Coaches foreword.

So guys. Only one week left to go! Every year when this point rolls around we see a lot of faces looking somewhat jaded & tired of the whole experience (This is all after we hear the old pre-open talk of: "Its only 5 workouts, how hard can that be??").

Its at this point that we must knuckle down, look after our body (& mind!) for just one more weekends' worth of competing. After all, in a few weeks time when its all said & done your'll be sorry that that you haven't got a complete set of results in which to look back upon next year.

With all the WoD fatigue that is setting in This weeks blog from Steph couldn't be more apt. She went away with her Ma for the weekend but still very much wanted to get her Open WoD in during that time. She may well have been feeling the pinch herself of 3 hard-ass workouts beforehand but she got her vibe back from visiting another box interstate.

Now we're not for one minute suggesting you go to another gym for your workout. NO! You get your butt up to the Rooftop on Saturday! HaHa! But have a little read & you will see that it gave Steph some very cool perspective about what the Open means to her & indeed what it should mean to nearly every CrossFitter the world round (She also made a couple mates along that way which is also another cool thing about our Crossfit Community!).

Anyhow we hope you enjoy the read. Take onboard what you will & get your rest in this Good Friday coming back on Saturday super pumped, super perky & ready to rip that WoD apart!! (Even if it will have Thrusters in there!!!!).

     

Sixteen Point Four

Have you guys ever been to another CrossFit Box as a “Drop-In” before? Because of our unique location on the Rooftop Of Dreams in the CBD I am sure that you have certainly had a travelling CrossFitter in your class before. It is a completely different experience and one that I feel is nicely unique to CrossFit. I have never been a part of a Community where you can literally go anywhere in the world and be made to feel like family. This was no different for me when completing Open Workout “16.4” at CrossFit Bondi. I didn’t actually find out what the WOD was this week until about an hour after the announcement. I don’t think I have ever waited like that before in the past. It was strange but for the first time I wasn’t too worried or nervous about it. You see it was my mum’s birthday on the Thursday so we decided to take a trip away to celebrate. (Obviously it was a prerequisite that we were somewhere where I could still do the Open workout, haha!). Once I found out what the workout was The only piece I was particularly worried about was the time cap. Rowing and Wall Ball Shots are definitely not my strong suit so I knew that the hardest part of this workout for me would be to actually get a chance to do some Handstand Push Ups! The atmosphere there at CF Bondi was a little different to the Rooftop. They had an open gym type situation where the gym is open from 7am – 12pm and members could come and go as they please during this time. Luckily for me I got there early and there were plenty of people around. I was first up and this suited me as I wanted to get it out of the way so I could get back to my holiday. There are always little complications that arise when dropping into a different gym. Different barbells, different Pull-Up bars (textures / widths), different Wall Balls, bumper plates, clips and the list goes on. For me in “16.4” it was definitely the Wall Balls and I suffered for it. They used the larger soft medicine balls and the targets were on a bulkhead above a window looking out onto the street. It is really hard to say whether this had an effect or not but there were a few dreaded “air” balls to begin with which really shot my confidence down. I got through it though and it taught me that you can’t always have the same conditions you’re used to and in many ways this is what being a CrossFitter is all about, the Unknown and Unknowable. All in all it was really fun and I made some new friends who will hopefully come and visit us on the Rooftop of Dreams. I was also asked a question last week regarding the Open Leaderboard and how sometimes it is easy to get caught up in it. One thing we often forget, myself included, is that yes this is a competition to find the Fittest in the world and as such it can be seen that we are competing against others. However it is my opinion that for those of us not looking to progress through to the regional level of this competition, that this should always be looked at from the point of view of self improvement. Instead of using your number on the leaderboard as a way of comparing yourself to others, use it instead to compare yourself against yourself. The Open is very much a time to reflect on how far you have come with certain movements & loading, whether this is gymnastics or weightlifting. It is also a chance to hone in where your weaknesses lie and/or areas for improvement. I think that it would be great if CrossFit HQ could come up with a way of creating a personal leaderboard that shows your own results from year to year with percentages based on no. of competitors each year. Similar in the the way “Beyond The Whiteboard” (our online WoD tracking website. Are YOU making use of it???) compares your movements, it would be great if we could somehow see individual movement based improvements around the different workouts and common movements we see in the Open. What is important here though is that we remember the reason that CrossFit works so effectively is because it is always Observable, Measurable & Repeatable. We write down our results on the whiteboard and keep records so that we can see and track those improvements. We need to remember this not only when looking at the daily whiteboard at CBD, but also Beyond The Whiteboard and of course the Open leaderboard. I know that when I go back and look at a workout I have done previously I am only looking at my own results so that I can compare. I never write down or look at what anyone else has done because at the end of the day that is not what matters. It is what we do, what we achieve, and what fears we conquer that in the end matter. Get ready to rumble for “16.5”. I am predicting Pistol Squats, Thrusters and Box Jumps with maybe a 1RM Snatch thrown in for funsies! S xx