Clean the bell upside down and hold it balanced over your forearm.
Crush the handle to keep the bell balanced, start light because form comes first.
Cleaning a kettlebell into a bottoms-up position, bell balanced upside down above your fist, turns your forearm into the whole show. The crush grip needed to stop the bell toppling loads the wrist and finger flexors harder than almost any curl, and the balancing act trains wrist stability at the same time. It earns its place as grip work with a skill component, which is why it feels so different from just hanging off a bar.
Your pull is too aggressive or your grip goes soft at the catch. Use a smooth hip drive, keep the bell close to your body, and squeeze the handle hard the moment it turns over.
Start well below your normal clean weight, often the lightest bell on the rack. Balance and grip fail long before your hips do, and a dropped bell ends the set anyway.
The unstable position forces a maximal grip and a stacked wrist. That carries over to pressing, deadlifting and anything else where a soft wrist or weak grip leaks strength.
