some hype of course, but from my own experience of couple of years of kb lifting i agree -definitely the best piece od iron for developing functional strength and conditioning for martial arts. no bodybuilding sh*t, no fad, but old school strength and power training. traditional Chinese "stone locks"
sek so - a common S&C tool of many TCMA - are fine, but kbs are imho better.
kettlebells are integral part of our S&C program, apart from teaching Hung Kyun i will lead special courses of functional S&C and kettlebell lifting for various subjects in our country, starting beginning of the next next year; just waiting for 4000 kg of iron to arrive

. our HK school is pioneer of kb lifting in Czech republic (well, as a TCMA school, we are pioneers in many things i guess

not only in CR, but in Europe)