Quality is Quality

This is my first ever Blog Post for Crossfit-3039 and I am so excited! Its a new start, a new beginning and Its AweSome..yes with a  capital S

So I thought I'd start the year with a bit of insight into my thinking about coaching and technique
Its no secret to a most of the people that I am very largely influenced by Ido Portal. He has been a revelation in the fitness industry and has almost set a new standard in quality, whether in calisthenics or gymnastics rings skill. We cannot overlook the huge transferability of these movements and strengths/skill set into CrossFit.
Anyone who tells you that I need to kip faster, do triple unders, move the weight quicker - ask them these 2 questions:
1. Can you do these movements strict (or as the original skill set demanded)?
2. Can you do them well?

Now I know, I might sound a bit vague with these questions, but athletes know this stuff and so do some coaches. 

Ok Let me deviate into one of my many tangents - 
I've always believed, theres 2 things in life that are given
1. Taxes
2. Death

You can only go so far with a movement, even a good one till there is a tax and you will pay for that too, whether its due to age or poor genetic coding, that time will tell. Now what happens when you do break good technique. Are you not going to pay a much bigger tax - probably yes! I have a first hand experience in these taxes - I played squash at the highest level you could and what did I get - a massively impinged shoulder that broke off 2 years after I quit. Tells you something about the strength training athletes playing individual sports get.

Virtuosity
This word gets thrown around a lot and its meaning seems to be lost to most of those who use it. Every CrossFit athlete and coach knows  what the word is  and harps about it but do they really know what virtuosity in CrossFit is really about! 
A discussion with a fellow CrossFit Coach today regarding where to draw the line between good technique and bad technique led to a few spiralling theories. My view - no place for bad technique. There are a fair few coaches out there who believe that sometimes good technique will be sacrificed for bad technique to gain other advantages such as faster finish time, a quicker turnaround, etc. Now if this happens in competition , I understand. Competition is competition - its not training anymore, so go hell for leather! But i'll tell you what - even in competition, theres always that one guy who has the most efficient movement patters (good technique) that always wins (hint hint). So yes sometimes, the other guys might stand a chance by snatching a sub-maximal weight overhead using bad technique a gazillion times and say after a while they fatigue and their movement paterns change - here fatigue was the stressor that made him/her abandon good technique. He also did not want to stop, competition.....yadiyadayada. You get the Point!

However, the point that most people miss is that its not the guy who's left standing today - he isn't the winner. He was just the guy lucky enough to still be standing after everyone weaker/slower/etc than him fell by the way side. You didn't see him tomorrow? With that injured ankle, hip, shoulder, lumbar region, etc. No the winner is not the last man standing today.(again hint hint- look at previous hint if you missed it)


The winner is the one who comes back stronger after being affected by a stressor. Rather than using luck as his excuse for winning, he gets better with every task utilising the volatility of his environment to his advantage.
Isn't that what CrossFit is all about. Hit an athlete with as many stressors, weed out the weak ones - then you're left with the strong ones and some lucky ones. Come back tomorrow and lets do it again and once again the process continues till theres is this elite group that just keeps coming back. They get hurt, but they come back stronger. 
That is what CrossFit is all about. Its not just the survival of the fittest, its the one who thrive through the shit-storm that you face at training. 


So if you're skill set isn' that good, and you're already performing rep for rep, gloating at your accomplishments  - just remember this one thing - CrossFit was born to fix that very problem, don't become the problem idiot, become part of the solution. There's enough and more globo gyms out there who will readily swap a squat rack for a chair for you! Yes I compared you to them. 


Remember, there are two things in life that are given (taxes and death). And they are the biggest equalisers in life. You cannot run from them, so you better learn bloody well how to beat them for as long as you can!


Move it or Lose it!