Can We Please Stop Critiquing The Crossfit Games Lifting Technique?
Is there going to be a day where we do not see something negative about Crossfit athletes and lifting technique? While I don’t think it…
Is there going to be a day where we do not see something negative about Crossfit athletes and lifting technique? While I don’t think it will be anytime soon, I think we should just stop overemphasizing it as an issue especially in reference to the Crossfit Games. Simply by addressing, and understanding the setup of the Crossfit Games in general you can understand why the Crossfit Games lifting technique will not always be perfect.
***READ: Crossfit, Own The Culture you Created***
This is not the typical statement you will see when you go to a Crossfit HQ website explaining but, the article pretty much hits the nail on the head. I will agree with it when addressing the HQ of Crossfit but not when you talk about the Individual Affiliate Boxes. The Individual boxes are all run differently and vary in quality of coaching, programming or even just approach. Some are great, some suck real bad, and some just use Crossfit for the brand awareness/marketing while others truly believe every word out of Glassman/ HQ’s Mouth regardless what it is.
Why We Should Stop Judging the Technique at the Crossfit Games
It’s just a competition!
It is a competition, or as the name literally says…a game. The Crossfit Games “about the games” section of their website puts it in a pretty easy to understand sentence. Normally, I would think that calling it a competition or a game would be reason enough to expect less the perfect lifting attempts, but year after year the reactions do not seem to match my thinking.
“Make no mistake — the CrossFit Games are designed to test, not train fitness. The goal is to find the fittest athletes, not to produce an easily replicable workout program.”
The events are not alike any other traditional lifting competition you would see in powerlifting or olympic lifting, specifically for the max effort (1 rep) attempts. In power/olympic weightlifting the time between attempts is much longer than you might be used too and they are not timed events with multiple attempts. It is one lift at a time and one attempt at a time. As told by Jordan Syatt in “The Beginners Guide to Powerlifting” on EliteFTS.com
“Between each attempt, you’ll have anywhere between ten and thirty minutes…Between each lift, you’ll have anywhere between sixty minutes and two hours.”
and Joe Meglios in “My First Powerlifting Meet” on Megliofitness.com
“The hardest adjustment was waiting around in between each lift.”
This is where the Crossfit Games is vastly different. Here are the events from the 2016 Crossfit Games Individual Competition schedule was multiple events a day set up like this:
Why would you expect someone to perform perfectly executed reps when you have some many events structured with a either a time limit, or fastest time wins set up? Perfect technique is not even something they look for in judgement of a lift. The Commentators in the video below say it best.
If you do not want to watch the video: they pretty much say “the competitor has to lift the weight off the ground high enough”. But, watch it and see that not all of the lifts in the games are poorly executed.
We can Laugh, but we should avoid Judging
The sport or competitive environment is never going to be perfect or even acceptable at times.
In the American Past time sport of Baseball have you ever seen a professional player get fooled out of his cleats by an awesome off speed pitch?
What about that fastball they weren’t expecting to whizz by them as they swing their bat like they are cutting down a Pine tree for Christmas Or best yet…not even swing?
Hilarious I know, I laughed at them also. Years, and seasons of practice and still they looked so foolish.
My question is: What if both those players looking just as stupid actually hit the ball for a base hit? Sure we could still laugh at them(I am sure they would laugh at themselves too),but at the end of the day they accomplished the task they needed to, and that is all that is shown in their stats at the end of the season.
Competition VS. Practice…HUGE Difference
If you see shitty technique in the practice during the off season then judge all you want.
The competitive environment is different from the practice or training environment. Like the great Mike Tyson would say. “I’mma Eat Cho Children” No, that’s not right here it is:
“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”
In my opinion it is not fair to the athletes to judge a technique when it is within the competitive only environment, because all that matters to them is to try their best to stay within the acceptable/safe guidelines, and to win. After the competition has ended they can go review taped lifts and find where they may need improvement…just like any other professional sports team and athlete would.
When you see this or a similar video on your journey through the internet, do some constructive thinking before making judgement. While his commentary is quite funny he also has a very biased view on Crossfit in general going into the video.
I can say that they need better judging(which has improved greatly since this year of the games)and, I do not agree with allowing the competitors to struggle like they did with that lock out, just poor judgement calls there. Also the last female doing what the video commentator calls “schoolhouse rock” should not have counted as a completed lift. I am sure she was just as surprised as everyone else that it counted.
I do not blame her for just going with it, even in the MLB the PAID umpires make horrible strike three calls on the last out of an inning; you don’t see the pitchers and catchers fighting that either, just the batter. If this particular video showcased a Crossfit Athlete off season training, it would be a completely different story and judgement would be necessary simply for the safety and wellbeing of the athlete and anyone who follows their lead from inspiration.
So, remember We compete for the chance to win and not for Perfection.
Originally published at fitletes.com
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