CrossFit Athletic Group

Box jumps are a thing... high box jumps are a different thing altogether. Probably more similar to a max split jerk than a box jump. When you do a vertical jump test where you touch the highest target possible, the only consequence is you miss it; when you miss a max height max height box jump there is a good chance you'll skin your shin, bang your knee, fall on your butt, or worse. So why do it? GOOF, of course. Getting over our fears and having enough trust in yourself to commit is a skill that goes way beyond box jumps. Do it ever day? Probably not. Once in a while? No doubt.

Jazz was one of the few kids to show up for the Double-A session on Easter, so we took advantage of the small crowd to work on high box jumps. I figured I'd start her at a 15-in. box and work up from there. Only thing was, she missed her first attempt. And the next one. And the next one. And the next one. At that point I was confronted with a real headscratcher: after watching a few attempts miss by a lot my professional opinion was that she didn't have the ability to actually make it to the box... on the other hand I really didn't want to put forth the effort of bringing some plates outside and begin stacking them. So I resorted to my professional coaching.

"Well... Jazz... uh... consider trying a little harder. And after a while, who knows, right?"

From that point on I stacked boxes for the other kids while Jazz kept missing at the 15-in. box. Sometimes she fell back on her butt, sometimes she got one foot up there, and sometimes she didn't leave the ground at all.

Suddenly, 35 minutes later, she landed both feet on the box just barely off balance. Two reps after that Jazz got her first box jump to a 15-in. box.

After that first one, she proceeded to do 6 more without tripping up even once.

...........

One of the other kids at the empty Easter Double-A session was JB... which is not surprising considering he has barely missed a day since the fall. We know his routine of kipping and swinging and jumping and making it his life's mission to touch his hands to every inch of the gym's ceiling before he dies. What we did not know, though we probably never thought of it, was all of that time spent informally playing has given him the ability to formally do a muscle-up.

So one day last week he just kinda... did a muscle-up.

I didn't see how it started exactly, but I think Mr. Ron just saw Josh swinging like crazy on the rings and asked him to turn over on top for the muscle-up transition. Josh tried it, failed, and Mr. Ron took a playbook out of the Chris Sinagoga Professional Coaching Playbook:

"Hmmm... try it again."

Josh did again and again while Mr. Ron went blatantly against the Chris Sinagoga Professional Coaching Playbook by providing positive encouragement in the process. Eventually, with enough attempts and the worst possible coaching imaginable, Josh got his muscle-up.

Matter of fact, neither Josh's muscle-up nor Jazz's box jump were results of the worst coaching imaginable. Something even worse would have been along the lines of, "Well, we'll try again another day," which is the most passive aggressive way of saying a coach is going to lose patience before you do. Of course, there are some scenarios where the ability is obviously not there, but it's important to understand that it's not as black-and-white as being a prerequisite. I think movement and our bodies are not so well understood, despite all we "know" about the subjects. Does the CrossFit run a program that will increase your vertical jump in 30 minutes? No, but apparently Jazz does if she's given the chance.