When The Pressure Is On
Under Heated Competition
Can The ITF Team
Practice What It Preaches?
The following pictures prove beyond doubt
that great training leads to great form …
even during the heat of competition
3 … 2 … 1 … GO!
You hear it every workout.
Your ITF Coaches belt out the command to begin your daily WOD, and then, as if that were not enough, they continue to bark out orders for you to go faster, work harder, stop resting … oh, and one other thing … keep your form good!
Easier said than done. Right?
Now imagine this: Let’s say you are one of the ITF Team members going into the regional games.
You will compete in daily WOD’s over 3 days, and you will be asked to make demands upon your body that would crush mere mortals.
Your goal: To place as one of the top 8 teams and advance to the national competition in California.
As competition time approaches, you become more and more nervous.
You are acutely aware of the butterflies that are floating around in your stomach.
You begin to “gear up” mentally, get yourself psyched-up and you put on your “game face.”
All of your training boils down to this moment.
Then it happens.
3 … 2 … 1 … GO!
In an instant you are in the heat of competition … running, jumping, lifting, carrying, and pulling.
And you wonder if your technique and form are holding up under the pressure.
Three Pictures.
Poetry In Motion!
Let’s critique three pictures that offer valuable information you can use today to increase your own human performance during your WODs.
First up, let’s take a look at Shyla in action.
In each of these three pictures, you’ll notice a yellow bar and a blue arrow.
Looking at Shyla’s picture first, you’ll notice that she has the weighted Olympic bar in the “racked” position on her shoulders.
She’s also in a full squat position under load.
In this picture, and the ones to follow of Forrest and Mendy, I’m going to discuss what is beautiful about their positions.
Notice, first, the yellow bar I’ve place upon their backs.
That yellow bar shows how beautifully these athletes have kept their spines in perfect alinement while under a weighted bar and during an explosive movement.
The blue arrow is to direct your eye towards their lower backs (lumbar spines).
Notice how there is a visual gap between the yellow bar and their spines.
Beautiful!
Referring to Shyla at the moment, this is how Shyla would look if she were to stand up against a wall (with the exception of her head position) with her hips and mid back both in contact with the wall … and a gap at her lower back.
That curve is her natural lumbar curve, and she maintains it beautifully during the heat of competition.
Is Shyla alone in her great form?
Not at all.
Take a look at Forrest next.
As you can see, Forrest is in the same great position as as Shyla.
Notice the intensity on Forrest’s face as he explodes out of the bottom position!
A less trained athlete would have lost their spinal curve at this point in the lift … would have become hunched over in their posture and … – no doubt – they would be resembling something that looks a lot like the Quasimoto character out of the movie … Hunchback of Note Dame.
But not Mr. Walden!
He keeps his spine in beautiful alinement under the pressure of competition and under the load of an Olympic bar!
Next, let’s take a look at Mendy in the same position.
Talk about consistency!
Three different athletes … two different sexes … all with the same beautiful spinal alinement!
How easy it would be to lose that position if you were not properly trained!
So, something great is happening in these three pictures I don’t want you to miss.
And while the spine position is of vital importance, I think I’ve already made that point pretty clear.
So, what I want to make crystal clear is the need for training consistency!
All these athletes are doing the same training, getting the same coaching, and drilling their form, technique and skill set … all under the same method.
The very same method we teach you guys in CrossFit 101 and beyond.
The fundamentals and the basics … that’s where the magic is!
Memorial Day
Finally, all of us here at Iron Tribe Fitness are thankful to all our military who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for our nations freedoms.
May the families of our fallen heros find peace on this day.
We are so blessed to live in the United States of America!
She’s still the greatest country in the world!
The land of the free.
The home of the brave.
Amen. So be it.
