Individual Coaching Session: Snatch Progression

Since I started CrossFit 8 months ago (wow! 8 months?) I had not taken advantage of my individual coaching sessions that come with my membership, until today.

I scheduled my session with Dan, the owner of the box, and the first coach that I ever met at CrossFit Woodbridge. I chose him for the specific reason that I see him working with the newest members of the box on a daily basis, and I felt comfortable with his demeanor, since I would be coming from a definite beginner's perspective on whatever I chose to work on. I gave the one-on-one session a good amount of thought and decided I would work on a move that really stymies me in WODs and on lifting days--the snatch. When he first greeted me, he questioned me in a joking way, thinking I hadn't given the session a lot of thought but in fact, I had--possibly too much! I was a bit nervous, but once we settled in to work, it was all business and burning quads!

The snatch is, put simply, moving the weight on the barbell from the floor to overhead in one movement. Between here and there however, is a series of very technical movements that are not easy to do. Flinging the weight overhead is not the goal, not to mention the fact that it's dangerous to do this lift heavy without knowing the proper technique. The progressions we were doing in class just weren't enough to get this to click for me. 

Today's session started with me warming up with the class, then beginning with what I thought was a snatch but, as I understand now, was far from it. 

We worked on the minutia of the move, the hardest part of which was moving the bar the first few inches off of the floor. As Dan said, "Betchya weren't expecting to spend 40 minutes deadlifting a PVC pipe, were you?" NO...no, I wasn't. I burned an enormous amount of calories standing in that squat position trying to figure out what it meant to move the bar using my hips, knees, and arms up from the floor into the "pocket" position and keep it all together in my mind. I was sweating profusely, my quads were burning, and I was concentrating on every inch of the bar's movement...and it was a PVC pipe! 

We finally added light weight to a bar and worked on form only--getting the extension of the hips and the snatch overhead. Near the end of the hour it was wonderful to hear him say, "Now you're snatching--not flinging." 

Three things to remember when snatching:

1. Sweep the bar past the knees 

2. Hips and knees move at the same time

3. Once in the pocket, open up and keep the arms straight

I love this video of Chad Vaughn (Olympic lifter) executing the snatch in super-slow-motion. I have always appreciated the technical difficulty in the move, but now I have a slightly more trained eye and can see exactly the things Dan was telling me today in the move. If you have neglected your one-on-one session, definitely take advantage of it...oh, and enjoy the video.

Better than Yesterday

Today was Hero WOD "White" skills class, the last one before the actual test WOD. This class has been by far the most difficult thing I have done at CF, but not only because the skills themselves are difficult, but because of the mental toughness that I have needed to face it. Through most of it I have suffered with a debilitating lack of confidence, mostly due to the rope, though I have struggled with kipping a bit as well. 

I have climbed the rope successfully once before. It was after the kids' class and their coach saw me head over to the rope and start to climb and she (in her very subdued manner) strolled over, and talked me through every pull. Before I knew it I was at the top. I thought for sure after this I would always be able to climb the rope, but it was not so. Every time since then I have failed miserably. I would be unable to catch the rope between my feet, I would lose strength, my grip would slip and slide uncontrollably down the rope. I felt like such a dork, and even though I knew that the other women in the class were not in any way judging my efforts, my lame attempts felt so conspicuous. 

Something was different today, and I'm not sure what it was but I'll try to unpack it...

First I had a profound realization when I wrote my last post about kayaking with my kids and the newfound freedom I experienced in that. I realized that I am not doing CrossFit to impress any coaches, classmates or even myself. I am doing CrossFit for life. This is not a competition for me, it's a lifestyle, and if I allow myself to be discouraged by comparison, it won't last.

Second, I was encouraged just walking into the box. I am getting to know more and more people, it was friendly and noisy with people chatting and laughing, and several people came up to me and commented that they were enjoying reading my blog. If you are one of those people, THANK YOU! You should know how much that matters! In addition, both my kids had great WODs and were pleased at the end of their class with their work. This made me want to do work that would make them proud of me, in return. 

I did struggle at first with the rope, but then something clicked...I jumped up, locked my feet and got a couple of pulls. I was able to do this several times. When it came time for the WOD, Sara said we had to make an attempt to climb the rope every round before doing walkups. In the first round I got a pull, then did walk ups. In the second round I jumped up and got my feet hooked, and Evy (the kids coach) strolled over and started talking me through again. Something in me clicked into gear and I got within one pull of the red line, then slipped. I managed to catch myself (sort of) but Sara was waiting at the bottom to break my fall! Even so, I was so happy to have made it that far...happy, and utterly exhausted by the effort. 

These things take practice, plain and simple. They take time to build up strength. It takes humility to keep trying and not quit. I have improved, there is no doubt. In spite of feeling really anxious before every class, I am really glad that I did it and stuck it out. I will absolutely, positively thrilled to be done with that final WOD next Saturday. I will post my results!

Today: make an attempt at climbing each round, then 3 walkups for every climb to scale

4 rope climbs 

20 walking lunges

10 T2B

5 burpees

Ladder down rope climbs 3, 2, 1, all else remains the same

time: 22:34

Smart Guy, that Lloyd...

Okay, so today's post reflected a rather confusing WOD. I know that I was a little confused. But one of our coaches revealed his purpose behind designing the workout the way he did. I have always found his coaching techniques to be very helpful--I mean, I am often overwhelmed by all the "new" movements I am encountering, but he has helped me numerous times to get past a mental block or a snag in my movements. So here is his reasoning behind today's WOD, and I have to hand it to him--it worked! I really wanted to get to that bar at least once, and I threw myself into those burpees with all I had. Good going, Coach. You nailed it.

Oh, and just so he doesn't feel left out, I have to give a shout out to Nick, who is quite good at getting me to push myself just a little bit further than I think I can go. That Turkey didn't let me do bench dips today but made me do ring dips even though I thought about having a tantrum. I figured it wasn't worth it--I was still in a good mood from my PR OHTs. I still hate ring dips. I hated him at the time. But I love him now. Thanks, Nick.