I just don't understand why an open water swim is part of the games. It's stupid. OWS is a very specific skill set outside of just being able to swim (which in and of itself is technical). Just because you can do crossfit means that you can swim?! No. That's asinine. That whole mentality of "well they do crossfit they can do everything" is then translated into the rest of the games. Just... stop. They're athletes that are finely tuned to their field. A high jumper is not suddenly going to know how to pole jump even though the sports are related-ish. As such, a crossfit athlete isn't suddenly going to be able to swim.
I've been watching the games off and on, and really this just exemplifies everything that I find wrong with the crossfit attitude. Not crossfit itself, but the attitude and culture that is part of it.
I just don't understand why an open water swim is part of the games. It's stupid. OWS is a very specific skill set outside of just being able to swim (which in and of itself is technical). Just because you can do crossfit means that you can swim?! No. That's asinine. That whole mentality of "well they do crossfit they can do everything" is then translated into the rest of the games. Just... stop. They're athletes that are finely tuned to their field. A high jumper is not suddenly going to know how to pole jump even though the sports are related-ish. As such, a crossfit athlete isn't suddenly going to be able to swim.
I've been watching the games off and on, and really this just exemplifies everything that I find wrong with the crossfit attitude. Not crossfit itself, but the attitude and culture that is part of it.
Castro is prob reading this right now and going "YES, NEXT YEAR WE'LL HAVE THE ATHLETES POLE VAULT!"
The idea of "preparedness" is a great concept in CrossFit, but not realistic in training. How many of these participants live in landlocked states and don't even have the opportunity to train OWS if they want to? That's crazy to me.
I just don't understand why an open water swim is part of the games. It's stupid. OWS is a very specific skill set outside of just being able to swim (which in and of itself is technical). Just because you can do crossfit means that you can swim?! No. That's asinine. That whole mentality of "well they do crossfit they can do everything" is then translated into the rest of the games. Just... stop. They're athletes that are finely tuned to their field. A high jumper is not suddenly going to know how to pole jump even though the sports are related-ish. As such, a crossfit athlete isn't suddenly going to be able to swim.
I've been watching the games off and on, and really this just exemplifies everything that I find wrong with the crossfit attitude. Not crossfit itself, but the attitude and culture that is part of it.
I HATE that they do an OWS. There are people competing worldwide - not everyone has access to the freaking ocean. It's dumb. The mentality behind it is that you should be able to do anything fitness/exercise related to be the "fittest" in the world (which is a dumb title, but whatever). For a few years they hinted at a swim and then finally did it a few years ago, not in a pool, but in the ocean. One guy who was a high level competitor (would likely make top 5) ruptured his ear drum and was out for the weekend. A few other people barely made it.
I think this was the same year they had a softball throw - as in, throw it as far as you can. Um, okay? Because we do that all the time in class? So random, and completely boring. I am ready for the field goal kick, or you have to play hockey goalie or some shit like that.
It makes me irritated b/c I have been doing Crossfit for a long time. I love it and I love my box and I find that I constantly have to defend it - that it's not a bunch of bros, it's safe, etc. and shit like the Games last week really makes that hard to do.
On the one hand, I do think that some skills are transferable. It's why events like the sandbag or the hammer block thing from a couple years ago work - the skills used it "classic Crossfit" transfer to other every day tasks. It's also why I find lifting the water jug onto the cooler so much easier after Crossfit. It's a lot like a clean. However, what in the actual hell about Crossfit is transferable to open water swimming?!
Post by emilyinchile on Jul 29, 2015 19:59:29 GMT -5
That Breaking Muscle article says a lot of what I have been saying: at this point, the fans and to some extent the athletes expect more every year. If they programmed something less insane, they might lose those ticket sales to bros who want to see the clash of the titans, and we all know that CF corporate is first and foremost a money-making venture. As a spectator this year though I personally wouldn't have minded slightly shorter days or felt like I hadn't gotten my money's worth if they took out a couple of events, and that would at least reduce the total volume if not the intensity of each individual event.
I've read a bunch of the top athletes - including Khan Porter, who is specifically mentioned in the article - saying they thought the programming was fine, but obviously they may not all feel comfortable criticizing HQ since that could affect their livelihood. It would be interesting to know their true thoughts as well as the thoughts of their coaches who might be more cautious than the athletes themselves.
Thanks for sharing this. I appreciate the educated, insider perspective, and it really does sound like they need to make some changes. I hadn't realized that people's hands were blistering on the rig until I saw something yesterday - I had actually thought about that and assumed that Rogue must have put some special coating on there because it seemed obvious that they would take precautions against that.