Interview with Steven Khuong: Ice Chamber Founder & Coach

Steven Khuong is a highly respected authority on kettlebell sport and has gained renown through his coaching of the famous Ice Chamber Kettlebell Girls. While Steven primarily takes on the role of coach, he has also stepped onto the plaform on several occasions to compete so understand the sport from both aspects. Steven offers some invaluable insights into kettlebell sport in the following interview.

1. What was your first introduction into the world of strength training (beginnings, different paths you have taken, what initially sparked a love of training, etc), and at what point did you discover Kettlebell Sport?

I was paralyzed by Guillian-Barre syndrome at age 12 and could not do any thing remotely athletic until age 17. I credit my high school gym teacher for helping me recover and greatly influencing the direction of my life. She was an ex-bodybulider and powerlifter, and the first person who made me understand the unlimited potential of the human body. She introduced me to strength and conditioning concepts through track and field, bodyweight training, powerlifting, and bodybuilding. Later I earned a brown belt in Hankido and a blue belt (three stripes) in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I am also a CSCS, USAW Club Coach, and USA Track & Field Level 1 Coach.

In January of 2008, Maya (my wife and co-founder of Ice Chamber) and I were fortunate enough to meet and learn from Valery Fedorenko and Catherine Imes. Valery and Cate are two of the smartest kettlebell coaches in the world. Their understanding of logic as it relates to kettlebell lifting changed the way we approached our training, but ultimately we had to find out for ourselves if the methods we were taught were effective enough to make a difference. Kettlebell Sport became the testing ground for this in 2008. We decided that if we could produce good results on the platform, then our knowledge and application of principles would be deemed worthy of teaching others.

So far we have produced seven Candidates for Masters of Sport, and four of the seven have become Masters of Sport.

Maya and Steven at World Long Cycle Championships in NYC

2. At this point, what do you consider to be the highlights of your involvement with the sport? Both your own personal achievements and the achievements of others you have worked with…

I am extremely proud of the progress made by the Ice Chamber Kettlebell Girls. Sara, Jessica, Surya, and Maya exemplify great character, and are good ambassadors for the sport. They have not only earned their respect on the platform, they have also become great coaches and mentors to others. I think they have also helped many people understand the integrity and safety of the foundational lifts. They’ve proven that you can be graceful and powerful, and at the same time, exhibit high standards when lifting kettlebells - and that you don’t have to sacrifice form for fitness and vice versa. It’s very satisfying to see the ways in which they continue to improve everyday. They still approach their training with genuine fascination and endless curiosity. I believe this is why they will continue to progress.

I am also very impressed by the results of the kettlebell students at the Ice Chamber. In a very short period of time, I’ve witnessed a diverse group of people ranging from ages 8 to 60 demonstrate remarkable technical improvements and strong results in competition. I am excited to see what our students will do in the coming years.

3. Do you, or would you like to, see any changes in the direction the sport is taking both on a national and international level?

Of course, I would like to see all the best kettlebell lifters in the world competing in the same event, but there are some big obstacles preventing this possibility.

One of the most notorious issues in my opinion is the control of athletes by the established political federations. I’m not sure if this fact is known in the West, but professional lifters in Eastern Europe do not have the freedom to compete where they want to. Their opportunities are dictated by what their federations want them to do. This is unfortunate because many elite lifters do want to compete in the US, but can not get the authorization from their federations. Often, they are even removed from the competition circuit based on controversial rationale. Just in the last two years we’ve seen some of the best lifters in the world banished.

On the competitive front for women, there has yet to be a consensus on the kettlebell weight for elite international competition. While the Russian national federation and some IUKL member countries insist that women snatch the 24kg bell, their counterpart, the IGSF, has not wavered from the 16kg bell. At the same time, the WKC contends that the 20kg bell is the best compromise at this time in the development of the sport. No one seems to agree on the appropriate standard yet. However, Valery gave a very convincing case years ago about the evolution of rank systems, which I feel remains relevant today.

These issues are very complex and they speak to the disparity within the state of Kettlebell Sport. It’s difficult to have a unified World Championship without collective cooperation and also when the best of the best are prevented from competing altogether.

Steven coaching Master of Sport, Sara Nelson, at 2010 AKC Classic in Las Vegas

4. In your opinion, what can individual lifters do to see that this sport grows and advances in a positive way?

I think it would be helpful for all coaches to encourage their students to be patient. I understand that ambition is the primary driver for sport, but it’s also important to allow the body and mind to mature and acclimate before taking on an intensity level that’s inappropriate. Try to conceptualize Kettlebell Sport as MMA. When we allow our students to lift loads or at speeds they are not ready for, it’s like sending an amateur into the cage against GSP. The 32kg (for men) and 24kg (for women) bells are unforgiving. Kettlebell lifting is a skill sport, much like most martial sports. We not only need fitness in order to succeed, but we also need technique. Learning how to lift properly is akin to having a great defense in MMA - like learning how to dodge punches, sprawl, or tap out when necessary. After all, if we want to proliferate this sport, we need healthy bodies to participate in it.

5. As a WKC Master Trainer, could you offer any advice to those who are just starting out regarding the fundamentals of lifting, potential pitfalls in training and competing, and some common problems you may have encountered in training and coaching both advanced and novice lifters?

