Many people are curious about passing the RKC snatch test, or at least doing 100 repetitions in 5 minutes with their kettlebell.

Before I offer up my opinion on how to best do it, I need to first thanks Steve Freides, RKC II instructor and David Whitley, Sr. RKC for writing about this in the past. My spin on it certainly takes into account what they’ve taught before.

You need to start with a strong and stable base. If you haven’t successfully completed Pavel’s “Enter The Kettlebell” program then please go back to the beginning and build that foundation. I can promise that you don’t have the requisite shoulder stability, mobility or strength.

After you’ve completed ETK then you are more than likely ready to attack 100 snatches in 5 minutes. For men, you must be able to do this with the 24 kg kettlebell to be considered for RKC certification. That is the price of admission.

The next step would be to determine how many you can do with your kettlebell of choice. I recommend that you are first able to complete the test with a lighter than required kettlebell.

The next logical move is to determine how long it takes you to do the 100 rep requirement. Safely, and with good form, so you won’t be injured in the process.

Set your stop watch and do the 100 reps. Take breaks when your form breaks down. All we doing now is finding out how long it take to do it safely. I don’t care how long that requires. DO NOT DO SLOPPY REPS!

If you have doubts about your Hard Style Snatch technique then I strongly recommend that you spend time with your local RKC instructor. You will save yourself a ton of heartache and torn callouses, I can promise you. Plus you will be practising safely and safety and performance are inextricably linked.

So now you know your snatching correctly and you know that it took you 15 minutes to hit 100 reps. So you averaged approximately 6.5 reps per minute and you need to hit 20 per minute to succeed. So what’s next?

Slowly but surely we will subtract rest time so you get closer to the goal. My recommendation is that you create a program that looks something like this:

1. 100 safe snatches in 14:15 . Again, practice the reps safely and if you have to abort, so be it. Better than injury.
2. Same as above
3. 100 safe snatches in 14 minutes. All rules apply.
4. Rinse and Repeat
5. 100 safe snatches in 13:18.
6. Again
7. 12:38 is the time for the next 100 reps.
8. Try it again.
9. Take a week off from snatching and retest. Took you 11 minutes this time to do them safely and well. You made real improvement and you are to be congratulated! Well done:)
10. Now you do it in 10:27.
11. Again with the above
12. And so on.

Here’s the formula. After each Safe Max Rep test day you do the 100 reps in 95% of the time it took on the test. Do that practice twice and then work at 95% of the that time. Twice and so on. Re-test after each 8 snatch sessions.

I recommend that you snatch twice a week. Say Monday and Thursday. If you regress at all go back 4 workouts and start again.

This program will work for you if you are patient and intelligent. Follow the protocol and don’t skip ahead if you want to remain healthy.

Once you are able to do the 100 reps in 5 minutes than you can either take some time off and come back and work on even denser and faster 100 reps or you can move up a bell. Your choice!

Train with Purpose,

Sandy Sommer, RKC