It’s official: kettlebells have gone mainstream in Ireland! In the Christmas episode of “Hardy Bucks” The Boo demonstrates his prowess juggling “Soviet Kettlebells” while Buzz and Eddie issue threats to beat up members of the Government. (Please note that quite a lot of bad language is used in the run up to The Boo juggling at 0.51 of this video)

A friend of mine is a big Hardy Bucks fan and linked me the video today which is quite ironic as I had just finished what I am going to call kettlebell juggling even though the 12kg spent more time in the ground then it did in the air! I hadn’t tried it in quite a while and gave it a go today after watching the video at the bottom of the What are Kettlebells? page again (I love the backing music and watch it every once and a while!) I’m not yet at a stage where I’m brave enough to try it indoors so the recent cold snap which froze up the ground gave me an opportunity to try it out.

Kettlebell juggling is another more specialised for of kettlebell training. As you can guess from the name it consists of tossing the kettlebell up into the air and catching it. While you might think that sounds easy it isn’t (as my muddy kettlebell proves) and at advanced level some of the exercises people can do are just insane. In this video World Kettlebell Lifting Champion Vasily Ginko, who often graces training sessions held by the All Ireland Kettlebell Lifting Federation, does some crazy things with a 20kg kettlebell after a 1 minute demonstration with swords. What a multi talented man.



In Eastern Europe kettlebell juggling is a performance in itself where the lifters often use props and wear costumes. Juggling competitions, often to music, can range from single performances, pairs or even whole teams like this 7 person performance. The IUKLs rules on “Power Juggling” can be found here

Without the competitions kettlebell juggling can be a great form of exercise, specifically for cardiovascular training and muscle toning. However kettlebell juggling isn’t something to start straight away. You should have all the kettlebell basics down and a bit of experience with the kb behind you before attempting to juggle as this is really a step above swings and snatches! Speaking of which have a really solid base in the swing and very good technique as this is highly important for juggling.

There is very little information on the basics of kb juggling and most of the youtube videos are “Extreme Juggling” or advanced juggling drills where the guys are flipping it behind their backs and the like, not great for a beginner! This video does go through some of the basic flips and is a good tool but if you have been paying attention in training and have gotten the basic kb lifts down it’s really a matter of watching, understanding, trying, failing and trying again until you don’t drop it anymore. I enjoy doing my kettlebell training, be it snatches or presses or whatever, but I really enjoyed trying out the juggling today and have been reading up on and watching as much of it as I can all day. And when the likes of The Boo use it in their elite training…well, that says it all!