Kettlebell lifting

Kettlebell Lifting: Competition Rules

English summary of Tyazhelaya Atletika. Ezhegodnik 1985 (Moscow: Fizkultura i Sport, 1985), pp. 55–58: the text is paraphrased, not translated.

I. Type and Programme of Competitions

Competitions are individual, team, or individual-and-team, as the regulations of each event state: an individual event scores only the participant's own result, a team event the team's total, and a combined event both separately. Kettlebells of 24 and 32 kg are used, in a two-event programme: the snatch with one kettlebell, each hand in turn and without a rest pause, and the clean and jerk with two kettlebells. A weight category competes within one day, snatch first, with a rest between the exercises of 30 minutes to 1 hour.

II. Participants

Only males aged 15 or over with a doctor's permission may compete. The weight categories are 60, 70, 80 and 90 kg and over 90 kg.

Weigh-in

Weighing begins 1.5 hours before the category starts and lasts 1 hour. The category's judges weigh the lifters, naked and once only (a lifter outside his entered category may be reweighed), in a room open only to the chief panel, one representative per team and the lifter's coach. Results go into the record, and the order of calling is drawn.

Rights and duties of participants

Dress is a leotard or trunks and sports shoes or boots. Knee supports, wrist bands and a belt up to 10 cm wide are allowed; gymnastic hand guards are not allowed in the snatch.

Representatives and captains

Each organisation in a combined event must have a representative, who leads the team, answers for its discipline and turn-out, attends the weigh-in and draw, and may not interfere with judging. Where there is none, the captain takes over; either may lodge statements and protests about his own team's participants only.

III. Panel of Judges

The organising body assembles the panel and assigns a marshal for equipment and venue. With up to 20 participants it consists of the chief judge, chief secretary, doctor, fixing judge, secretary, announcing judge and judge in charge of participants; with more than 20, or with several platforms, a deputy chief judge and more judges are added. Judges must know the rules firmly, be objective, and wear white shirt with tie and dark trousers.

Chief panel and appeal jury

The chief panel is the chief judge, his deputy and the chief secretary. At all-Union and republican competitions an appeal jury is drawn from the panel: the chief judge or his deputy, who heads it, and two members of the highest judging category. Under 20 participants the chief judge alone acts as the jury.

The chief panel supervises conduct of the event, decides statements and protests (suspending the competition meanwhile), overrules the fixing judge in case of a clear breach, and removes judges who make gross errors. By majority vote of the jury it may annul a given number of lifts where the generally accepted technique was violated, announcing this before the next participant is called. It may change the schedule and remove participants for conduct unworthy of a Soviet sportsman or technical unpreparedness, but may not alter conditions set by the regulations.

Chief judge and other officials

The chief judge answers to the organising body for organisation, discipline, safety, equal conditions, objective judging and results. Before the start he holds a panel meeting and a rules seminar and checks the venue; he supervises the judges, brings protests to the jury, and within a week reports in writing. He may change the schedule and bar participants whose technique or dress fails the rules. His deputy follows his instructions and replaces him when absent.

The chief secretary keeps the documentation and minutes, records decisions on protests, weighs and certifies the kettlebells, draws up record certificates, and with the chief judge's leave informs the announcer, representatives and press.

The fixing judge weighs his category's lifters, checks dress, claps to start an exercise, and announces the count and each final result aloud. He calls "No count!" for a technically wrong lift, and "Stop!" after three consecutive violations.

The secretary keeps the record of the category, calls the lifter to the platform and warns the next, watches technique with the fixing judge, notes when each snatch ends, and announces results. The judge in charge of participants checks attendance and dress, warns lifters of their calls, reports absences and refusals, and mediates between participants and panel.

The doctor assists the chief judge on medical matters: he checks the doctor's visa on entries, supervises participants at weigh-in and during the event, treats injury or illness and decides whether the lifter may continue, and gives written reasons for any removal.

IV. Rules of Performance

General provisions

Snatch

The kettlebell is raised in one continuous movement until the arm is fully straight and fixed, legs and trunk straight. After the count it is lowered, again continuously, onto the forearm and then down for the next swing. The hands change without stopping, during the next swing. Not permitted: pressing out, resting the kettlebell on the shoulder, touching the platform with it, and touching the platform, the kettlebell or the working arm with the free hand.

Clean and jerk

The start is with the kettlebells on the forearms and elbows below shoulder level; after the kettlebells are lifted to the chest, legs and trunk must be straight. Not permitted: pushing with a break in the movement (pushing out or pressing out), pushing the kettlebells alternately from the chest, lowering them onto the shoulders, pushing from the shoulders, and lowering from the chest.

Scoring

Each correct repetition earns 1 point in the snatch and 5 in the clean and jerk. The highest total wins; equal totals are decided in favour of the lighter lifter, then by the better clean and jerk. Protests against the fixing judge are made orally by a team representative to the chief panel (appeal jury). A lifter scoring zero in the snatch may not continue. A lifter using 32 kg instead of 24 kg (provided he is rated in classes I to III) has his points multiplied by 1.3.