1/10/2009

New CrossFitters Join The Family!

It saddens me that this post has to be shorter than you are used to, but that will be a nice relief for a few of you! The reason there was no posted results or the usual interesting topic for "Rest Day" was because the Blogger Posting Tool had and error and failed to publish. My frustration was really more because it also failed to "auto save" (it won't show up anymore) in the dashboard post log. If I had an extra few hours I would definitely re-write the damn thing, but we won't bother looking back and instead will focus on my favorite parts of last week and the training you guys experienced.

On a positive note we have set some pretty cool milestones as a Community of CrossFitters and the number people coming down and training has really blossomed. This is great for me as an individual as well because it essentially turns a day of "work" into a day of "euphoria induced by fun activities mixed with periods of basking in the company of the only people you want to be around". The website also has set its PR in visitors and has achieved 50 times the traffic it had in the first month of operation (January is also only about half-way done!).

The best part about these trends in growth (Euphoria is a close second)is that I noticed some striking similarities between all of our CrossFitters while asking people about their histories and background information. The knowledge you share with me lets me really evaluate the tools, methods, and education levels we have as here and focus improving anything that will bring better results to the athletes. t we can use to improve the potency to Before we get to those similar threads lets briefly cover things that normally get broken down in detail (this was the bulk of the other post and included all the wods, scores, etc.) It's hard for me to not tell the "whole story" that each training session contains, but I need to work on the important post for tomorrow too. At a minimum I still need to bellow an elated WELCOME to all our new CrossFit Friends.
We are absolutely thrilled to be in a position where we can finally be around like minded people and finally enjoy every second spent learning, training, and teaching. Some of our guys are almost overcome with frantic anticipation and have registered for CrossFit certs so we can have more eyes and brains around to help each other out.

Training From Around Our "Society":
There was a lot of variety in different WODs people were doing and it was very interesting to see everyone's scores. I can't list them all right now but I wanted to say that there were a lot of personal records that fell hard today! It is killing me that I don't have the time to herald them all because your training details and PR's are kind of like gold that tastes of lean chicken breast with mustard...oh my God, so tasty and valuable. In the future I will be relying on your help in keeping our integrity immaculate in detailing the training and updating leaderboard scores.
I shudder to think about what would happen if I missed a number and instead hit something that made a score poorer than it really way ... CrossFitters in hell, right?

Similarities Revealed:
The interesting and ultimately useful point I noted about the "capacity & ability" assessment I asked everyone to share with me was that you all said the same damn things. The skill set that elicited a "dire level of concern" (exact words someone used!) was definitely the Olympic Lifts. The second heavy hitter that almost everyone placed high up in their "Goat List" was Pull-ups, and there were a lot of spiteful people pointing at the "Kipping" breed.

This is an excellent position for us to be in with so many people sharing similar obstacles that are slowing your overall development. Don't think of the skill work as something that we are using in order to just complete the WODs as Rx'd. The view I like to use is much more fundamental and affords skill development an equal amount of real estate on the Leaderboards. Now we can move forward and continue our overall self-assessment (and hopefully share it with each other) and formulate the plan that best suits rapid skill acquisition and proficiency.

Now that we are moving forward with this I foresee an immediate increase in everyone's desire to start learning, competition has always been thick in the general CrossFit community, but I feel like there are some notable fire breathers up here in NH that really push that upper limit. There is another catalyst that you will encounter and consider a potent contributor to your accelerated ability levels: all of the CrossFitters here help teach each other everything they can. It is a source of pride that this community will excel just as fast without any formal instruction or leadership because of it's members devotion and loyalty to each other and progress.

Training alone can suck sometimes and I am more than willing to show you a real world example of this in picture below. Look at how confused I get trying to work on Knees to Elbows ... I even ended up accidentally trying to train them when I should have been nailing down the power cords that are feeding our new floodlights.

Bonus round: there are 27 catastrophic threats to my life evident in this image. How many can you find? Post scores in the "comments" section
(reality disclaimer: I needed to get up to the ceiling with no ladder and 2 milk crates and an unnamed bully took my camera)

This is the limit for tonight's discussion as this will be a huge step forward we are taking as a community and I don't want any hitchhiking, attention stealing, whore topics getting in the way. Go think about your CrossFit "Goat List" (hierarchy of skill weakness based on how much you think you suck at each from most to least) and start one. Just because you haven't seen something you think is a weakness in a WOD is no reason to exclude it from your list.
Try to always keep your list with you
when training so the option to make progress is forever available.

I think some of you might doubt your potential to learn and move like lightning from "Goat List" to leaderboard potential. A great example how fast a skill can be learned can be seen by watching the MMA Fight Team train. There are always examples of Olympic Lifting components being executed, with everyone able to complete the lift through its full range of motion while some have already attained an even greater level of technical proficiency. Ask these guys questions an you will find out that most are coming from zero experience and did nothing more than borrow some of Coach Burgener's creativity and a pick up a broomstick.

Go get to work and we will talk more about this tomorrow!

