CrossFit Athletic Group

In Friday I planned on doing max effort snatches instead of Helen for a number of reasons - one of them being to give you guys a break from the demands of exploring outside of your comfort zone on workouts. So 9 am rolls around and... well, nobody was in. Okay, I thought, just the usual Champions Club time. 9:05... still no one. Then at 9:07 in walked the Banet Boys. And so for that session Anto and Moustaache got the fantastic opportunity of individual attention from me.

As they began missing on the heavier sets (which is normal) I asked them what they were telling themselves between sets and before the lift. Their response was the usual Banet response: "..."

Welp, might as well make use of this private session! So for the next half hour they were not allowed to attempt a lift unless it was preceded by 30 consecutive seconds of talking out loud.

Have you ever tried to talk for 30 seconds straight? Go ahead and try it; you will have a new appreciation for the improvisation skills, mental focus, and lung capacity of Mr. Gjon and Mr. Ron. Moustaache had a rough go of it, and so did Anto at the start. But by the end he was able to give him self 30 seconds of reminders about being patient, passing the knees first, jumping hard, balance, and whatever else he thought he needed. The end result was a 150-lb. snatch, which is more than the kid weighs.

...........

I have been asking myself a question for the better part of the last two years: am I expecting too much out of Anto? I even resorted to asking his teammates at 9 am, and Cecilia, Dillon, Aaron, Chase, Jessica, Owen, and Zander all agree with me: Hell no I'm not expecting too much! The thing we have to remember is that Anto didn't come into the Champions Club like his sisters, but more like the Arthur, Josh Van, Ricky Carey, and Jaxson line of athletes who didn't really have a good feel for their bodies yet. Anto has only been ANTO for like, what, 4 years? That means an overwhelming majority of his life has been spent not telling himself he's going to make a 150-lb. snatch, or do 35 pull-ups in a row, or hit 20 consecutive double unders. I think the more he talks to himself that way, the more weeks we'll have from him like this, and I think Mr. Robinson and the rest of the gym knows it too.

No low standards for you Anto! Keep up the hard work!