UK HQ of the world's original and leading quality kettlebell school since 2001.
Welcome to RKC UK
Providing gold standard kettlebell education to everybody.
Since DragonDoor launched the modern kettlebell movement in 2001, this amazing "gym-in-the-palm-of-your-hand" has redefined the fitness landscape on a global level, liberating hundreds of thousands from the limitations and frustrations of machine-based workouts.
The RKC system remains the leader when it comes to delivering the most efficient and thorough education in how to become a skilled kettlebell user and trainer and has founded an alternative, elite community of individuals determined to leave the fitness world a better place than they found it.
There's only one kettlebell certification in the world that delivers the depth and breadth of core competencies critical to successful kettlebell instruction - and that is RKC.
RKC UK has a Midlands location and a team that can travel nationally to deliver workshops and provide online coaching on request.
RKC 2.0 - The Curriculum
The RKC Curriculum is fully updated and improved for today's fitness landscape and needs. It follows a modular, progressive system that is connected to real training and business.
The previous system of HKC, RKC1 and RKC2 has been absorbed into four instructor levels RKC-D, RKC-C, RKC-B and RKC-A - with 100+ page manuals and zero overlaps.
This system provides the most comprehensive hardstyle kettlebell education for instructors, from beginners to seasoned professionals. In addition to technique, it covers teaching methods for the spectrum of client populations along with providing access to an international platform for certified instructors to grow their business.
The certifications are supported by regular Kettlebell Fundamentals workshops. These "user workshops" teach the foundations of technique for both fitness professionals and enthusiasts, determined to do things properly.
RKC UK prides itself on creating a strong, welcoming and skilled kettlebell community.
Choose your starting point from the options below.
Workshops and Courses
RKC UK
KETTLEBELL BEGINNER WORKSHOPS
Start here: These weekend workshops are ideal for kettlebell enthusiasts to safeguard themselves against pointless and unsafe technique, and get the most out of kettlebells from the original training school. The best place to get a thorough grounding in what RKC UK has to offer.
MEET THE RKC UK TEAM LEADERS
Craig and Shell Gilkes* are RKC Master Instructors leading RKC UK.
We have a small, but growing, team of RKCs and are excited to be able to promote RKCs to Team Leaders, Senior and Master levels as the RKC UK Instructor base grows.
*you say it like Jilkes.
Shell Gilkes
Team Leader
Craig Gilkes
Team Leader
Shell Gilkes has a 20-year background in studying and teaching movement and was lucky enough to discover RKC as the route she took into strength training in 2014. This pathway has enabled her to hone her skills within the RKC school of strength, and she became RKC certified in 2021 after 7 years of training for it!
After an off-topic conversation with a yoga teacher led her to google the phrase “what is a kettlebell”, she knew that she was on to something quite special. A few wrong turns and dodgy youtube videos later, she came across, and trained with, a local RKC (which was quite something, given that he was only one of three active in the country at that time!) and devoured most of the articles on Dragondoor. The rest is history.
Shell has been teaching kettlebell training since 2017 and has assisted at RKC certifications with Andrea DuCane, and is proud to host regular RKC workshops with her partner, Craig Gilkes, out of RKC HQ in the UK.
Craig first became an RKC back in 2008, after travelling to Denmark, and was one of the first people in the country to do RKC II in 2011. He’s been teaching practically every day since his first certification.
Having taught himself using the Dragondoor classic, “Enter The Kettlebell”, diligently following it word-for-word and using his garden bench to learn how to hinge, and snatching with a rubber-coated kettlebell (the only one he could he could get hold of in the UK at the time), he attended the RKCI Cert in Denmark in 2008.
He was part of one of the very first batches of RKCs in the country and went on to achieve his RKCII in San Jose in 2011, alongside Dan John and under the watchful eyes of John and Andrea DuCane.
Craig started teaching kettlebells out of his local park, before opening his gym in 2012. He’s been teaching kettlebells practically daily ever since, staying true to RKC principles and transforming everyone from older clients to athletes.