Understanding Talent

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Thursday, October 17th, 2013

Warm-Up/Mobility

 2 Rounds:
30 Jumping Jacks
15 Scapular Pushups
10 PVC Dislocates
5 Diamond (Narrow Width) Pushups
50′ Duck Walk

Gymnastics Strength

4 rounds for quality:

3 Wall climbs + 15 second HS hold (hold after each rep)
ME Strict Ring dips  (if more than 10, add weight)

 Notes:  If you cannot perform a ring dip, perform pushups.

Conditioning:

5 rounds for QUALITY of:

10 Hanging Ring extensions (Right arm + Left arm = 1 rep)
5 Forward Rolls
5 Backward rolls
10 Sotts Press (45lb bar)

Notes: The ring extension is performed by holding a flexed arm hang on the rings in a false grip and extending one arm at a time.  Proceed with caution if you have elbow or shoulder issues!  You can scale this by using a ring row position or simply holding the top of the pullup for 30 seconds (ideally false grip on rings, but a regular grip on the bar is ok as well).  We will review and perform the rolling progressions in class. For the Sotts press, use a lighter bar and only squat to a depth that you can maintain a quality shoulder position (just like all of our overhead squat and snatch drills!).

Cool Down

10 Wall Extensions
T-Spine Smash, 1 min
OH Band Distraction, 1 min
Stretch Neck as needed 

The next Froning?

Diso and I had a conversation a few weeks ago about talent. As a coach, we really get to see the variety of  athletes that this gym has including different athletic backgrounds (or lack there of), current sports being played or just your average weekend warrior. As CrossFit continues to evolve as a competitive “sport” like basketball or football, we know how to identify those athletes with high levels of talent. If we take a look at the recent 3x CF Games Champion Rich Froning, a Kobe Bryant who is on his way to the Hall of fame, or our own Derrick Johnson who became National Champ not too long ago, it is safe to assume we can label these men as talented individuals. Now, where did all that talent come from? Some could argue that talent is “god-given” or maybe even comes naturally to a human being. Although I do believe some people are naturally talented to do certain things, I’d like to argue that when it comes to sports or CF it’s all about the blood, sweat and tears. In our arena, nothing beats hard work. And that is what is so great about our world. You can arrive with a clean slate and over the course of a few weeks, months or years become talented at a certain skill or movement in CrossFit eventually making you become a better athlete.

So, why exactly do I bring it up? I often hear people in the gym talk about their lack of ability to do double unders, hit a certain Olympic lift or even how they have literally ZERO athletic background and are content with that. If this is you, I challenge you to erase the doubt and keep working hard towards your goals and towards things you never imagined you could do. We see people at PCF who increase their back squat by hundreds of pounds or hit their first Muscle-up after hundreds of failed attempts! You might not be 20 years old anymore but I truly believe that there is always time to better yourself. When it’s all said and done, you will become more talented now than the person that walked through the PCF doors days, months and years ago. Below is a simple video explanation of  this topic. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do! 

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-successful-people-practice-2013-8

Post any thoughts, comments or questions.

PS I know there is usually a big debate about defining skill vs talent in the sports world, but we can save that one for another time 🙂