Chris Sinagoga | Thursday, November 11, 2021 at 11:00AM I really considered just copying and pasting the entire Zeena/Dita Case Study post from the Summer, but I'll just link it and highlight this bit:
Lastly, I am coming to the realization that my one singular job for the Double-A group is... uh... don't eff it up!. At least, not until they get to high school. The environment they've created among their group is electric and infectious, they are "good enough" on lifting things (probably more than good enough), and I have never coached a group from the Babies all the way up through college in CrossFit (I have in basketball, though). The most obvious thing that would eff up the kids in the Double-A session is to have them dread coming in the gym; excessive formal coaching in strength and conditioning is a fast-track to that.
Right now my gut is telling me to delay the formality of CrossFit as long as possible, letting them play instead of work out, sliding into a session if they feel the urge, and disguising general movement patterns into practice.
Last night at the 6:30 session we had Josh Bennis, Kadence and Langston, and Calan all warmed up with the group and ready to do some slooooooowwwww back squats with form being put under a microscope. After a few sets it became apparent that none of the four were in the mindset to lock into what the session was calling for (which was severe boredom and mind-numbing attention to detail). So instead of having them squat the entire time, I just sent them back to the turf to play; take advantage of having all four of them at the same session. At the very end they came over and tested out some squats with 65 lbs., just to make sure they "got it," and it looked great. Here's the highlights.
This is a point I really want to emphasize to the Bennis parents, Pfannes parents, Mrs. Burton, Mrs. Lanette, Mrs. Nevarez, Mr. Kuiper, the Colussi parents, and anyone else I missed: I, Chris Sinagoga, was not back squatting 65 lbs. at a 6th grader. Jay Junkin was not. Nor was Javier, Shakes, Aaron Sexton, Dillon, Jessica, Cecilia, or Evan Pugh. We all turned out to be just fine as far as fitness goes.
What our Double-A session and the peripherals are going through right now is uncharted stuff as far as the Champions Club is concerned. It's common knowledge now that weightlifting with good form is very beneficial for younger kids. It's also common knowledge that play is built into our biology and necessary for development. What ratio of each is optimal I don't know, and nobody else does either. I want to shade to the side of more play (for reasons I got into in Zeena and Dita's post) and do check-ins every now and then to see how things are looking. Last night was a check-in.
Kowalski, status report: Going in the right direction, Skipper!
