What is your name and age?
Sergey Rudnev, 48.
What are you working with/as?
I’m a president of IKSFA.
Do you have a motto or any catchwords?
The future belongs to the strongest!
When did you start kettlebell training? Why and how did you start?
As for my 1st experience I was interested in doing exercises with KBs when I was 13, because it helped me to improve my general physical preparation for my results in wrestling. But my professional career has started since I was 22 years old, because I served in the army where only KB sport was cultivated)
Maybe more interesting, why did you continue doing it?
From that time KB sport has become the part of my life.
Have you entered any competitions? Do you want to share your results?
If you go in for some kind of sport seriously, you should compete. As for my sport life, I took part at the competitions 4-8 times a year.
I was a winner at many events, and now I’m a 5-times World Champion.
Do you have a coach? Who is it and which are his/her strengths?
I was always trained myself.
When did you start being a coach? Why did you do it?
I started being a coach in 1995, because I understood clearly, when you were training somebody, you also appreciated all the details of the KB technique and training methology keenly.
What kind of education do you have in coaching?
I graduated from the Pedagogical University, the Department of Physical Culture and Sport.
As a coach, what is important to be like in order to get the best results from your athletes?
During the training process the coach should keep to the principles of graduality and necessity for my students at the competition.
What is the most challenging thing being a coach?
I think the most challenging thing being a coach is to be patient and calm to the students.
What are your own strenghts as a coach?
For me all my students are individuums, so I try to use a differentiated approach to every one of them.
What do you think are the most important personal qualities in an athlet?
I suppose, the athlete must be purposeful and ambitious.
What do you feel about single/double bells for women? What do you prefer as a coach?
Every woman may choose any exercises with KBs she likes, and I’m ready to train any of them.
How do you think the future will look like for the sport (GS)? How do you think it will be for you or your athletes?
I’m sure KB sport will be one of the most popular all around the World, and I hope many of my students will devote their lives to GS and be coaches in the future.
What/which are or were your personal goals in training? (long-term/short-term?)
I think the peak of my sport condition was in the past and now I do everything for pleasure)
What/which are your goals for your athletes? (long-term/short-term?)
Short-team:
– for the beginners the goal is to correct some mistakes in technique;
– for the advanced athletes the goal is to improve the personal result for the concret date of the competition.
Long-term: my goal is to help my students use their potential for 100%.
Which discipline do you like the most and why is that?
I like KB snatch because it is the most difficult classical KB exercise, and I always learn something new about its technique.
What do you think is the most challenging in training?
The most challenging thing in training is to improve the personal result of my students from training to training, from competition to competition.
Do you have any training tips to share?
I have a lot of training tips. But the most impotant thing for me is to pay attention to the weak points of my students and make these characteristics better and stronger.
Do you have any funny anecdotes from competition or training that you would like to share?
I remember a lot of funny stories in my KB practice. So one day when I was angry with one of my students, I gave him a task to do snatch with 20 kg, but he mixed the KBs and took 28 kg instead of 20 and did the given number of reps)
Who (or what) inspires you?
Usually I get the inspiration from my family, my students and GS friends around me.
Which exercise is your favourite?
KB snatch, muscle up and running.
Have you got any exercises that you hate doing, or that your athletes hates doing? Which one and why is that?
I don’t have any exercises which I hate. As for my students, they usually dislike doing snatch using the gloves, because the performance of this variant of exercise is followed by the pain in the forearms.
Is there ever anything that makes you not prioritise training day?
I suppose only the problems concerning the health make me not prioritise training day.
How do you eat? Do you have a special diet or a food-philosophy?
I eat practically everything, but I’m against fast-food and try not to use fatty products, red meat and sugar.
What is your favourite thing to do when you’re not ”kettlebelling” or coaching?
I prefer spending free time together with my family.
We would like to thank Sergey for sharing this with us. He definitely is someone many of us look up to and has many great things to say. A wonderful athlete and coach!