I would encourage lifters to try to get out of the mindset of styles when it comes to kettlebell lifting. I think adjectives such as soft, hard, and “GS” are dangerous because they do not accurately describe athletic movements, and might even lead people down the wrong learning path. For instance, it is a misnomer to assume what Kettlebell Sport athletes are doing is soft. If anyone approaches competitive lifting with a soft body or mindset, they are going to increase their chances for serious injury. I do understand that it can be confusing at times to watch someone like Valery lift. He can perform incredible feats of power and endurance which appears to require little effort. However, we have to take into consideration that Valery is a one-of-a-kind lifter and a hall of famer in the world of kettlebells who can make any lift look relatively effortless. But that “effortlessness” is produced by his understanding of power generation and decades of practice. It’s not something we can just mimic right off the bat.

Correct kettlebell lifting is the expression of athletic movement - knowing when to relax and when to tense in order to generate velocity. We don’t have to look much further than Olympic sprinters to find parallels. They are some of most powerful athletes in sports because of their ability to alternate between contraction and relaxation at the right moments in time. They can hold a potato chip in each hand and not crush them while bolting down the track with elegance. That’s what correct kettlebell lifting should be like - quick, smooth, and powerful, but not choppy or taut. We need to be fast for ballistic lifting and you simply can not be fast if you are tight.

I suggest that anyone interested in learning how to lift kettlebells spend more time trying to understand basic bio-mechanics and the physics of ballistic lifting instead of trying to dissect any dichotomy of styles. I truly believe this is more beneficial to the learning process in the long run.

6. What do you consider to be the most crucial technical aspects of both the Jerk and the Snatch respectively? Points we can all keep in mind when lifting…

The Jerk and the Snatch are the same in terms of physical intention. Both require the usage of the legs to generate power from the ground up through the kinetic chain. The former application launches an external object from the hips to the overhead position in a linear fashion, while the latter application launches an external object from below the hips to the overhead position in an arch-like fashion. Both movements require the lifter to shift their weight from the heels of the feet to the forefoot with proper timing and vice versa. To me, it has been helpful to give prudence to the similarities between Jerk and Snatch, not the differences.

7. Outside of the main lifts themselves, what are some aspects of general training / overall conditioning that you think may be overlooked by those with a focus on Kettlebell Sport? (Nutrition, flexibility, etc)

Proper recovery is very often overlooked. Stretch, rest, eat and sleep. We have to do these things to balance rigorous training.

8. Recently, the Ice Chamber (www.icechamber.com) played host to a WKC sport camp with Valery Fedorenko and Ivan Denisov, not to mention some of the best lifters in the US. What were some important lessons that you were able to take away from this fantastic event and apply to your own lifting and to the people you currently train and those you may take on in the future?

I’ve learn that Ivan Denisov is not only an android and a destroyer of records, but an extremely intelligent and analytical coach. I don’t think many people really know how technical he is. Some assume that just because he is big, strong, and powerful, he is able to do these crazy numbers by virtue of genetics. The truth is that every movement he does has meaning and a deeper technical context. You can see examples of this from his students. His young team of lifters (there are more than a dozen Masters of Sport) are making huge advances in the Russian national championships, and many are already European and World champions. They are not built like him, but they employ his techniques and are sweeping the platforms with incredible results.

One of the biggest lessons from sport camp was that appearances can be deceiving. You can employ the same technical principles and look very different when lifting. Even though Ivan and Valery appear to be have different “styles,” they both agreed on their similarities in principle. It is far more important to understand concepts then it is to mimic someone else’s movement patterns.

Ivan Denisov and Steven in Greece

9. What does 2011 hold for the Ice Chamber and yourself?

We want to continue to learn and be the best we can on and off the platform. It would be an honor to extend the legacy of the coaches and lifters that have helped us in this journey so far.

10. Any final words?

I want to give a shout out and recognize the many great lifters and coaches of WKC. I think that it’s commendable that members of World Kettlbell Club are furthering the development of a lineage for upper level technical mastery within the limitations, environment, and cultures of the West. It's one thing to say, for example, that Valery has coached someone to CMS or MS. But when many of Valery's students, who now are coaches themselves, take their students to CMS and MS levels, that speaks volumes about the community and the power in the educational system.

Of course when compared to elite Russian Kettlebell Lifters, the typical student in the West still has a long way to go. However, when put into the proper context, we should celebrate the milestones that have been achieved. We certainly are not paid or sponsored by the government to compete. We do not have the luxury, nor the time available, to train and rest, and recover at the frequency that the professional athletes do in Russia and Eastern Europe. We are not selected to compete based on our predisposed athletic abilities. Most of us do not have access to live, in-person coaching. Many of us are busy parents, young college students, and/or have full-time jobs with extended hours. Most of us picked up kettlebells as a form of fitness or stress relief. In other words, Kettlebell Sport is not our primary goal, nor responsibility. It is an extracurricular activity for the most part.

However, even within the context of limited resources, time constraints, and lifestyle, many WKC coaches have proven that they can still achieve success. Their results are definitive proof that the application of knowledge can be transferred from one generation to another, not simply what one champion lifter can do in his/her own career. There are countless examples of Valery Fedorenko’s first generation coaches achieving a significant level of success with their students in kettlebell lifting (CMS and MS level). And now, many of these first generation coaches’ students have also become coaches themselves, further extending the WKC lineage. Teams in Western Europe, Australia, and North America all have shown great results with the WKC system. And there are so many more working hard everyday to add to this list. They all need to be congratulated for their achievements.