beyond the whiteboard

2011′s Amazing Programming Went Unnoticed

In my opinion The CrossFit Open is the most difficult CrossFit Competition to program for. Unlike the Regionals and Games, there isn’t an understood expectation of talent. For example, athletes at the Regional level can handle a high load/reps of olympic and gymnastics movements. Games athletes are expected to handle, well, everything and anything. I was really impressed by the 2011 CrossFit Open. In fact, I think many people overlooked how well the workouts were designed.

Scaling

In 2011 all the workouts had time limits that ranged from 5 to 20 minutes. Also, all of the workouts were easy enough for most people to get some type of score, but hard enough for stronger athletes to separate themselves. Thus, I doubt the workouts will be super heavy. However, they will be heavy enough where scoring high will require a solid amount of strength and endurance. This is one of those it sounds easy but is actually really hard to do workouts. Below is a graph of the results from CrossFit Open 11.1. The distribution of results show how most people were able to do a few rounds, but only a few people were able to really well.

Regional Worthy Threshold

This was the most impressive part of the 2011 Open programming. Although making workouts that everyone can attempt is a big priority, the main priority is setting a threshold for Regional worthy athletes. It turns out, HQ thought of a genius solution. The most technical movements over the 6 weeks were Muscle Ups and Overhead Squats. They were put towards the end of a workout, where the people who were fit enough to get to them were probably able to perform them. For example, The Week 4 workout was a 10 minute AMRAP of 60 Bar-facing burpees, 120 pound Overhead squat, 30 reps and 10 Muscle-ups. The burpees took a good chunk of time for most people, however the more fit athletes were able to move through them quick and attempt the overhead squats and muscle-ups. The Regional worthy athletes put up anywhere between a 1 to 1.5 rounds. However, as long as you could do one bar facing burpee you had a valid score for the workout. In short, genius.

Equipment, Video and Judging

Around 50,000 people will be participating in the open which means we aren’t seeing any high-end(comparatively) equipment during the open. Also, all of the workouts have to be easily recorded and can’t be too difficult to judge.

What I Doubt We Will See

• Row
• GHD-Sit Ups
• Back Extension
• Rope Climb
• Swimming
• Run(unless it’s a shuttle run which I’d like to see)
• Basically anything you can’t do out of your garage.
• Push-Ups(mainly because I think everyone can’t help but cheat when they get tired and it’s really hard to judge)
• Air Squat(hard to judge)
• Ring Dips

Good Probability

• Pull-ups
• Ground To Overhead
• Dead-lifts
• Double Unders
• Bar Facing Burpees(not normal ones and I pray not burpee box-jumps)
• Wall Balls
• Toes To Bar
• Power Cleans
• Box Jumps
• Thrusters
• Squat Clean

Regional Threshold Movements

• Muscle Ups
• Overhead Squat
• Handstand Push-ups

My Random, Gut Is Saying, List

I have no real reason other than thinking it would be cool to see these

• Shuttle Runs
• Lunges(Alternating Lunges)
• KettleBell
• Fight to The Death With Random Stranger

So far we’ve seen: Khalipa swipe the 2008 games out from under Josh Everett’s nose in the dying seconds, a humble, soft-spoken, newcomer named Mikko Salo steal the hearts of CrossFitters everywhere in 2009, and a rope climb mean the difference between 1st and 2nd in 2010. Here are my top 5 surprises, in no particular order, of the 2011 CrossFit Games.

1.  Annie Sakamoto

It’s always amazing when you see a true CrossFit OG perform well.  Annie finished in 9th place overall in her very first Games competition.  Of the ten events, she only placed outside the top ten four times.  The magnitude of her accomplishments are amplified by the fact she stands five feet tall and weighs only 116 pounds.  In the “Rope Climb, Clean” and “Dog-sled” workouts, WODs appearing to favor the stronger athletes, she finished 18th and 5th respectively.  Pretty amazing stuff.  As both a CrossFit trainer and a “smaller” athlete, I took extra special pride in watching her near perfect technique.  Given her size, she needed to be flawless in her execution in order to hang with the Annie Thorisdottir’s and Rebecca Voigt’s of the world.  If I recall correctly, she never missed a Clean and Jerk or needed to stop on the sled pushes.  She was an incredible inspiration all weekend long.  For those who began our CrossFit adventure by watching old-school videos of her, it was an awesome thing to see.

