The hardstyle swing: the three things I check first
Updated: Oct 23
When someone asks me to look at their swing, I don't start with the weight or the rep count. I start with three checks.
They line up with what StrongFirst Master Instructor Jon Engum calls the three kinds of kettlebell problems: starting problems, finishing problems, and timing problems. Almost every swing fault I see falls into one of those b
uckets. Fix them in order and the swing cleans up. Skip them and you just practice the same mistakes faster.
Watch this first. It's my newest how-to, covering the two-arm swing, the one-arm swing, and the snatch:
Why I coach the swing as a skill
StrongFirst's starting point is that strength is a skill. You approach training as "a 'practice,' not a 'workout.'" For the swing, that means every rep is a rep of practice. If the rep is sloppy, you practiced sloppy.
A line from Pavel I come back to all the time: "Pros do fewer things better." The swing is a good place to live by that. It's one movement, but it holds the hinge, the lats, the lockout, the breath, and the timing. Get it right and it becomes the base for the clean and the snatch.
Check 1: The start
The deadlift is the slow-motion swing. In the StrongFirst system, step one of the swing progression is the deadlift. If your hinge is wrong at slow speed, it will be wrong at fast speed.
Here's how I set up the two-arm swing:
Take the bottom of your deadlift stance about one foot behind the bell.
Tilt the bell toward you so the handle extends your arms.
"Hook" the handle loosely. No death grip yet.
One cue from the StrongFirst articles fixes a lot of people on its own: "instead of reaching for the kettlebell first, you should find your hinge first." Most beginners reach for the bell and then try to fix their back. Do it the other way around.
The SFG Clock helps here. "If we imagine our feet to be at 6 o'clock, the kettlebell starts at 5." From there you "hike pass" the bell back to about 8 o'clock. Your upper arms go against your ribs and your forearms against your upper inner thighs, aiming into the "small triangle" above your knees. Hiking so the upper arms connect to the ribs is what turns the lats on.
The two starting problems I see most:
Starting at 4 o'clock. The bell is too far out front, so the back rounds to reach it.
A weak 6 o'clock hike. The bell barely goes back, so there's nothing to load.
If either one shows up, we fix the start before we talk about anything else.
Check 2: The finish
"The destination of the swing is the 3 o'clock position." At the top I want a standing plank, which StrongFirst describes as "a perfectly straight line from ear to ankle."
To get there, the manual's cue is to "suddenly stand up 'at attention'": push your feet through the deck, pull up your kneecaps, and cramp your glutes. Another way to say it: "Drive your feet and force into the ground instead of pulling up with the shoulders."
The common finishing problem is leaning back. Full extension at the top "is done through the hips to reach a 'standing plank,' not by leaning back into lumbar extension." If you finish by bending your lower back, you haven't finished.
Pulling the bell up with your back first is another one. The manual's fix is the "fingers in the back" drill.
After the hips finish, let the bell float for a moment, then guide it down with your lats. The manual calls it "playing chicken" with the bell: you wait and hinge at the last moment instead of diving early to meet it.
Check 3: The timing
Ballistics run "tense-loose-tense." The manual compares the swing to a punch. You load, you snap, and you're tight for an instant at impact, not for the whole movement. If you stay tense the entire time, the swing turns into a grind and gets slow.
Your breath sets the timing. The manual cue is to snort in through the nose as the bell is about to hit the bottom, then explosively hiss "TSSA!" as the hips finish. Brett Jones puts it as "a sharp inhale at the bottom/loaded position and a sharp exhale at the top." The general StrongFirst rule is "Lead the movement with your breath."
Two timing problems I watch for:
Panic. "Do not confuse speed with panic... Do not focus on RPMs." Fast and rushed aren't the same thing.
Losing the float. Some people "rebound out of the top position and either lose the hip extension too soon or begin the hinge too soon." The bell never floats, and the swing turns into arm pumping.
Moving to one arm
"The one-arm swing offers greater benefits due to the additional muscle recruitment demanded by an asymmetrical load." But one arm doesn't mean new rules. "The squared-off shoulders of the two-arm swing are still a requirement during the one-arm version." Use your lat to take the slack out of the working shoulder.
My favorite line on this: "allow your two-hand swing to 'teach' your one-hand swing." If the two-arm swing isn't clean, one arm will expose it. If your one-arm swing twists, StrongFirst's fix is the single-arm sumo deadlift.
Cue list
Hinge first, then reach for the bell
Feet at 6, bell starts at 5, hike to 8
Upper arms to ribs on the hike
Drive the feet. Don't pull with the shoulders
Standing plank at the top, ear to ankle
Finish through the hips, not the lower back
Float, then guide the bell down with the lats. Hinge late
Snort in at the bottom, "TSSA!" at the top
Tense-loose-tense. Speed isn't panic
What a clean set looks like
The SFG I one-arm swing standard is 10 reps per side. The checklist: neutral back; heels, toes, and the balls of the feet planted; packed shoulder; the handle passes above the knees; straight arm at the bottom; no forward knee movement on the upswing; a straight line at the top; biomechanical breathing match; visible ab and glute contraction; and the bell floats.
That's the standard I had to meet, and it's the one I coach to. I'm StrongFirst Elite, meaning I hold all four certifications: SFG I, SFG II, SFB, and SFL. I coach in Dallas at Extreme Studio Performance, and the swing is where I start almost everyone.
Your homework
Watch the how-to above. Then film one set from the side and check three things, in this order: the start, the finish, the timing. Fix the first problem you find and leave the rest for later. That's practice.
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