Artistry

It’s officially officially the off season.

That damn Froning. He did it again. Have to give him props. No matter what is thrown at the guy, at least for the last 4 years, he’s come out on top or near the top (2nd in 2010). I have always held that repeat champions in CrossFit meant programming must be flawed. Because if the events are mixed enough, no one person could be good at all of them. And generally that’s been true. This year had the most first year athletes and familiar names fell down the leaderboard. But Froning just keeps on trucking.

This brings me to something that came up on the interwebz over the weekend. The idea that Castro, HQ and the boys may have deliberately “punished” athletes who concentrated their training efforts primarily in max strength and short duration interval conditioning. And thus rewarded those who concentrated in more long slow endurance like efforts. While I think the time domains were the longest they’ve been in any Games I can remember (I actually haven’t checked this), I don’t think HQ did it to punish or reward any particular athletes or training programs per se. I just think HQ wanted to put on an event that played to a televised audience the best they could. And to fill up the air time they were given.

Consequently, this year more than any other year, the Open, the Regionals and the Games (for both individuals and teams) have been vastly different from one another. The question of programming for a moving target is probably the most important to the coach of competitive fitness. It is so much easier to prepare an athlete say to run 400 meters. But to prepare an athlete for an event of which you have no idea what it will be, is ridiculous if you think about too hard. But that’s what the competitive fitness coach is charged with. Prepare an athlete for a three stage event (Open, Regionals, Games). Each vastly different from one another and that changes every year and are filled with unknown elements.

This is why preparing for the CrossFit Games season requires Artistry. (Coaching needs all these elements including Mastery, Nerdery, Zealotry and Humility). To do this well the coach needs to draw on more than just science, study and experience the coach has directly in the sport. He may have to draw from other disciplines like music or physics or sociology. Sound crazy? Not really. To borrow again from Charlie Munger as I have previously, one of his concepts is great thinkers form a latticework of mental models. My interpretation of this philosophy is that patterns show up in different areas of life. The use and application of those patterns to your own disciple is where the art comes in. And something as undefinable as a CrossFit competition – is it 150 wall balls or is it flipping a “pig” for 100 yards – may rely on the ability to lace together conclusions about training and preparation from multiple disciplines.

Perhaps Rich Froning, who programs and coaches himself for the most part, is the greatest CrossFit coaching artist there is. He’s been able to form himself into a master of an ever changing sport, by design. Or perhaps he is simply the most gifted. I believe the latter is probably the most likely. I also believe if one utilizes the tools of good coaching and develops the right program for the right athlete, Froning will not 4-peat. Over the next few posts, let’s discuss how to beat Rich, since no one else has figured it out.

Elements of A Great Coach
Intro
Mastery
Nerdery
Zealotry and Humility

***Deload Week***

Strength
back squat: 1×6 @ 70%, 1×6 @ 80%, 1×3 @ 90%, 1×2 @ 95%, rest 3-5 minutes

Note: I will no longer make the distinction between low bar and high bar back squats. After some examination, high bar back squats serve the goals of the program more directly than low bar. From now on, “back squat” without a notation always means high bar and “back squats (LB)” will mean low bar.

rest > 30 minutes

Conditioning
8 minute AMRAP of:
“Cindy”
5 pull-ups
10 push-ups
15 squats