"Programming for the CrossFit Games 2011"
One week is done and another workout will be posted for the CrossFit Games 2011 Season in less than a week. The big question surrounding this year Games will be, what will the workouts be and how will they program for the Online Qualifiers? I myself find myself asking these questions, as I have athletes inside my gym competing in the online competition, but also have a fair amount of close friends who will be competing for the ticket to the Home Depot Center. Everyone is bias in what they feel should be the workouts and everyone has their own opinions. I am sure there were plenty of people who were pretty bummed to see Double-Unders in the first workout, since this is such a highly skilled movement. However, I was quite surprised by the pro-efficiency of people in this monostructural movement and how successful most people were as a whole in the world. I believe the Power Snatches were the underestimated part of this workout, as it tired the arms and shoulders for the double-unders. Also, many people skipped the quarter squat in the power snatch, and performed the muscle snatch, which is mostly arms with the turnover, which would inevitably lead to fatigue in the upper body region. The Muscle Snatch is predominatly used in Olympic Lifting Settings to practice the turnover of the bar in the third pull of the snatch, and also the speed of the bar path.
What would you want to see in the Sectionals, Regionals and Games for programming? Everyone will spout out their strengths and shy away from their weaknesses, as most people have the right to say that, because it gives you a better chance to extend your stay in the CrossFit Games 2011 Season. However, CrossFit is GPP Program that structures itself around training for the unknown and unknowable, so you better have worked on those goats and weaknesses in the gym over the last 6 months!
Now the question remains, Kevin what do you want to see in the programming of the CrossFit Games 2011 Season? I myself find CrossFit a very interesting program because their are so many different realms of fitness, and it is hard to prepare for every such thing. As an athlete, you should be writing, tracking, and keeping a close eye on your weaknesses. If you strength is running, olympic lifting, powerlifting, short met-cons, long met-cons, then you do not have to concentrate on this as much, If your weakness is handstand push-ups, muscle-ups, heavy snatches in a met-con, then you better be implementing these into your daily programming and seeing how you can better yourself as an athlete in the CrossFit Methodology. Try different things and see what works. A great example of a GPP program and a sport specific program is Westside Barbell, in which, Louie Simmons is the owner and head trainer. He finds that training the 3 major lifts, deadlift, squat, and bench press is best work by revolving numerous movements and never actually training the 3 major lifts. You have to keep your body guessing and always keep it fresh. This can be applied to your CrossFit Programming as well by trying different ways to better yourself in your skill movements that are really lacking. Louie Simmons says it best by giving example of hiding a million dollars under a rock. However, the catch is you are given a chance to find a million dollars, but there are a thousand of the same rocks but one only has a million dollars under it. The likely chance is on your first guess you will fail. Will you stop looking for the million dollars because you failed on the first attempt? The likely answer is No! Take this analogy and compare it to your training schedule. I see all the time in the gym if someone is on a program and it is not working, they will quit or give up and never try anything else again. Why would you do this as athlete? You should always be trying new things by testing, analyzing, and reviewing that data! This is a must in your physical regiment, be pro-active and diligent in your logging and see what works!
I myself would set the following parameters for the 2011 CrossFit Games Programming. We have over 20,000 athletes registered for the Online Competition. In real world situations, only a small percentage would be considered elite crossfitters, and alot more would be hovering around this title. However, you also have a fair amount of people who can compete with alot of these well known crossfitters, but sometimes they are lacking in one area and that can make a difference in you going home or making the regionals. I say the Online Qualifiers should give everyone a chance to make the Regionals with workouts that surround around the concept of Work Capacity workouts. Make the movements simple and see how fast people can get the work done in a time alotted. If you are an elite CrossFitter, you will have no problem making the Regionals because I guarantee the elite crossfitters will be pretty proefficient at the simpler movements in a very easy formatted programmed workout. Make the workouts couplets, triplets or monostructural movements. Give everyone a chance and see what happens!
The Regionals you will have the top 60 men and women from each region of the world. This is where you can start introducing more complicated and skill based movements. This is where you can start to separate the elite guys from the above average guys. Maybe add in handstand push-ups, muscle-ups, and so on. Make the workouts based more towards skill movements involved in metabolic conditioning workouts and see what happens. More or less you will find your top guys and girls in each region!
The CrossFit Games is the end all be all of every movement you can throw at each girl and guy in the world. At this point in time, you have found the fittest 50 men and women in the world and will be pretty legit after Sectionals and Regionals are over. So, have a free for all and choose whatever you want to do. You will have an endless choice of equipment and different varies of settings to put these men and women through for the two or three days!
So, let’s have some fun and be smart with your programming!
Coming on Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011, Dr. Mike Molloy will be talking about the importance of Vitamin D.