Akoto is NOT giving up her Kettlebell
Fundamentals, Virtuosity and Mastery
An Open Letter To CrossFit Trainers
By Greg Glassman, CrossFit Journal, August 2005
In gymnastics, completing a routine without error will not get you a perfect score, the 10.0—only a 9.7. To get the last three tenths of a point, you must demonstrate “risk, originality, and virtuosity” as well as make no mistakes in execution of the routine.
Risk is simply executing a movement that is likely to be missed or botched; originality is a movement or combination of movements unique to the athlete—a move or sequence not seen before. Understandably, novice gymnasts love to demonstrate risk and originality, for both are dramatic, fun, and awe inspiring— especially among the athletes themselves, although audiences are less likely to be aware when either is demonstrated.
Virtuosity, though, is a different beast altogether. Virtuosity is defined in gymnastics as “performing the common uncommonly well.” Unlike risk and originality, virtuosity is elusive, supremely elusive. It is, however, readily recognized by audience as well as coach and athlete. But more importantly, more to my point, virtuosity is more than the requirement for that last tenth of a point; it is always the mark of true mastery (and of genius and beauty).
There is a compelling tendency among novices developing any skill or art, whether learning to play the violin, write poetry, or compete in gymnastics, to quickly move past the fundamentals and on to more elaborate, more sophisticated movements, skills, or techniques. This compulsion is the novice’s curse—the rush to originality and risk.
The novice’s curse is manifested as excessive adornment, silly creativity, weak fundamentals and, ultimately, a marked lack of virtuosity and delayed mastery. If you’ve ever had the opportunity to be taught by the very best in any field you’ve likely been surprised at how simple, how fundamental, how basic the instruction was. The novice’s curse afflicts learner and teacher alike. Physical training is no different.
What will inevitably doom a physical training program and dilute a coach’s efficacy is a lack of commitment to fundamentals. We see this increasingly in both programming and supervising execution. Rarely now do we see prescribed the short, intense couplets or triplets that epitomize CrossFit programming. Rarely do trainers really nitpick the mechanics of fundamental movements.I understand how this occurs. It is natural to want to teach people advanced and fancy movements. The urge to quickly move away from the basics and toward advanced movements arises out of the natural desire to entertain your client and impress him with your skills and knowledge. But make no mistake: it is a sucker’s move. Teaching a snatch where there is not yet an overhead squat, teaching an overhead squat where there is not yet an air squat, is a colossal mistake. This rush to advancement increases the chance of injury, delays advancement and progress, and blunts the client’s rate of return on his efforts. In short, it retards his fitness.
If you insist on basics, really insist on them, your clients will immediately recognize that you are a master trainer. They will not be bored; they will be awed. I promise this. They will quickly come to recognize the potency of fundamentals. They will also advance in every measurable way past those not blessed to have a teacher so grounded and committed to basics.
Training will improve, clients will advance faster, and you will appear more experienced and professional and garner more respect, if you simply recommit to the basics.
There is plenty of time within an hour session to warm up, practice a basic movement or skill or pursue a new PR or max lift, discuss and critique the athletes’ efforts, and then pound out a tight little couplet or triplet utilizing these skills or just play. Play is important. Tire flipping, basketball, relay races, tag, Hooverball, and the like are essential to good programming, but they are seasoning—like salt, pepper, and oregano. They are not main courses.
CrossFit trainers have the tools to be the best trainers on earth. I really believe that. But good enough never is, and we want that last tenth of a point, the whole 10.0. We want virtuosity!!
____________________
Kipping Pull-Ups with Jeff Tucker
Just Squat
The ascent of Alex Honnold
Low Bar Back Squat
Performance – 5/3/1 week 2
75% x5
85% x3
95% x1+
Fitness – 2×10 LP. Add 5-10 lbs to last week.
5 Round for Times:
10 Burpees
20 Russian KB Swings
10 Burpees
Rest 2 minutes between sets. All out effort each round, no pacing. Score best and worst round.
Yesterday's fitness version @ 73# with kipping pull ups. Finished my 9th round at the 12 minute cap and Jess was going to let me do the last round but I was too discouraged. When I'm thinking positively, I remind myself that I did my first kipping pull up not even a year ago, and today I did 45. But I just feel so slow all the time. I feel like I have a really hard time pushing myself through workouts on some days, and today was one of them. You know how sometimes there's a WOD that shouldn't really be THAT hard, but you completely slog your way through it? That was me today. Gross.