2.  Variety

One of CrossFit’s montra’s is “constant variation”.  At some point though you would think it’d be difficult to keep coming up with something fresh and new for an event as big as the Games.  Somehow they managed to “wow” us again.  Big props to the “powers-that-be” for keeping the athletes, as well as the spectators, on their toes.  The beach wod, as well as the skill workouts were nice additions.  We all knew at some point swimming had to be thrown into the mix.  Anyone whose ever swam in their life knows fews things come close to matching its intensity.  The monkey bars…well, those were just bad ass.  I certainly didn’t see that one coming.  Looking down onto the tennis court and gazing upon the monstrosity that was the monkey bar set-up reminded me why I love CrossFit so much.

3. Pat Barber

The “manimal” had a great overall peformance at this year’s Games, finishing in 8th.  However, the moment in particular that get’s Barber onto this list was the incredible finish to the last event that saw him take first after going absolutely berserk on the final sled pull.  He began the pull fairly slowly (and rightly so, did you see the craziness that was the last event???), falling slightly behind Khalipa and Ben Smith.  Re-energized out of no where though, about half way through, he truly lived up to his nick name and pulled the sled the final 50 feet or so without stopping.  Truly amazing.  Just to add a little perspective, absolute monsters like Khalippa, Morrison, and Froning, all guys who out-weigh and out-lift Barber, struggled by comparison.  The feat was so epic in fact that no one in the stadium was left sitting.  If you didn’t get chills watching that, you were probably A) new to CrossFit, or B) in the bathroom. If you get a chance check out his Official Site and follow him on facbeook.

4. Mikko and Orlando

Miko Salo and Rob Orlando, two of CrossFit’s most popular athletes, were forced to leave the competition through injury.  We can sit here and argue all day about whether or not the ocean swim was to blame, but the fact of the matter is every spectator was robbed of seeing two studs (Salo was a favorite to win the competition) perform.  That’s not good for anyone.  Now we’ll have to wait until next year to satisfy our Miko fixes.  For CrossFit junkies like myself, that task may prove rather difficult.  Is there anyone who saw this promo here and didn’t get chills???

5. ESPN

I’ll admit it, some mornings I just couldn’t get up in time to make it to Carson to see the day’s first event. Thankfully though, this year’s events were streamed live on ESPN 3.  It proved a huge lifesaver for us non-morning people and definitely paved the way for an even bigger CrossFit/ESPN partnership. If you haven’t heard, the Games are being televised on ESPN 2 in a 12 part series.


Overall, I thought this year’s Games to be a huge success. 2012′s future is very bright.  Now if only we can do something about that damn summer heat.

The sixth edition of the Fight Gone Bad fundraiser will be taking place on September 17th, and beyond the whiteboard is taking part in the fundraising effort. We are excited to give what we can, but we need your help. We are going to donate $1.00 for every Fight Gone Bad post, up to 1000 posts. We will also be having an online competition on the day of the event. Check out the prizes below.

Affiliate Prizes

• The affiliate whose members post the most total reps will get 3 months free on beyond the whiteboard.
• The affiliate with second most reps posted will get one month free on beyond the whiteboard.

Individual Prizes

• The top male and female athlete will get a $200 Visa gift card.
• The second and third place male and female athletes will get $100.

The CrossFit Regionals have been taking place around the world. As with all sports, there is some controversy. Many feel that AJ Moore was unfairly judged during one of the WODs when he got 60 reps called back during his kettlebell swings. I wasn’t there, I haven’t seen any videos and, like many people around the world, I have been reading eye witness accounts online. However, I think a lot of people are losing perspective.

Fans & Judging
From what I understand, people felt that other competitors were held to looser standards than AJ was. It seems like a lose/lose situation for the judge. Either the judge does her job correctly and is hated by fans or lowers the standard and sacrifices her character. I’m not sure if his swings were valid, but if they were not, I applaud her for being able to call back 60 reps with angry fans yelling at her. Again, I wasn’t there, but I heard people were extremely rude to her, which I find surprising and unsettling. I hate hearing fans say horrible things to players and refs during MLB or NBA games. I’ve always appreciated the class CrossFitters have shown during events and I’d hate to see it fade away as competitions become more intense. With that said, the responsibility falls on the shoulder of the head judge if other competitors were able to get away with bad form. Again, I wasn’t there so I can’t say wether the judging was unfair. However, from what I read it seems like AJ’s judge was holding up the correct standards and should not be thrown under the bus for it. Also, I read about someone having a video of AJ”s performance but electing to only show it to HQ to avoid a giant backlash. This is awesome, and great for the community. In fact, I’m not sure who this guy/girl is but the class they are showing should be commended.

