The Nerds Class
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Mobility:
Bottom of Overhead Squat, 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off, 4 rounds.
Strength/Skill:
20 minutes to Establish your 1RM Snatch
Notes: This will ideally be a squat snatch, but a power snatch will be allowed.
“Cindy”
20 Minute AMRAP:
5 Pullups
10 Hand Release Pushups
15 Squats
Notes: Feel free to scale the reps as needed for this, the pushups are notoriously the most challenging portion.
Cool down:
Cat stretch on the box, 1 minute.
Samson Stretch, 1 minute.
Go to the beach.
They came to me almost a year and a half ago. At first glance, I had no idea where to start. I knew they were a group of dudes from Glencoe Avenue, working for a company that made video games. What else was I supposed to call them? I decided to start them the way I would start any new group, and any new CrossFitter: Mechanics, Consistency, and Intensity.
Days became weeks, weeks became months. I cringed and worried and coached and instructed. I wondered who would make it and who wouldn’t. Squats got deeper, weights got heavier, times got faster. Where they started at 3 times a week, I watched them request 4 times a week. Over time their bodies transformed, their confidence in themselves grew exponentially. I threw some of our assistant coaches at them, I gave them clinics for rowing and running. The cadre noticed they were moving better, and were becoming bonafide badasses. After about 6 months I remember telling them to do back squats or snatches, the movement lost to memory, but I remember NOT teaching them or telling them how to do the movement. I remember not reviewing the movements with them at all, and not demonstrating anything with them. After a few minutes, they were just moving and lifting, looking straight ahead, focused on their tasks, and not giving a shit about me. Like I wasn’t even f#cking there. I knew then they were different people than the ones I first met.
It became such an issue at their workplace (so I imagined) there was talk of a second nerds class, which I also happily took on. So at one time, I had 2 different Nerds’ classes, some at 1pm, some at 9am. The story was the same with the new guys. I didn’t know where to start, we started, they got better.
Like with Rico’s good bye, it never occurred to me it would end. They told me it was in the back of their minds, but it never occurred to me.
They were my nerds. Mine. They would be mine forever. But things happen in the video game industry, for good or ill, and before I know it they have to leave. The last two weeks have been excruciating for me. As a CrossFit Coach, I take for granted people who come to us and continually chose to be with us, as long as we provide the highest quality around. But I gave them my best, all the time, I gave them others’ best as well. And still I lost them. I learned too late that I loved them.
I loved having them around, loved coaching them and watching them grow.
Their last month I split the class hour into half WOD and half Lecture just because I couldn’t stand the thought of them not having CrossFit in their lives. And because CrossFit is MY life, I poured my whole world into them. Taught them everything I knew. I tried to. How to program WODs, how to train in their garage, what to look for in programming, how to evaluate any exercise program, I taught them Zone and Paleo.
My last lecture to them was about not getting caught up in CF drama, and to keep squatting and deadlifting and cleaning and eating clean, that they didn’t need a gym for any of that, but they did need friends to workout with. I almost lost my shit (emotionally) multiple times throughout their last hour and couldn’t look any of them in the eye when they left. A part of me understands this is for the best, but then it’s not. They’re gone for no f#cking good reason at all. My nerds are gone. Chances are, very few of you reading this has ever seen or met them. But they meant the world to me, and if you are reading this, use this as a clue as to how much you mean to me, and to all of our staff. Barf.
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