IOL Strength and Conditioning

The crowds in the expo hall of the Arnold Classic in Columbus are intense. The aisles are packed shoulder to shoulder, people shoving lightly against each other in an attempt to get a foot closer to the free giveaways. This is where I first met Scott Sonnon, an international martial arts champion and the creator of the Clubbells Circular Strength Training System. Dave’s second book, Your Body Revival, had just come out, and we were sharing some time with Scott at Odis Meredith’s Torque Athletic booth at the show. Scott and I were talking about how difficult it is to gain attention in that kind of crowd, this aside from the fact that in this bodybuilding-focused crowd people crammed into Dave’s corner at least four deep. The next thing I knew, Scott was on top of Torque’s massive structure, scrambling up there like a stuntman in a Jackie Chan flick. This guy can move! Scott’s known for a lot of movement-skill teaching, some of which is his clubbell training material in which he uses heavy clubs and works the clubs hard.

Fast forward in your mind a half-decade to this past year as I began working with Gray Cook on his new book Movement and discover one of the most brilliant people alive. If he tells me something, I’m going to believe it… solid.

A few months ago, Gray, along with his teaching partners Brett Jones and Ed Thomas, came out with a new Indian club swinging DVD and manual set, Club Swinging Essentials. They use light clubs, one-pounders mostly, whereas Scott’s older DVD, Clubbell Training for Circular Strength, shows Scott on the cover (sans tattoos… this was a while ago), hoisting a pair of what looks to be 20s but might even be heavier. What was I to think? That one of these guys was wrong?

I’d seen Scott swing his clubbells; he’s skilled at it, and is such an amazing athlete, I didn’t realize how difficult swinging would be. Last month at Perform Better Long Beach, Gray swung the clubs a few sample turns to demonstrate shoulder mobility, quite impressively, and it made me even more curious.

Who was right? Would I have to choose sides?

Let’s find out.

Since I already had a copy of Scott’s Clubbell DVD, I asked Gray to have a copy of Club Swinging Essentials sent so I could compare the similarities and differences. I’d seen forum posts asking this same question, and I knew others were as curious as I was. I’ve now watched both DVDs, and have played a bit with the clubs.

Now here’s a remarkable comparison to begin our discovery. When asked, What weight should I start with?, the Clubbell system will suggest a pair of 10-pounders for men or a pair of 5s for women, perhaps even heavier for strong athletes. If you ask the same question of Gray, Brett or Ed, the answer will be quite different: Learn the movements with a single one-pound club, and only when proficient, add a second. In Scott’s presentation, he’s working with weights, momentum and torque; in the Indian Club method, they may use the one-pounders over the span of a lifetime, perhaps never to increase the weight… ever. With these, mindful movement is the goal, and whereas Scott, who is also very much about mindful movement in much of his athletic activity, with the clubs is working strength.

So there’s no confusion, note that in his actual training, Scott begins with mobility work. He doesn’t jump straight into the heavy work of the DVD. Look here for an example:

Then he moves into what’s shown on the DVD, training that’s more similar to kettlebell work with a hip snap, swings, bottoms-up holds, followed by extended club overhead snatches. Soon he’s doing asymmetrical and symmetrical presses, leverage presses—both forward and lateral—and a variety of swing techniques, swing to lunge and more. He uses more “parked” positioning rather than the constant motion seen in Indian club turning—tight, loose, tight—training the reflexive core activity with leverage in the swing-and-stop actions. This DVD covers approximately 25 different moves and ends with seven minutes of combinations demonstration.

Contrast that with the Club Swinging Essentials DVD, through which we learn five basic movements… five rhythmical patterns of club turning used over a lifetime for neural training and upper extremity mobility work. The idea here is to encourage a stable body posture combined with relaxation and shoulder girdle mobility and joint integrity. First, they look toward mobility; later they look for efficiency. The overall theme of this DVD is this: Mindful movement is the goal.

In the club turning patterns, Ed does an initial demonstration, then Brett instructs Gray through the learning segment. Moving slowly, Gray practices the skill of pattern integrity first, teaching himself the way the brain likes to learn… slowly, much like the movements of Tai Chi. Brett’s looking for quality patterns, authentic reflex and stabilization. This was hugely fun, watching Gray struggle a little with the learning. It gave me a grin, and it gave me hope that I could learn too.

They move through all five movements in three positions, kneeling, open half-kneeling and heels-together standing. This is about precision, and they suggest hours on movements one and two, not jumping ahead, and getting competent in the kneeling postures even before attempting the standing activity.

In the Extras section, we watch as Ed does some advanced footwork with his turning combinations. In fact, they move fairly quickly through all the segments, I assume because they knew we’d have the companion manual to study at our own speed.

In the final analysis

For me, I certainly need to learn the coordinating mobility work first… and for life. I need to learn to move my upper extremities easily and smoothly without stress in the neck and torso. If I had to choose one method over the other, I’d go that direction, using light clubs for coordination and kettlebells for ballistics and a barbell for pure strength. But perhaps we don’t have to choose—could we use both? These are just two different to compare, a regular apples to oranges job. Scott’s is a ballistic and leverage strength system, whereas Gray and partners present a mobility and neurological training program. The Essentials DVD is based on club turning, while the Clubbells DVD is geared more toward swings, presses and leverage. We need both mobility and strength, plain and simple.

To quote Brett Jones, “Indian Clubs are an incredible tool with great systems of training, so it isn’t a case of one [style] being right and the other useless, but rather what are your goals and what do you want out of club swinging. In classical club swinging systems, everyone started with lighter clubs, then grapplers and wrestlers went heavier while boxers stayed with the lighter clubs for hand speed and coordination.”

Club Swinging Essentials, $79.95, 81 minutes. Comes with 72-page, full-color, photo and text manual. Clubbell Training for Circular Strength, $39.95, 56 minutes, two-page movement description sheet available as free pdf download. Scott also has a companion book, 292 pages, $34.95.

Bonus points

A brief history of Indian Clubs pictorial from John Wood at OldtimeStrongman.com:

Louie Simmons of Westside Barbell uses club swinging for injury prevention after shoulder replacement, swinging daily or as part of his pre-workout warm-up.

Right-click to download this 11-minute mp3 file of Gray discussing this Indian Club swinging project with Brett and Ed.

And here’s a six-page pdf on club swinging through history by Ed Thomas, via Dragon Door and via Charlie Weingroff, here’s a terrific historical document of Indian clubs.

[Note to self: In future video projects, cut the underlying music on future DVDs to the bare minimum. Ouch!]