Games Season
Everyone’s favourite time of year is here - the Crossfit Open… A worldwide fitness competition where, in the name of health and community, everyone is welcome and actively encouraged to prove their fitness… Glorious! But only as long as they have paid CrossFit HQ the registration fee upfront, their gym has paid CrossFit HQ the annual affiliation fee, and their judge has paid CrossFit HQ for both their trainer course (definitely not a certification) and their judges course…
But whatever - this piece is not going to be about everyone getting their pants pulled down… It is instead an analysis / prediction.
Let's do this.
Here is the overly-simplified general trend from past years:
- The Open will test your engine
- The Regionals will test your skill set
- The Games will test your spirit
Obviously some skills will come up in the Open - probably muscle ups - to filter out all the thickly muscled barbell monkeys… There will also be some kind of WoD with ascending weight - probably cleans - to filter out all the thin ninja monkeys…
There will not be anything too complicated or surprising in the Open - it is designed to test your engine... The Regionals and The Games, however, are different beasts...
Throughout The Regionals and The Games, all energy systems are tested: that is maximal sprint speed, anaerobic power, anaerobic power endurance, maximal aerobic endurance, anaerobic threshold, aerobic power, basic endurance, etc… All strength and strength endurance qualities are tested (quickness, explosiveness, speed-strength, strength-speed, absolute strength, blah, blah, blah). I don’t think Castro is given enough credit in that regard - it is not easy creating constantly varied, well balanced tests that please spectators...
So what do I think will be making an appearance at The Regionals and The Games? In addition to the usual thrusters and muscle ups, here are my predictions for this year.
Balance is one of the 10 physical skills to be tested, and EVERY YEAR it is tested with hand-walking… One of these WILL come up this year:
- Max handstand hold inside 2 foot square
- Slackline for distance
- Hand-walking obstacle course
Gymnastics is always endurance based. Here is what I think ‘might’ come up:
- 1 rep max weighted pull up or dip (maximal strength)
- Burpee backflips (skill based)
Flexibility is one of the 10 physical skills to be tested: it is never “tested” really… So how about this:
- 50 points given at the start of the competition to those who can perform a convincing front split
- Gymnastic bridge walk
I’d also like to see some of this creep in over the next few years:
- Pinch one or two events from the decathlon - the High Jump and Javelin
- Climbing wall - collect multiple flags in the right order for time
And since I’m dreaming, I’d love it if:
- They kept God / religion out of it
- Glassman - the founder of CrossFit - actually looked like he could at least do a sit up…
You heard it here first.
~ Coach Collins
Copyright 2017
Everyone’s favourite time of year is here - the Crossfit Open… A worldwide fitness competition where, in the name of health and community, everyone is welcome and actively encouraged to prove their fitness… Glorious! But only as long as they have paid CrossFit HQ the registration fee upfront, their gym has paid CrossFit HQ the annual affiliation fee, and their judge has paid CrossFit HQ for both their trainer course (definitely not a certification) and their judges course…
But whatever - this piece is not going to be about everyone getting their pants pulled down… It is instead an analysis / prediction.
Let's do this.
Here is the overly-simplified general trend from past years:
- The Open will test your engine
- The Regionals will test your skill set
- The Games will test your spirit
Obviously some skills will come up in the Open - probably muscle ups - to filter out all the thickly muscled barbell monkeys… There will also be some kind of WoD with ascending weight - probably cleans - to filter out all the thin ninja monkeys…
There will not be anything too complicated or surprising in the Open - it is designed to test your engine... The Regionals and The Games, however, are different beasts...
Throughout The Regionals and The Games, all energy systems are tested: that is maximal sprint speed, anaerobic power, anaerobic power endurance, maximal aerobic endurance, anaerobic threshold, aerobic power, basic endurance, etc… All strength and strength endurance qualities are tested (quickness, explosiveness, speed-strength, strength-speed, absolute strength, blah, blah, blah). I don’t think Castro is given enough credit in that regard - it is not easy creating constantly varied, well balanced tests that please spectators...
So what do I think will be making an appearance at The Regionals and The Games? In addition to the usual thrusters and muscle ups, here are my predictions for this year.
Balance is one of the 10 physical skills to be tested, and EVERY YEAR it is tested with hand-walking… One of these WILL come up this year:
- Max handstand hold inside 2 foot square
- Slackline for distance
- Hand-walking obstacle course
Gymnastics is always endurance based. Here is what I think ‘might’ come up:
- 1 rep max weighted pull up or dip (maximal strength)
- Burpee backflips (skill based)
Flexibility is one of the 10 physical skills to be tested: it is never “tested” really… So how about this:
- 50 points given at the start of the competition to those who can perform a convincing front split
- Gymnastic bridge walk
I’d also like to see some of this creep in over the next few years:
- Pinch one or two events from the decathlon - the High Jump and Javelin
- Climbing wall - collect multiple flags in the right order for time
And since I’m dreaming, I’d love it if:
- They kept God / religion out of it
- Glassman - the founder of CrossFit - actually looked like he could at least do a sit up…
You heard it here first.
~ Coach Collins
Copyright 2017
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