The Sots Press is becoming a favourite drill of mine for a few reasons and they are as follows:

SAFTEY: Why is the Sots Press safe? First of all once you clean the bell/s, you squat down and then you press the bell/s overhead. Now just before you have pressed the bells and you are in the squat position you are compact like a boulder, if you are training with other people then you may feel like a boulder amongst palm trees. You will also realize that you are solid and tight, this is good when dealing with heavy weights because when you are in the squat position you will need to quickly master the art of HYPERIRRADIATION to even press the bigger bells, it is stricter but it is a lot safer!

Also if you don't think that you can complete the lift, you get stuck or you just are not strong enough you can roll backwards or just drop the bell/s, remember common sense is one of the best tools you have when building strength.

PRE-TENSION: Once you have cleaned the bell/s you should have knocked out a bit of air for maximum shock absorption and to reach the optimum amount of air needed for pressure during the drill. Now you do the negative portion of the Ketllebell front squat using all of your muscles and pulling yourself into the hole with your hip flexors. Once you have reached this point you should/will have a good base to press from and that is what pre-tension is all about, building a good base. Just an example, you wouldn't build a big house if you had a weak, poor base would you?

COMBINATION OF DRILLS: As you can already see doing a Sots Press requires more than just pressing the weight, you need to first clean the bell/s then do a front squat just to get into position to press you bell/s. Also this drill is great if you don't have much time or you like abbreviated training sessions.

OTHER THINGS THIS DRILL WILL HELP:

- Strength (obviously)
- Flexibility
- Tension techniques
- Learning to use the anal lock technique properly.

GETTING STARTED AND DOING A SOTS PRESS:

Click to enlarge this photo sequence of Senior RKC instructor Mike Mahler performing a Sots Press.

Getting started is quite easy, but you will need to really learn and know the swing inside out before attempting anything like a clean. If you already have mastered the clean read on below:

-Clean the bell as you would if you were doing a Clean and Military press. Make sure that you have got a solid/tight feeling when the weight is racked.

-Do a front squat, remembering to push your but back and pull yourself into the hole with your Hip Flexors, if you cant use your hip flexors try this drill: lay on your back as if you were getting ready for a sit-up, now have your training partner place your shoes between your knees, try and press your knees together as hard as possible, now push your pelvis up towards the sky while keeping your shoulder against the ground. now remember that feeling and try to get that same feeling when you are squatting.

-Keep your back straight remember that we are pressing the bell/s not lifting sandbags ( I will cover sandbag lifting in more detail in another article).

-Once in the hole make sure that you are tight and solid like a granite ball.

-Press the bell/s upwards to the sky, maintain eye contact with the bells as well.

-Remember that you are military pressing and if you try a side bend then you don't have enough tension or your bell/s are too heavy. Again, safety first is the number one rule.

-Take as long as you need to press the bells but make sure you maintain tension and remember that tension is strength, but tension is also fatigue. When pressing, try the technique of reverse breathing to up the amount of intra-abdominal pressure. Another tip that might help you; if you are using one bell then with your free hand make a white-knuckle fist. This will also up the tension in the body.

- Now lower the bell/s by actively pulling the bell/s down not just lowering them and stand up with the bell/s in the rack position.

There you have it mate, a guide to the Sots press, if you can already do the Sots press but you don't have any heavier bells then try either of these variations.

- 2 kettlebells sots press + over head squat: Same guidlines as above except when you have the bells overhead instead of pulling them down just stand up by doing an overhead squat.

- "See-Saw" Sots Press: Again using 2 kettlebells, clean the bells, squat with the bells, and now perform a see-saw press, this drill is a lot of fun but don't do it too often.

Enjoy the Sots Press and please post your results on the dragondoor.com forum.

Simon Forsyth is the first RKC certified kettlebell instructor in Australia. In addition to being an excellent kettlebell instructor, he is very strong and fun to train with.