On a more positive note, I absolutely love this essay. I do teacher training with the apprentices at the Pilates studio, and I often quote a small portion of this piece of writing to them, about how wanting to teach cliebts advanced and fancy movements is the "novice's curse". So true. Oh, and finally: Pilates tonight, upstairs at 7:30!
Sad to be missing Pilates with KH tonight. I have an appointment with a Porterhouse at Keens Steakhouse.
Took my first Pilates class last week and it was painfully amazing. After squatting heavy and WODing, I thought I would enjoy a relaxed session of Pilates. I was so wrong. My abs were on fire. KH was attentive and explained each movement and its relations to Crossfit. I will definitely be back for more ab scooping.
Get mad (beach) abs!!
Fung, I'm so jealous. I love Keens. The mutton chop is what I imagine they serve in heaven.
I fully admit to having woken up, checked the weather, and said, "screw it, I'm doing this tomorrow." Glad I did — now that I see 100 burpees are involved, I'd like another day to recover from all those pushups on Sunday from having made up the capacity test then.
7am w/Jess & McDowell
Front Squats
45lbs x 5, 65lbs x 3, 75lbs x 3, 85lbs x 3
Fitness WOD
11:33 @ 37lbs & ring rows
Deadlifts & ring rows felt effortless – I decided to scale down on the push press to keep moving quickly. I wish I had more upper strength.
It was great to do the WOD again after almost four months of rowing! Although I got nostalgic so I decided to cool down with a 2k after class. Sniff.
Tonight doing some paralette work, probably do the 3×750, and some serious mobility. Been working my calves over trying to improve my ankle situation. I'll be working on the lacrosse ball under the foot tonight to help get me there.
Keen's steakhouse is awesome. The mutton is a huge classic there, and the bar is a sweet old haunt. Enjoy!
Just wanted to take a moment to comment on this weekend's CRASH Bs.
What a Great experience!
I must thank Coach Nick for 5 months of coaching and training. It's tough to keep people motivated for that long, especially for a 7-8 min race on an ERG. Because of where I live in Brookyn (the very end of Flatbush Ave) and family commitments, it's been difficult to make it in to South Brooklyn for my training. I decided to buy an ERG and put 92,453kms on it since January. That a lot of cold, lonely hours in my garage.
I remember after our first 2k race in October and I rowed an 8:25 and had no idea what a 2k number should be. I looked at my heats times from last year and realized I was nowhere near those numbers. I then committed to race myself.
So, how did it go? I finished my race. I didn't puke (I saw a bunch of competitors doing that).
I placed 17th out of 17! In fact I was the only one in my heat above 8 min.
But, my time was better than back in October. Not my best time, though.
Now, I don't like to make excuses, but I've been battling a chest/head cold for the several days and that drives me crazy! I know I could have done better! I couldn't breathe out of my nose, couldn't really swallow after my first 1000 meters. Really , the only things that got me through were my wife and girls screaming from the stands right in front of me and Nick screaming in my right ear! At one point he yelled, " your last 500 meters and you never have to sit on this machine again !" And in my head I'm laughing, thinking, " I got an ERG in my garage, I'll probably be on it this week."
I remember getting up from my ERG and seeing that 8:15 and telling myself " I'm sooo doing this again next year !" So, thanks Nick and my fellow CRASH Beasts!
CRASH Bs, I'll see you next February….
Just back from Crash B’s. It was an great snowy weekend spent with awesome fun people and one yough 2k race! Congrats to all my fellow Crash-Beasts for killing it!
After almost 4 months of rowing, I went in with a specific plan and was able to stay on target. I finished with my fastest time yet at 8:13.4, which is 11 seconds faster than my first 2k race at the start of this whole thing. I wish I had been able to turn it on a little more in the last 250 meters, but I am still very happy with that time. And rowing at the Harvard boat house on Saturday night was super cool. Really glad to have experienced that.
Big thanks to Nick for everything! And to Mare for keeping us all organized…she was so helpful. Also, Ruth for arranging the awesome Air BnB house, where we were able to host the after-after party for everyone that stayed until Monday.
I will def be back next year… I really want a sub 8 min 2k race now! But for now I am just looking forward to being in regular classes again, as I have kind of dropped out while I focused on the rowing in the last month or so.