Rich Froning
I’ve seen people use AJ’s other WOD finishes as an argument. Basically, there is no way he would finish is 30th if he placed 1st and 2nd on every other workout. But didn’t that happen in the Games last year? Rich Froning killed WOD after WOD but didn’t win the games because he couldn’t climb a rope. I mean no disrespect to Rich, in fact, I think he’s going to win the games this year, and started rooting for him to win last year. The same thing could have happened in this case also. I’m not saying it did, but want to point out that the argument of using previous WOD finishes are flawed.

The Reality Of Sport
Judging or refereeing is a vital part of every sport, and, at times, can be the reason someone gets an unfair advantage. For example, in the NBA there are some refs who are notorious for calling certain types of fouls or throwing guys out of the game early. However, it’s the reality of sport. There will always be bad calls, because, like the rest of us, judges are human. The best CrossFit can do is figure out the problem and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

The Brighter Side
I didn’t know much about AJ Moore before this event, but I sure do know a lot about him now. From what I have read he is a stand up guy, beast athlete and is ready to be in the sequel for 300. I have no idea what CrossFit will do, but I don’t think they are obligated to let AJ go to the games. However, AJ has something that few competitors have, a following. He has thousands of people who stand behind him. Thousands who respect him for his hard work and admire him for his talents. I really hope he runs with it and ends up doing well in the future. I hope he can look back at this time and say that’s when the spotlight hit him and he was able to get to the next level. I’m a big AJ supporter now. I’ll become a fan on facebook, follow him on twitter and root for him when I can. In fact, we’ll give him a life time account on beyond the whiteboard and I’ll pay for his drink if we ever hang out.

Feel free to hit me up on Twitter or Facebook.

We just passed the 100 results mark for the first CrossFit Open workout, and thought we would share some quick analysis. The bulk of results, around 26%, are between 4-4.9 rounds. Bobby Noyce, a solid beyond the whiteboard user and athlete at CrossFit 515, has the the top result with 8.5333 rounds (all the double unders and one power snatch in the last round). Bobby averaged a little over a minute for each round. I anticipate the top scores being very close, where a few reps will separate many ranks. In short, it’s going to be a fun week!

Remember to register and post your results on the CrossFit Games site. You can also register as a fan to view, judge and comment on results.

We just launched our own personal monthly competition.  Go to the “competitions” tab in the header of beyond the whiteboard and click on “2 Minute Challenge” for a listing of all of our events.  We hope this challenge will give everyone in the BTWB community a platform to test their abilities against one another.  They aren’t meant to be ridiculously hard; mostly 2 minute durations with a single movement.  See how you stack up against the competition, but most importantly…have some fun!  This month’s Two Minute Challenge is:  Max Double Unders in 2 Minutes.

Challenge Details:

• The monthly challenge can be accessed via the “competitions” tab in the header of Beyond The Whiteboard.
• A new workout will be announced at the beginning of each month.
• You’ll have until the 15th to post your result and attach a video.
• Videos must be on either youtube or vimeo.
• Please show the timer at the beginning of the workout and at the end of the workout, as well as any distances and weights that may be required.

The fifth edition of the Fight Gone Bad fundraiser will be taking place on September 25th, and this year beyond the whiteboard is taking part in the fundraising effort. We are excited to give what we can, but we need your help. We are going to donate $1.00 for every Fight Gone Bad post, up to 1000 posts. We will also be having an online competition on the day of the event. Check out the prizes below.

Affiliate Prizes

• The affiliate whose members post the most total reps will get 3 months free on beyond the whiteboard and a handful of 10% coupon codes for Life AsRx, the apparel company for the fitness counter culture.
• The affiliate with second most reps posted will get one month free on beyond the whiteboard and  a handful of 10% coupon codes for Life AsRx.

Individual Prizes

• The top male and female athlete will get a hand numbered Award Series shirt from Fire Breather Athletics, a $25 Life AsRx gift certificate, and a $100 Visa gift card.
• The second and third place male and female athletes will get a $25 Life AsRx gift certificate, and a $50 Visa gift card.

Prizes By