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CrossFit in the Olympics?

Monday, May 6th, 2013

olympic_ringsHere’s a blog post from CrossFit Aggieland suggesting CrossFit become part of the Olympics.

The author makes the point that much of the Olympics is so specialized that many gold medal winners barely qualify as “athletes.”  The author also suggests that to truly find worthy athletes, you’d have to combine Olympic events, something that the CrossFit Games has done in some fashion.

What do you think about this?  Would you like to see CrossFit, or a cross-competition in the Olympics?

Workout for May 6, 2013

A) Warm up: Front Squat 2 reps @ 60%, 2 reps @70%

B) 5 Minutes lower back mobility

C) Front Squats 2-2-2-2-2-2 reps @75%

D) 8×200m run, rest 1 minute between

E) 1 min - 1 min - 1 min partner spotted handstands / 10-10-10 lateral squats

Posted in CrossFit Community, CrossFit Games | 2 Comments »

CrossFit Games Regionals

Monday, April 15th, 2013

390e06c47df8cb0fd9372638ae5a4504Okay, here’s the deal: the NorCal Regionals are in Santa Rosa this year!

You can buy tickets here.  Come visit beautiful Sonoma County and watch the Region’s fittest compete for glory and a spot at the Games.  This year we’re going to see some CrossFit legends competing, including Jason Khalipa, Pat Barber, Neil Maddox, Annie Sakamoto, and Miranda Oldroyd.

Regionals are held over the weekend of May 24-26th at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa.  Tickets went on sale last Friday for $15.00/ day, or $40.00 for all three days.  If you haven’t already, go buy them now before it’s sold out!

Posted in CrossFit Games | No Comments »

2013 Games Open Highlights

Saturday, April 13th, 2013

This year’s Games Open workouts were incredible.  I saw a lot of great effort and community building from all of the athletes who participated.  What’s more, I saw a lot of support from the people who weren’t participating.  Here’s some of the highlights of this year’s Games Open efforts at The Cave.

Lesley showing off her score.

Lesley showing off her score.

  • Karen L. puts together an amazing spread for Games Open competitors.  I know I had more than one coconut water.  Thanks, Karen.
  • Mark A. PRs snatches on 13.1.  It was one seriously ugly snatch, but still legit.
  • Shari M. get a muscle-up during 13.3… almost.  She did the workout on a busy Saturday with 20+ people watching and cheering.  Through great effort, she fought to the top of the rings, but didn’t have quite enough to lock it out.  Next time, Shari.
  • The Masters murder the Open.  Regionally, we had Masters athletes take 3rd, 6th, 7th, 10th, 11th 12th, and 30th in their divisions.  Big congratulations to Bill B., Rich L., Michael S., Karen L., Marcia T., Mark A., and Martin H.
  • Marcia T. finishes 11th in the region, 70th in the world despite NOT doing the last workout.  Marcia was a reluctant sign-up for the Open, but clearly she has some amazing ability!
  • Karen L. set an example to injured athletes by finishing 10th in the region in her division even after months of modified workouts due to an elbow injury.
  • Bill B. qualifies to go back to the games.  He’s currently at 7th in the world.
  • Lesley C. PRs on every workout.  Lesley hasn’t been training with us very long, just a few months, but she’s showing some very inspiring dedication, and mental toughness.  She was a reluctant sign up for the Open, but did her best and surprised herself with PR snatches, push-presses, thrusters, and clean & jerk, as well as a sub-10:00 “Karen” during 13.3.

The Open this year was inspiring.  Thanks to all of you for doing such an outstanding job.  I hope that everybody who didn’t get a chance to compete this year will do so next year.  And to help ramp you up, we’re going to be doing challenges similar to the Open workouts throughout the year.

Work hard!  See you in the gym!

Posted in CrossFit Community, CrossFit Games | 2 Comments »

How to Enjoy the Open

Thursday, April 4th, 2013

In deed!

Posted in CrossFit Games | No Comments »

Whoa!

Wednesday, March 20th, 2013

Here’s the video of Josh Golden getting 387 reps in the CrossFit Games Open workout 13.2, putting him in a three-way tie for first.

