What are the 2 muscles that separate the good athlete, and for the purposes of this post/blog, crossfitter, from the great/elite ones? Back and hamstrings? No. Shoulders & quads? No. Abs & hands? No. The Answer is the heart and the mind. These 2 will get you far in each and every wod we tackle. For me having a strong mind has been the product of years of participating in organized sports, playing in front of large crowds, and in high pressure situations that didn't always come out in my favor. Playing the sport of baseball, which, in my opinion, is the most mentally challenging sport (as an offensive player at least) was instrumental in my overall mental capacity development. I had a remarkable record of failure in baseball - for instance in my senior year at Notre Dame I hit for a .300 average my best ever which means that 7 out of 10 times up to bat I did not record a hit or I failed. How did I deal with that much failure??? I knew the next time up I was going to get a hit and if I thought anything to the contrary it was not going to be a productive at bat for me which would affect the team.
Also in one of my most memorable moments at ND I hit a game ending walk-off homerun & I was up to bat for the 14th time in the 3 game series. Guess how many hits I had up to that at bat?? You got it 0. I was literally 0-13 in that series and thankfully the coach kept me in the game and more importantly I didn't take myself out of the game mentally. Each time I went up there I was there to get a hit not get out and when the 1st pitch came out of the pitcher's hand I swung & hit that mf'er as hard as I could've and then.....GAME OVER!
Each crossfit wod is no different for me. I demand success of myself and set the bar high each time out. If I fail it won't be because I was scared or didn't try, it's just going to be an anomaly. No wod will defeat me, I repeat NO WOD WILL DEFEAT ME. It won't put me on my back or knees, it won't make me quit, and that's because I won't let it. That's where the heart comes in to play. The heart is what propels you to get through the wod, if you've got enough of it that is.
When a wod has you doubting yourself you've got to be in control of it not the other way around. I'm not a doctor or physiologist by any means, but I'm almost positive that if your thoughts are centered around negativity then there will be signals sent to your nerves, muscles, tissues, etc. that will affect how your body performs in that instance. Why make things harder for yourself?? Think overwhelmingly positive and then go into the wod with the tenacity of a lion after its prey. Kill or be killed....
Strength work today with power cleans and front squats. Will post the results later or tomorrow so stay tuned kids.....
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ReplyDeleteGreat post Alex! I totally agree with you. I definitely need to work on channeling positive thoughts/energy. I admire your hard work and determination. You're definitely an inspiration and someone I strive to be like.
ReplyDeleteAlex, Great post! Where do you think the balance lies between moving fast and broken vs. moving slower and unbroken???
ReplyDeleteI'd like to know your thoughts because that's my issue. I'm a dark meat kind of guy, I can go fast and quick but not light and many reps very well?
Rudy sorry for the delayed response - from my perspective I don't think there's a right or wrong answer to that because each athlete operates differently and in the end only experimentation is going to give you the right answer for you. For me I like to do a combo of your 2 options and just go fast AND unbroken haha, but of course that's not for everyone and plus I didn't start where I am today it's been an almost 2 year ascent.
ReplyDeleteIt's going to depend on the movements in the wod. Does it have movements you're especially good at in it? is it a short wod under 10 mins? if so then I say hit it hard and go for broke. that way you work on your mental strength and get a hell of a chest burn out of it too. If you have movements on your suck list or the wod is longer then you've got to be smart and divvy up the work intelligently. Yes the time is important but there are more ways than one to get a great time on a wod.
If you haven't watched Mikko Salo's documentary Sisu I think it's a good one to see because when he recreates the '08 Games pullup-thruster wod he doesn't do the pullups unbroken which surprised me but sure enough his time was still ridiculous. Or watching the snatch-wall ball wod from the '09 Games you see guys like Speal, Khalipa, Hackenbruck, Kepler, etc have breaks in their wods but they're very quick and far in between, so even at the elite level unbroken is not always possible but the great times are still there.
So the answer for me is it depends on the wod. Just in knowing myself as an athlete due to experimentation it's within my mental and physical capacity to shoot for unbroken a lot of the time. That's what fires me up to be able to say I didn't have to stop moving at all during that wod, but if that's
not for you you may still be able to beat me by breaking it up. Become a lab rat and test both out is the best way to figure it out...
These posts have such a ridiculous amount of phenomenal information for me to learn from it is blowing me away! Keep the knowledge flowing, Im sucking it up with a spoon, it's so good!
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