Last Thursday, CrossFit Open Workout 20.2 was announced. A (CrossFit-Classified) long AMRAP was in store for the members of the community and, boy, was it a doozie.
The initial concern among many athletes was, in no particular order, "How should I approach it? Should I do singles on the Toes-to-Bars? What if I can't efficiently do double unders?". There are a few responses that I have to these questions and, fortunately for you, if you believe that this blog post is about you, it is. I'm talking to you, specifically. What a treat.
If you've been doing this fitness thing for 4 years, why can't you connect and link your double unders? What about your toes-to-bar? If you've spent 4 days/week in the gym for the last 4 years, that equates to about 800 hours (832, to be exact). If you've done something for 4 years, don't you think that you would've mastered that skill by now?
Now, I understand that you're not doing toes-to-bars and double unders every minute that you're in the gym, but I ask you this: when those movements that challenge you arise, are you scaling to:
1) Eventually learn and master the movement?
2) Get out of doing something that's difficult?
During our class on Friday, one of our members, Jenna, approached me and thanked me for the coaching insight that I provided to help in her linking her first set of toes-to-bar. Jenna, a long-time athlete, has been struggling with this movement and something clicked that evening. The result was about a 300% increase in total reps completed in a workout. Wow, right?
While I certainly appreciate Jenna's positive feedback for my coaching, what if I told you that I've been coaching this movement and its #movementhacks for the past two years, in this very same location, in the exact same way that I taught it that night? Here's the truth: It wasn't the five-minutes of instruction that I gave before the start of the workout -- it was you, the athlete, that finally listened and put the coaching into application. Guess what? You can do this with every single movement... whether the open is here or not.
I have no interest in collecting your monthly dues if you're not making improvements. That will always ring true.
So I ask you: how much of the coaching are you really receiving? (Hint: listening is not the same as receiving)
Next up on the menu - deliberate practice (shoutout @functionalcoach).
DW