CrossFit Athletic Group

A few recent things have led me to believe all those concussions are catching up with me, but with that being said I can't remember a better max effort day this gym has seen since Jacob and Faust were on the light bar. Over the course of the sessions there were a few coaching points brought up that I think are worth sharing on here. So if you have already heard too much of my thoughts, then kindly ignore this and wait for the Bye Bye Jessica post coming tomorrow.

PRs are weird. Last week I texted just about every significant track coach or athlete I know, asking about how PRs (personal records) happen; rather, how unexpectedly they happen. The general consensus was that it is more often a planned attempt at a record does not go as such than someone trains to pr at a certain meet and actually gets it. The Olympics are a great example of this; these guys train for 4 years attempting to peak at some point during this two week stretch. That rarely happens; in fact any time a personal best is hit the announcers make a huge deal out of it. Nothing about the last few weeks (especially the last 6 days) of workouts would lead me to believe our entire gym would be setting PRs. Yet here we are.

PRs are freaking weird, man.

Soccer CrossFit Girls. Here are the lifts from our young soccer players:

• Katelyn (7th) - 75
• Jenna (8th) - 95
• Samantha (7th) - 95
• Grace (6th) - 100
• Priti (8th) - 100
• Ashlyn (7th) - 125
• Isabella (8th) - 135
• Karen (12th) - 135
• Reese (8th) - 165
• Sam (7th) 175
• Lulu (7th) - 175
• Emily (11th) - 195
• Tea (10th) - 200
• Jessica (12th) - 225
• Paris (12th) - 240
• Dillon (12th) - 260
• Cecilia (college senior) - 260
• Conamora (7th) - 265

One of the important things to understand as the years go on is how to look at lifting numbers within the context of how and why they are being trained. You could go into a powerlifting gym and find similar kids who lift a lot more, but have them sprint a 400m then try and deadlift and you'll see some major flaws. Similarly, you could find teenage girls in the CrossFit games with better deadlift numbers, but realizing they treat CrossFit as their primary sport; our girls use CrossFit to help their primary sports. I would not take a 25-lb. increase in Jessica's deadlift if it meant her running would sacrifice. Those numbers up there are fine for where everyone is currently at; we can improve our deadlift in the context of improving all other areas of fitness.

Side note, you can tell by looking at their knees who needs more time in here developing good habits

The Conamora thing. I said this before to the Monkeys in person, I talked about it yesterday, and it's worth repeating: the Monkey Exhibit kids are getting to that age where coaches are going to start to attach themselves to the athletic success of their athletes. Sometimes it's to help them gain clients, sometimes it's to help them move up the coaching ladder, and sometimes it's to help them prove a point. I'm not exempt from this either. The important thing for Conamora, Lulu and the rest of the Monkeys to understand is that they have gifts that other kids simply don't - whether it's competitiveness (Sam Curtis), an engine (Lulu), bunny hops (Sarah Curtis), height (Jaylee), IQ (Reese), or raw athleticism (Conamora). No coach gave that to them. There have definitely been coaches that helped them, and will continue to do so, but I coached Jessica the exact same as Conamora on deadlifts. The difference is something that no coach can take cedit for. My job is to just hold you accountable for your gifts and protect this environment.

Get Out Of Jail Free Cards. Here are the people that rounded their backs off the top of my head: Cecilia, Josh Van, Mrs Van, Aaron, Mr. Van, Anto, Erica, Bewick, Mrs. Burton, and Madelyn. Here are the people who REALLY rounded their backs off the top of my head: Dillon, Mrs. Tara, Chase, and Zander. They all managed to get out of this workout unscathed and uninjured. That is because our spines have a lot of tolerance built into them: if we became paralyzed any time our backs rounded while lifting something heavy, the human race would probably not exist. We are all given some Get Out Of Jail Free cards at birth; the key is not using them unless we have to. The people listed above - give or take Zander and Madelyn - have such a good habit of keeing their backs flat when lifting that they can buffer a little rounding for one workout. Actually, not even one workout, more like 2 lifts for one workout. We just have to make sure our regular daily training is spot-on.

The Rookies. In a session of 19 first-time CrossFit peeps that are encouraged to bounce off the walls before and after a session I can't pretend like the deadlift form was perfect yesterday morning at the Rookies session. But... dude, their deadlifting form looked pretty freaking good, especially as this was their first time using significant weight.

This made me happy.

Momentum. It's safe to say that everyone that stepped into the gym yesterday got a temporary momentum swing upward. So let's make that more than just a blip.