On the topic of virtuosity, I have a question about scaling tomorrow's WOD (which I'm planning to do tonight). I never know what to do when it comes to burpees. If I do GOOD strict burpees, I’m slow because of the push-up. I know that snake-y burpees are OK for the Open, but I’m not doing the Open. From a general fitness perspective, I’m assuming that I should always do good burpees. That said, is it better to (1) do strict burpees but cut the volume or (2) just do squat thrusts? Or maybe it doesn’t matter at that point?
stumbled across this today and couldn't help but share because something about these sculptures just screamed out David Osorio to me (in a good way, obviously; they're incredible): http://www.freyajobbins.com/sculptures.html
Love this essay, too.
Guys! I figured out how to surreptitiously practice my overhead squat at work! I have a thera-band that I've always used for pull-aparts, but the idea struck me today to pull it between my hands above my head to simulate holding a PVC pipe or barbell. I've been quietly squatting away and am so excited!
In addition to improving my rather wobbly overhead squat, I think it will help my terrible posture, which I've focused on improving intermittently but never consistently. The impetus being that on Sunday evening whilst working away on ITA, I whimpered to David about my poor posture and he solemnly replied, "That is something that is entirely within your control to correct." Convicted.
After returning from Crash-B’s last night I went to my friend’s to catch up and collect my dog. After showing her the pictures and recapping the events of the #crashbsroadtrip, she commented “so it was a good weekend.” YES. It was an incredible weekend and I am actually looking forward to training for 2015 to hit a sub 8 minute 2K.
For the past two winters I’ve trained for a tri and was debating if I would try CrashB’s or join my friends for another season of tri training. I am so happy I opted for Nick’s program. I loved becoming a stronger rower and the group was amazingly supportive and fun.
Thank you to Nick and Mare for organizing a fantastic weekend. Also, many thanks to Ruth for coordinating the CrashB’s house and Charmel and Mel for driving (not the most fun task in Boston, in the snow).
Oh and detouring to a Cheesecake Factory in a mall in Massachusetts was the perfect ending.
Community – I left my necklace on the prowler because I was afraid of squishing it doing C&Js. Katz checked and it seemed to have been recovered and placed on top of the register, behind the counter, but when he went to look for it, no dice. 🙁
If it turns up, would much appreciate it if someone could leave it at the front desk (…again, I guess?) It's a gold necklace with a small gold "V" at the front, attaching the two chains.
I'm in SF this week and sad to be missing the CFSBK workouts. Monday's looked like a doozy.
7am at Lalanne Fitness. Conditioning workout was two 8min ascending ladder AMRAPs of kettlebell swings (2 pood) and thrusters (95#). The ladder started at 1 rep of each, then 2, then 3, etc. Rest 8min after the first AMRAP and then do it again. Finished 8 rounds + 10 reps on the first one and 8 rounds + 9 reps the second. Very surprised that the scores were so close. Low back and shoulders are smoked.
6am with Jess. Did tomorrow's workout and got destroyed by the burpees. Linear progression for the LBBS to 160# x2x10. Felt like the bar was moving well and still have more room to add weight next week.
On the WOD, slowest round was 2:22 and fastest round was 2:00. I regretted choosing the 24kg kb almost immediately, but that wasn't as bad as all of those burpees. I will be sleeping well tonight.
Courtney,
Your "v" necklace should be in the valuables lost and found drawer in the orange filing cabinet.
Thanks, Front Desk! You're the best!
Sorry if I missed the answer somewhere, but I'm still wondering about the open? Is it okay to participate if you can't Rx all the movements?
@Lily. To submit a valid score for the Open, all reps must be Rx'd. That being said, in years past the buy-in for Rx'd has been pretty moderate in terms of load and ability. Even if a WOD has some movements that are not in an athletes toolbox, like say muscle ups, they will often come at the end and really be considered "bonus" reps for most people. If by chance a workout comes up that you can not Rx any of the movements in, you can complete a scaled version of it and submit a zero for the score that week. So in short, I would recommend anyone who is slightly competitive, into CrossFit, and would like to compare their scores to their peers all over the world, to sign up.
