Developing a strategy

CrossFit is still pretty foreign to many of us here at CFD.  Some of us are fresh out of Foundations, while others have been going only a few months.  Don’t let this keep you from having your own game plan every time you come into the gym.  To draw an analogy and try to apply this to your daily lives, let’s think about this for a second:   Many of us are busy, intelligent people with careers, families, and other activities and we are having to juggle these components of our lives constantly.  From teachers, students, parents, military, nurses, doctors, lawyers, and everything in between, we all have to multitask and be prepared each and every day.  For some, their jobs and lives may be very predictable; for others, they face the unknown and the unknowable.  Regardless, a game plan is needed, correct?  Even if it comes down to a to-do list of errands I need to run for the day, I formulate a way to approach it.  We try to minimize backtracking, have as many things going at once so we can optimize our time expenditure, and make things as efficient as possible.

Since we all ‘game plan’ anyways, let’s apply that same mindset to our CrossFit WODs!  What goes on in my head when I see a workout laid in front of me is immediate strategizing (or ‘strategery,’ if you will.  Sorry, I couldn’t resist the reference!).  I see a barbell movement paired with pull-ups, and I think of how that might interfere with how good I might think I am at either task.  I want to position my stations so that I’m minimizing time between them going from one to the next.  I think about the pace I think I can hold on to, and at what point I need to go for broke so there’s nothing in the tank afterward.  I realistically look at each movement and put it into context of how tired I will be when I get to it and try to think of a good goal.  What will I excel at?  Where might I get hung up?  Etc. etc…these questions could go on for a while, but you get the point!

Has everyone noticed the scoreboard feature on WODhopper?  It’s pretty cool, right??  Many of us are on the website regularly, to RSVP and see the results of the classes as the day progresses.  We all know that the WODs for the day post at 7pm the night before—take a second to look at it and get your mind in gear!  Use that opportunity to break things down, look up movement reminders if you can’t remember what a ‘hang power clean’ is, and formulate a strategy beforehand!  Not only with you GREATLY benefit from doing so in regards to your performance, but it makes the classes flow smoother as well.  Nobody expects you to have everything committed to memory after getting through Foundations, but the WOD is never a surprise, so look up the information you need to refresh your memory.

When I see stations scattered all over the place, people grabbing different bands in the middle of a WOD to hitch on the pullup rig, people running TO THEIR CARS FOR WATTER BOTTLES in the middle of a WOD (yup, I’ve definitely seen that on multiple occasions!), wrist-taping while the clock is ticking…it’s all taking away from the intensity of the workout.  I can’t stress enough:  Have a game plan and be prepared.  Test that weight you put on the bar, and keep in mind how many of them you may have to do.  Make sure that’s the right band for your pull-ups, or kettlebell for your swings.  You can always modify strategies mid-workout, but having a plan at least gives you a direction.  Too often have I watched someone not even attempt a lift prior to the WOD only to watch them get buried by the weight they picked for themselves (or fly through it—just as many times we UNDER scale ourselves).  I could give plenty of examples, but I’m sure the concept hits home with many of you, either having it happen to you personally or saw it happen to a fellow athlete during a class.

There will always be unexpected hitches in our WODs; they are far from predictable, and that’s the beauty of it  CrossFit never gets easy, you’ll just get better at it.  However, we need to control and plan for the things we have the ability to!  When I see wasted time as a result of no planning, it’s really a shame that the intensity had to be lost because the individual didn’t have their ducks in a row prior to the clock starting.

I hope this makes sense to many of you and encourages you all, as athletes, to tackle each day with a more prepared mindset.  I’m sure many of you are great at doing this in other applications—many of you are very intelligent, successful people outside of the gym!  Apply that same critical thinking here, and I can assure you that your progress will reflect that application.  I can’t help but strategize my WODs, but I have to remember that it didn’t come right away.  Hopefully this inspires at least a few of you to unlock that potential and start doing it more on your own!

As always, thanks for taking the time out of your busy days to read this, and I can’t stress enough how proud I am of my athletes!  You guys are the best and I enjoy each and every class.  Thank you all for allowing me to do what I love!

See you soon!

–Phil