Or not?  According to this article on the Games site, this video popped up on YouTube and once it was recognized that Mr. Golden didn’t perform all of the movements correctly, they rejected his score.

“In the Open, the Athlete is responsible for performing the workout as prescribed and meeting all movement standards. The Judge and Affiliate Manager are responsible for validating that performance. In this case, all three parties failed to fulfill their responsibilities.”

As a result, they are revoking that affiliate’s ability to validate scores, so anybody from that gym either has to video their submission, or go to another affiliate to do the next workouts.

Pretty harsh, but it just goes to show that they are not messing around when it comes to the seriousness of the competition or the movement standards.

I’m interested to hear what you guys think about this?

Posted in CrossFit Games, News | 2 Comments »

Perspective on 13.1

Thursday, March 14th, 2013

This was originally sent out to the Cave’s Google Groups email by Shari M.  It’s posted here with her permission.

Shari M.

Shari M.

    I wanted to share with you all a vulnerable moment that I had yesterday
    during my 13.1 Open workout and the valuable lesson I learned as a result.
    Just to set the stage, I came into the gym yesterday with a goal for 13.1: to improve upon the number of snatches I got in last year’s open workout (the snatch ladder) in comparison to this year’s union of burpees and snatches. Bo agreed to judge my performance. In the final minutes of my 100 lb snatch attempts, I split snatched a rep and did not stand with my feet together before dropping the bar which as you all are probably aware you are required to do for the rep to count. As a result, Bo called “No Rep”.
    My reaction to Bo was to yell an expletive and shout, “You’re not going to
    let me have that one?” And after the workout I even (half-jokingly)
    suggested to Bo that he should feel bad about not giving me that rep. Yes,
    I am embarrassed by my behavior…shame on me. It was poor sportsmanship, plain and simple.
    And now for the valuable lesson I learned….
    Your judge is either your coach or your peer. No one wants to see you succeed more than they do. We’ve worked along side of each other all year, supporting one another through the trenches of sweat and mental toil. Judges are your friends. But, even more importantly, we’ve all worked too hard over the last year to cheat a rep. This will be even more important in the weeks to come with movements such as wall ball where the ball has to touch the tape or toes to bar where both feet have to touch the bar or hand release push-ups etc. The rules are the rules and we all have to abide by the standards set by rule makers. Our goal for a workout should be to earn every last rep that we can. This is a competition and we should compete with integrity.
    And lastly, I did improve upon the number of snatches I did over last year. Last year, I couldn’t even snatch 100 lbs and this year I was able to snatch 4 reps at that weight. I am proud of my score.
    Thanks Bo for keeping me honest!

Posted in CrossFit Games, Training, Workouts | No Comments »

CrossFit Games Open Starts Today!

Wednesday, March 6th, 2013

I’m hoping to see a lot of great efforts put out by everybody at The Cave in the next few weeks.

Here’s a video to help get you pumped up!

Posted in CrossFit Games | 1 Comment »

The Cave and CrossFit Games History

Tuesday, March 5th, 2013
2008 CrossFit Games in Aromas at The Ranch

2008 CrossFit Games in Aromas at The Ranch

The Cave has been involved in the CrossFit Games in some fashion since the beginning. If you watched the video in the CrossFit Games History post you’d know that the Games started in 2007 at The Ranch in Aromas CA. We had a couple athletes compete that year. It was great. A small group of athletes putting this crazy CrossFit protocol into a competitive format to see who was the best. The vibe was great. Everyone just wanted to be involved and help out. This games featured the hopper workout which was literally generated at random on the spot during the games.

In 2008 we had a few more folks compete. This time the first day consisted of three workouts which completely blasted our legs. Day two was the 30 squat clean and jerks which made Jason Kalipha famous. He was in the very back of the final heat of the workout and blazed through completely shocking everyone. The CF media team didn’t even have a camera on him because there was no way this guy could win. Whoops.

In 2009 due to size limits the first regionals was created. Another group of us went down to compete including Bill B. who qualified to the CF Games Masters Final in 2011. In 2009 there was no masters category so he was competing with the young bucks. But he was there. The games that year consisted of 7 workouts. The athletes had a brutal task list to complete. This included the infamous row/stake drive workout.