@Lily. The link below is to the 2013 Open workouts. As you'll see, most of the workouts were a movement and a weight that most can do. The ones that some may not have been able to Rx'd were probably 13.3 because the wall balls Rx'd for women is 14 # to a 9' target and 13.4 which for women were a 95# clean & jerk and toes 2 bar. You should sign up nevertheless. It's fun.
http://games.crossfit.com/workouts/the-open
Open live announcement venues
http://games.crossfit.com/article/2014-live-open-announcement-venues
Thanks, Fox!
@Joy, it's definitely the weight on some of the movements that is my limiter. Definitely don't have a 75lb snatch…
That being said, I still think it looks fun and am going to give it a shot. Just didn't want to piss off the team… or something.
Thanks for the encouragement!
@Lily. But I bet you have a 45# snatch. Most of us are not going to finish the workout, which is why the difficult movements, i.e. muscle ups, double unders, are at the end of the workout. You're not going to piss anyone off by trying. Give it your best and have fun.
I really like Glassman's essay and I think it points to what is so great about CFSBK. The focus here is so much on virtuosity rather than novelty. It's far better to perform the movements as skillfully and carefully as can be then doing extreme for time work outs under heavy loads without having a base. The coaches are attuned to assuring that we the members are working efficiently and virtuously to our capacity. And rather than throw crazy workouts at us everyday look to build strength so that we can continue to train and move towards doing those crazy intense for time under load workouts in the future when the heavy loads in those workouts will be moderate and the movements will be second nature because we have all performed them over and over under the watchful eyes of terrific coaches. I have dropped in at boxes that were like ours and I have dropped in at some that seem to be where all the warnings about getting hurt doing crossfit come from. And I much prefer the virtuous to the novel.
Thanks for posting this article and thanks for doing what you do.
Did Monday's workout at 6:30 with Josh, 75# + jumping pull-ups. I finished just under the 12-min cap, until my partner Aaron helped me realize that I'd counted out 11 chips instead of 10. Mind-blowing math skills over here, clearly. I was able to keep moving pretty smoothly, but man, I really just wanted that one to be over.
I read David's article today about good deadlifting form from about a year ago, and since Aaron finished early, I practiced touch-and-go deadlifting with the pause below the knee in his remaining time and got some helpful cues from Josh.
Oh, oops, and worked up to 113# on the front squat, thinking about KH's cues the whole time. 😀
Front Squat:
45×5, 65×4, 95×3, 105×1, 110×3
was speedy and crisp, so left it on a good note. eyes out, knees up!
Did 5 push presses with 33# bar to test how my shoulder was feeling. not terrible, but not good. i want to be pain freeeeeee before gettin' in there. The snatch workout from Saturday I didn't have pain, so it's still just the STO positioning/movement that's hurting.
After having an AMAZING massage with Inka on Sunday evening, I've learned that my left tricep was extremely tight (and painful). This is obviously a contributor. Will keep working mobilization and stretch in shoulders while avoiding painful movements.
Instead of the WOD, hit my deadlift exposure that I missed Sunday:
wendler 3 week
95×5, 125×5,
145×3, 160×3, 180×7
that was hard. and felt pretty awesome, seeing as a year ago that was a heavy single for me.
To the Crash Bs survivors: RESPECT!
+1 on Keen's. Definitely in my top 3 and such a deep history. The framed newspapers are worth the visit as is the crazy-huge lithograph mural in one of the smaller side rooms. And the pipes.
HBBS // Wendler: (45×5, 75×5) 100×5, 110×3, 125×10
Super happy to get 10 on my rep-out considering I squatted yesterday and didn't sleep well last night.
WOD with squat thrusts* and 20kg swings: 15:45
Holy crap, that was hard!!
Thanks to Jess and Josh for both answering my burpee question from the blog today. I ended up subbing squat thrusts so I could move as quickly as possible. I'm glad I did. It would have been a very different workout if I had tried to struggle through the push-ups.
@Rob Is, Keen's is the bomb. I am a regular, but honestly, the mutton chop is hype; no disrepsect to y'all who love it… but NY Strip is the way forward. The trivia questions in the bar are a must; I stop in even if I am not dining. Or, I linger for a bloody. The handbill from Ford's Theater makes the kids bug. Love that. @Mare, group outing to Keen's?
Man, the Wednesday metcon was hard. 17:43, 24KG, I think the fastest was 1:44 and the slowest was 2:05. Did I mention that was hard?