in perspective, there are only a handful of people who have done more than 150 jerks with this weight).

Filikidis also did a chair press demonstration with 2x37kg kettlebells:





Day 1 ended with most people going for a swim in the sea across the road from the hotel in Loutraki - the water was a bit chilly but beautiful and clear and was great after a day of lifting.

April 14th - Day 2

Day 2 started out with the WKC Strength & Conditioning Quotient - for those of us who hadn't done it before it was great fun but bloody tiring!

Denisov arrived in the afternoon and pretty much as soon as he was there he was going around checking people's form and giving them tips - he's clearly very passionate about lifting and wants to impart his vast knowledge.  He has an extremely scientific approach and his understanding of the details of the lifts is incredible.

In a demonstration Coach Filikidis pulled 230kg off blocks from the hip - given that he is turning 60 this year his demonstrations were mind blowing. 




One of the teenage weightlifters, who was quietly training while we were doing our thing with the bells, did a 190kg squat and made it look ridiculously easy.  You can see the squat in the video below:



April 15th - Day 3

Day 3 was the beginning of our training proper.  Throughout the training Denisov, Fed and Cate were all coming around to check technique and give advice.  Even for those of us who have had a few years experience, the learning curve was pretty big and this was a great opportunity to begin the process of really polishing our lifts.

There was a fair bit of volume packed into the morning training so we were all pretty happy when the opportunity came to sit down and watch someone else do the lifting: Denisov did the S & C Quotient.

Wringing the Sweat Out After the S& C Quotient

Using nothing lighter than 36kg, Denisov powered through it and came out with a score somewhere around 2500 (a score of 1500 is considered pretty good).  In the video below the red bell is actually 50kg.

In the afternoon we had the Weightlifting Certification with Coach Filikidis.  This was a great change of pace after all the work we'd been doing with kettlebells.

We learnt a lot about the fundamental movements required for weightlifting, including things like overhead squats and snatch pulls.  Filikidis was very enthusiastic and made sure he spent time with everyone there.  He spoke through an interpreter most of the time, but even without one he communicated very well.

The Weightlifting Certification was great fun, so much so that we would have loved a whole day or even two spent on it.

The demonstrations by the junior weightlifting champions who train in the gym were truly incredible.



April 16th - Day 4

Day 4 involved another morning of high training volume.  Again, each set was treated as an opportunity to perfect technique and Denisov, Fed and Cate continued to provide feedback and advice to everyone as we were lifting.

Before lunch we again sat down to watch Denisov do a demonstration, this time a 5 min set of jerks with the 32kg bells.  He pumped out a whopping 106reps with mind boggling consistency between reps.




In the afternoon we had the Judge Certification, which turned out to be quite amusing.  Fed was talking about the need for first aid equipment when you run competitions, and talking about smelling salts said "You know, for when the people they lifting and they lose their mind".  Denisov's demonstrations of how not to lift were also very entertaining, the accompanying facial expressions were gold.

April 17th - Day 5

The final day of the camp.  Everyone was pretty wiped out from all the lifting at this stage, but the demonstrations served to spark people's enthusiasm again.

Denisov did a long cycle demonstration with the 32s, 5 mins at 12rpm (anyone who has done double long cycle will tell you this is fast).




Not long after this Pavlos did an incredible 10 one arm jerks with the 90kg kettlebell, breaking the current known record with this weight of 7 reps.



And to finish off the day Denisov showed us his skills with a basketball (basketball is his other sporting love) and Filikidis farewelled us with some accordian playing.





The sport camp really was a wonderful experience.  We learnt enough to keep us going techniquewise for a long time, got to work with some of the best lifters in the world and met kettlebell enthusiasts from around the world.  For more videos of the camp check out the AustraliaKettlebells YouTube channel.