Featured on the CF Games National Site: CFO!

Thanks, Dougie!

Hope things are well with you out there in Ann Arbor.

When it comes to weight lifting, it's pure anger.

I imagine there are thieves pillaging my home, having their way with my wife, losing $40 at 3 card monty on my first visit to NYC, Josh Penzner that putz, someone defecating in my car, high school english teacher who told my parents sending me to college was a waste of money, an insurance claim that requires 12 forms, my dad buying a candy apple for each of us...dropping one on the ground...then throwing the rest out because he didn't want us to fight over them because we were one short, blading a chipshot, people flipping me off when I'm driving (actually, that doesn't bother me), and then I bottle it all up and then EXPLODE the weight into the air!!!!!!!!!!

To a new PR!!!!!!

The entire process only take a few seconds and then I'm back to my joyful blissful self-loving self.

CFO,

i want to participate in the 2009 games, but i'll be away for 2.5 weeks, starting today, so i'll miss any meetings you have during that time.

mike and nicole, thanks for everything the last (almost) 2 years. it's been great for me, even yesterday's filthy fifty, and i appreciate all of the coaching and all the people.

see you soon.

My number one motivator is to beat Brandon.

Crossfit Oak Land is getting a lot of love on the main site, and well deserved. I always enjoy seeing members of your crew around the challenges. I enjoy even more competing against you. What a great group. Looking forward to competing against you guys again soon.

Nabil, "One Damn Second!!!!" Won't happen again.

I just found out that I got a spot on a hotshot handcrew out of tahoe for the rest of fire season, and most likely, will be leaving tomorrow night. I'm going to try making it to the evening classes to say goodbye, with my last workout at 6, but I'm sure I won't get to see you all. I wish I had the time to thank you all individually for everything you've done and the encouragement and words of wisdom. CFO has really been a home away from home, and you all were the first friends I made when I moved here many months ago. I'll be back after fire season, and possibly sometime mid week, but other than that I have to be within a 2 hour response time of truckee. Send me an email if you'll be in the tahoe area, it'd be great to see some familiar faces.

Tom-
Great slideshow!

Brad-
Hilarious!

Patrick-
Congrats!

My number 1 most motivating factor, pre-workout, is to once again fit into my skinny-jeans. God I looked cute in those.

Also, FYI, I bought a high-performance, moisture-wicking shirt last week so my times should be going down by at least 30%. Look out Brandon.

Patrik,
Congrats on the gig! Be careful and take care of yourself

Kick rocks P-hole... See you on the flip side :) Hotshot crews are badass, you are the perfect xfitter for the job!!

just clicked the view image on the CF games site of Mike Minium, did you guys see his shoulders? WHAT A MAN !!! Nice job Mike, you're my new hero...

Lau, that should be NO problem for you!

Patrick, good luck and stay safe. Congrats on the gig.

Right On P!

Get ready to Do Work-

Sending a BadAss to do a BadAss job.

Stay safe.

> just clicked the view image on the CF games site of Mike Minium, did you guys see his shoulders? WHAT A MAN !!!

Not to mention that he's executing a textbook perfect clean there. Mike's cleans at the Games rocked. He practically gave a how-to clinic while competing.

Something that surprised me about some of the guys in the last two heats of the C&J was how poor some of their technique was on the cleans. Bad rack positions and overly wide stances were not uncommon. There was even a dude who would power clean the bar, do a front squat, and then jerk it. Immense waste of energy. Many of the top competitors with form problems still powered through the workout very respectably because they were such serious athletes, but one can't help but wonder whether their times would have improved had they actually been able to execute a proper clean from the start.

> But P-hole, you were my internal motivator... :-(

internal motivator? hmm.

Tom,
Nobody (except Nabil) needs to have perfect form to C&J 155! Do you think that heavyweight boxers make sure they have their feet set exactly perfect when the throw a punch or do you think that a shortstop stops to make sure that his grip is perfect on the ball before he throws on a double play? NO. They just do the best they can under the constraints they are given. It was not a dance contest or a beauty pagent. The point was to get the weight from the floor to overhead 30 times AS FAST AS YOU CAN. If your form goes down the $hitter and you step on a few babies because you are in a hurry, so what...you're still the winner.....and that’s all that matters! I'm not even sure "proper form" would have made a difference for some guys because the weight was so much lighter than their one rep max in the C&J.
For example:
Look at the people that had really good form on the C&J WOD like Mike, Nabil, Speal, OPT, AFT and probably yourself….Their times were not very impressive.
Now look at the form of Conner, Khalipa, Tamara, and the rest of the people that dominated that workout. None of the people with the top scores had even marginally good form (during the WOD) if you were looking purely at their C&J...but they did the best they could under the constraints and kicked ass. I think that Conner, Khalipa, Tamara, et al all have really good one rep max form on the C&J but they didn’t need it during that WOD.

…just my thoughts

PS. I like your slideshow

Daniel,

You make excellent points. However, the cat doing the power clean > stand up > front squat > stand up > jerk came close to not finishing the workout in the allotted time.

I disagree that the people that dominated the workout had bad form, although some of them may have. Connor and Tami were doing nicely. Khalipa wasn't jerking the weight because he didn't need to. He's so strong he could just do it as a thruster, which turned out to be faster. I just watched his video and his cleans looked pretty damn good. I would argue his good technique helped him win.

I guess my point was not that perfect form is necessary for great performance. Instead it was that out of the men that finished in the top 40, I was surprised that any of them had any issues with the clean at all. I was surprised that they had any weaknesses given their elite performances on everything else.

> and probably yourself….Their times were not very impressive.

Definitely myself. My time was anything but impressive on any of those workouts.

B-Rad G:

Dude, i was the one who defecated in your car--just doing my bit to help motivate you.

Sharm

Daniel,

After having read through the posts now, I'm not sure I agree with what you're saying, or at the very least I think you're misreading Tom's argument.

It isn't so much an argument about whether perfect form wins titles. It most certainly doesn't. Working at a high enough intensity level will produce form faults.

I think the main point to be taken away is whether (and this applies to the top guys as well) having better technique (not perfect, because too much time is lost in the pursuit of perfect technique) would yield higher output or a better time. I think the answer is an unquestionable yes.

If you, for example, didn't pull the bar a good foot too high on each clean (photos don't lie), you'd save a lot of energy, and would likely be able to go for one more rep each time during your set of 30, rather than exerting more energy than needed. You can do better, and have a faster time, with slightly better technique (again, not perfect, just better).

I guess an analogy I'd try to draw is I like your chances of throwing out the runner stealing second a little better if you're stepping into the throw vs. throwing while still in the catching/squatting position, all other things being equal (yes, I know Benito Santiago could get away with it, but there are exceptions to every rule). Same goes for your clean. There's one way to do it that gets the job done, and then there's a better way to do it.

I think even Khalipa could do better, to tell you the truth. Not by much, maybe just ten seconds or so. And he doesn't even need to be close to perfect to do it, just a little better.

And I believe that's the point Tom was trying to make. And if he wasn't, he should've been.