Each direction I turned offered its own peculiar peril.

This is a common fear.

Or… will it?

Nearly everyone answered yes to having the fear or thinking about it.

But actual incidents were rare.

I got 34 nope, never responses and only a handful to the contrary.

I got responses from several coaches and gym owners who said they had never evenseenit happen.

That said, its not unheard of.

Two people reported experiencing the exact scenario were all afraid of.

One sent the kettlebell crashing into a gym mirror; another lobbed it harmlessly in his yard.

A few others had seen it happen or heard of such cases secondhand.

Both involved an unusually slippery grip.

One time, an instructor had just applied sunscreen and was immediately asked to demonstrate swings.

In both cases, the bell flew forward but nobody was in the line of fire.

(He estimated the bell thrown by the sunscreen-greased instructor traveled a distance of about ten feet.)

All this is not to say kettlebell failsin generalare rare.

I entered kettlebell fail into the search bar and braced for the worst.

What I learned is that kettlebell fails are boring, and that most of the videos arent really fails.

Occasionally, a person falls in the process, and is apparently unhurt.

The only authentic flying kettlebell fail I was able to find is at the1:31 mark in this video.

She loses her grip during the swing and the bell flies forward a few feet.

She scurries forward to pick it up, and theres an awkward moment where she and the judges laugh.

I have two kettlebells.

There just wasnt enough force to overcome its mass.

Think about this as a physics problem for a moment.

It takes alotof force to move a heavy kettlebell.

Theres not enough extra power there to make it go very far.

Lets move on to a more common scenario.

I was able to get some distance on the medium bell, but not as much as I feared.

I tried a few other variables, but they all resulted in shorter travel.

First, be aware of whats in front of you.

This isnt forbidden knowledge.

Even a bell that just drops could dent your floor, if its heavy enough.

So thats extra reason to be aware of your surroundings.

Second, be aware of your grip.

(Chalkorliquid chalkcan give you some extra traction if youre worried.)

Avoid concocting that scenario, and you have very little to worry about.