11 comments:

Mike Molloy said...

You can officially remove "writhing on the floor" from my Goat list. I think I've got that one down after Saturday night but I'll be sure to keep practicing...

Great post by the way

SRD said...

I don't know if we can remove it from the list quite yet. Maybe just move it down the ranks a bit.

Now that you seem have gotten it's full range of motion down I think we can start working on "repetitions" so you can get a better time to completion.

As far as names go I think that writhing on the floor could go into a class of movements we deem "Coorelatives of Intensity".
What do you think?

BP said...

I am jealous. Hopefully i will get out there soon to learn some of this $hit
:-)

Melissa Urban said...

You can officially remove "swearing like a truck driver" from my Goat list, since I think I did plenty of that during our pull-up session on Saturday. I had a great time training with you, and can't wait for our KB session on Saturday!

BamBam said...

The 27 catastrophic threats in that Picture

1. Is that the hammer you smash gas pipes in your apartment as a WOD? You're supposed to use a sledge hammer and a tire. (FYI: Ross almost died from a gas leak in his apartment last week)

2. You may get a splinter and kill your self because you can't deal with the pain.

3. Your frail legs probably can't hold the weight and you will fall on your head.

4. It looks like your wearing some girly rockstar belt and I may have to kill you for it.

5. The mouse that causes you to jump up there will still be waiting for you when you come down. (You better be accurate with that hammer)

6. The platform you built will give out when you drop down and you will fall into the pit of spikes and snakes that lies below.

7. Your beard will snag on a nail on the dismount causing an awkward landing that kills you.

8. The hammer will go where the sun don't shine when you fall and your X-rays will be on the 10:00 news and you will die from the embarrassment.

9. The 27 weapons you are always concealing will kill you when you fall.

10. Chris tied your laces together and it will be funny at first as you hang there but they will snap and you will break your neck.

11. Jefe sees this as the perfect opportunity to make it look like an accident.

12. You will find out that only blood and guts come out not candy when a human is used in the absence of a real pinata. (he will make the sacrifice to keep the party going.)

13. The fire you lit below you for warmth in that dungeon will roast you like a pig.

14. Your mother's disappointment in your stupidity crushes you week little heart.

15. Nick Scoggins shows up and accuses you of taking steroids; you swing the hammer at him, miss and fall to your death.

16. You can't get enough oxygen because compared to your height that is a huge altitude change.

17. Your neck gets tangled in the rings on the way down and you are ironically killed by your favorite gym equipment.

18. Your kettle bell dodge ball game went horribly wrong and although you dodged the first one you are now a sitting duck.

19. The entire structure falls in on you when that beam breaks.

20. You think of the last time you did something this stupid and the thought gives you alcohol poisoning because it was Manapaloosa '06.

21. You post this picture, ask for comments, I respond, you get mad, challenge me to a dual, then realize that is a fatal mistake.

22. You started to think of the greatest WOD in the world that involved the rafters. It was probably like: 100 rafter monkey up and overs, 300 moon boot style sit ups from the rafters, run 5 miles in under 3 minuets, then repeat 20 rounds for time (this is not the greatest WOD in the world. It is just a tribute) No one ever gets to do the greatest WOD because you relax completely and fall to your peaceful death.

23. While you are hanging, an Olympic Curling sweeper bangs out Fran in under 1 min you clutch your chest and fall on your head.

24. You fall asleep hanging from there and one of the girls from the soccer team named Buffy assumes your a vampire and drives a stake through your heart. (apparently that kills humans too) I'm with you Buffy better safe than sorry.

25. The "goat", that you have carry your "list", quietly moved the milk crates when you weren't looking and you fell cracked your head on a 45 and your last thought was: I wish I had bumper plates. (I don't know why you didn't hear the goat. He has a bell on his neck)

26. You notice the mirror on the ceiling, try to flex, and Jefe kills you before you hit the ground for that despicable act.

27. You can't get down and the goat nibbles at you until your missing your head and shoulders. I hear goats will eat anything. In hindsight you should have just called it a normal list and carried it in you wallet.

Did I get all the ones you were thinking of?

Scratch making my self laugh while no else thinks it's funny off my list.

Mike Molloy said...

Ha, I like it but we'll have to at least add the inability to talk and dry-heaving to round out the list.

BamBam said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
BamBam said...

To be clear that was not a "Goat List" it was a response to the question "How many can you find?" on picture # 3. You don't want to see my goat list.

chris toomey said...

Samy. teh post looks great. i too would like to welcome our new savages to the gym. keep the rush going brother. stay savage

SRD said...

Ben, you are absolutely right and you win the secret prize which is the first official CFNH/Savage Society t-shirt. If you wear it to work, thought, because then they will know who Bam Bam is and fire you because of revenue loss based on employees that spend all their time on the internet.

Actually, if you get fired then we are stealing the c2 there.

I am reposting this tonight too, I think everyone missed it and its hilarious, and your spelling was amazing.

BamBam said...

Nice. a clean shirt to wear. that doesn't happen to often.