2010 brought sectionals, regionals and The Games. With the growth the series of qualifying events was going to become extensive. We brought a team to regionals at UCLA that year. This was Amanda N’s first introduction to the Games. Ask her about ring dips sometime. We had a great time down in LA and our shining moment was in a tire flip, log carry event. We came in second in our heat and should have won due to some really shady judging, and yes we have video to prove it. This was also the first year the Games was held at the Home Depot Center.

2011 was the year of the first CrossFit Games Open. Thousands of competitors submitting results online as the first qualifying step was a brilliant way to economize the qualification process. CrossFit was born out of the web and it makes sense that the web would be used in its premier competition. This year Bill B. qualified to the games in the 55-59 age category. Number 569, we have the Berry gear that a few of us sport from time to time. It was great to see him compete against the fittest old dudes in the world.

2012 the CF Games exploded. Tens of thousands of athletes competed in the Open. We sent Amanda N. to regionals and Rich L. to the Games. Rich qualified in the exact same position Bill did the previous year. Due to that he also was number 569. So, someone else better do the same this year because we have a streak going.

The 2013 Open is upon us. We’ll be running competitive WODs in the gym regularly. As many as possible should participate. It is a lot of fun and your capability may surprise you. Rich L. is gunning for another trip to the Games in the 55-59 category, Bill B. has a really good shot moving into the 60+ category, and we have a few other possible opportunities to get some athletes going forward to further qualifying rounds of the Games. Sign up.

games.crossfit.com

Find our affiliate CrossFit Marin and our team The Cave - CrossFit Marin.

Posted in Competition, CrossFit Games | No Comments »

CrossFit Games History

Wednesday, February 27th, 2013

Next week starts the CrossFit Games Open.  Are you ready?

Here’s a quick video covering the history of this amazing event.  Enjoy:

Posted in CrossFit Games | No Comments »

Should You Sign Up For The CrossFit Games Open?

Monday, February 4th, 2013
The Ranch in Aromas

The Ranch in Aromas

We’re approaching CrossFit Games season. One of the most common questions we get at this time of year is “Should I sign up?”. Well, for the most part the answer is a simple “Yes!”. The CrossFit Games Open is arguably the biggest athletic competition in the world. Tens of thousands of people participate in this competition. That is a staggering number of people all competing against each other.  They are adding additional masters age brackets, and it will be even bigger this year. There’s no expectation, for us it is predominantly about participation. Games season brings a really fun energy to the facility. People come in at odd times to get in and get their workouts judged. We’ve had cases where people have done a games workout twice in one day (Not recommended).

CrossFit Marin/The Cave has had athletes participate in the games since the beginning. Back in 2007 at the first games at The Ranch in Aromas a small group of athletes, coaches and judges started what was to become a huge event. Greg Glassman’s vision of the games was to be the Woodstock of fitness. The Ranch certainly had this feel, but unfortunately the games rapidly outgrew Aromas. From 2007 to 2009 the games were held there and the ranch was improved to handle the growth, but it had to be moved. There is certainly a nostalgia about the ranch. Running the hill. Doing burpees on hot, dirty wrestling mats, hanging out in the barn with a bunch of folks that were involved in this crazy CrossFit thing because they loved it and believed in it.

Now the games are aired on ESPN. They occur at the Home Depot center in LA and thousands of spectators attend. The level of competition has increased dramatically. Just qualifying to regionals is a major accomplishment.

So, back to the original question. Should you sign up? If you have any injuries that prevent key movements, then no, but otherwise, sure. Sign up and post your scores. It is not whether or not you have a realistic chance of qualifying, but just to be a part of this phenomenal competition. You’re coming in to the gym to workout anyway. It is a great experience to jump in a do a workout to whatever level you can. There is no scaling, but the workouts are designed to allow participation. Maybe you can’t complete all segments of a workout. That’s ok. As long as you can complete part of the workout you can compete. Its also a great time to get a close look at every rep of every movement you do. There are strict requirements on what constitutes a completed rep. This can be eye opening, and frustrating. But its good, and will help guide your training going forward.

Posted in CrossFit Community, CrossFit Games, Training | No Comments »

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