WOD
3 Rounds for time:
10 Burpee Box Jump Overs 24/20,
100 Meter Run,
10 Burpee Pull-ups,
100 Meter Run.
14 Minute Cap.
Tuesday Night Musings with Coach Alecio.
The Secret to Achieving Your Next PR.
Good evening Helo peeps. Tonight I’m going to give you the secret to getting your first double-under, or maybe a muscle-up, or maybe adding 20 lbs to your clean and jerk. Whatever that goal is that you have set – I have the secret to your future success.
Ben Bergeron is one of the most renowned CrossFit coaches in the business and he has identified the four most common traits that he sees in successful athletes. Those four traits are as follows: 1. Coachable; 2. Hungry; 3. Confident; and 4. Positive.
On the surface, I think most people believe that they have these four traits. Let’s take a closer look at each of them and some examples of what they look like in a class setting, so you can self evaluate how you may present yourself in a class.
1. Coachable: To start with, I would like to say that our community is very coachable and that is one of the things I am most proud of.
That said, now this one seems like the easy one. I mean you pay good money to be coached and have to understand that we as coaches only have your best interests in mind. Let’s say you always listen attentively while our great coaches go over the instructions and the demo. Perfect, you’ve earned yourself a D+ to a C- in the coaching category (i.e. meaning you’ve done the bare minimum). Being coachable means that there might be a better way and when we (your great coaches) bring that better way to you – the question becomes are you willing to invest time into it? And I don’t mean maybe trying it three or four times and deciding that you were faster or stronger the old way. I mean, are you truly willing to try slowing down and actually practicing. Are you willing to try this new way for a month or longer and not worry about your time or maybe even the load? A great example of this would be when we ask an athlete to scale toes to bars even when they can do them RX. As an athlete, being coachable means you understand that in the long run the advice that we are giving you will benefit you more – even if it means not getting an RX. Or another scenario is going lighter when a coach thinks you should strip weight to increase your position. My go to example of this is Travis Rees. He has been with us for 5 plus years and is an O.G. He has competed in CrossFit competitions and has developed a strong understanding of the movements and loads. Sometimes this leads to a very not coachable athlete but Travis has always done what I have asked of him and he always replies with a Thank You! I further believe that if any of our coaches suggested to maybe going a little bit lighter or changing a movement up, Travis’ reply would be the same – ok and Thanks!
Normally, the longer you are in the game -the more you think you know and the less you think that you need to know. Not Travis, he is continually coachable. He is also hungry for information and wants to hear what that coach has to say, and that takes us to trait number two!
2. Hungry: To be hungry means that the athlete wants more – more information, more time in the gym, and more opportunities!!
Now, I understand that we can’t all live in the box like me. But this comes down to the simple things, like: getting here on time and then making good use of that time once you arrive; making sure you continually challenge yourself and utilizing your coaches and other resources like the Internet. An athlete example that comes to my mind is Mike Lundell, an athlete that came to us from another box and moved away a couple years ago.
Mike was one of the hungriest athletes that I have ever seen. He came to our box and realized he had many holes in his CrossFit game and that lit a fire under him. He became hungry! One of the things I always remember about him was his warm-up. He always got it in and it was focused. He would maximize every minute in the box to get everything out of it. He would do our 4 minute warm-up every single day because it gave him a chance to work on and improve his gymnastics movements – something he struggled with. He would watch videos of progressions and ask which ones would most benefit him. Eventually his handstand push-ups, toes to bar, and muscle-ups all became very good. He was hungry.
3. Confident: Confidence is simple in theory but hard to get there mentally. It’s knowing that giving your best is enough… regardless of your score, weight, reps, or your best friend’s score. If you gave it your best and got everything out of the workout that you could – then you should and do feel good about your performance. All too often I see someone base their performance off of someone else’s score on the board. This is unfair to yourself and is a terrible marker of performance. It takes into account way too many variables that are irrelevant towards your performance. Better markers are times, loads or reps, that you have personally achieved in past wods. A great example of this can be seen with our coaches. As a coach, there can be pressure to perform and put forth a great score. Athletes are always looking at your score to see how you did and could easily tie your score to your coaching ability (which obviously have nothing to do with each other). But the coaches at Helo are confident enough to scale a wod when needed, whether it is to maintain the desired stimulus of the wod or to work around an injury. We go out there and put forth our best effort and understand that that is enough.
4. Positive: Being positive in a workout, in a relationship, or in life, will always benefit you. You have a choice on how you see things. Do you see obstacles or opportunities? In general, this athlete doesn’t complain, or blame people when things go wrong or a situation does not go their way. They are typically pretty happy and their everyday conversation is usually positive even if they are having a bad day. When the shit goes down this is the person you want by your side because they are not a Debbie downer.
Also, they make great team mates! When everyone on the team is down and suffering, they will be the one offering words of encouragement even if they are deep in the pain cave themselves. The athlete who always come to my mind that best personifies this is Julia. She could have 4 nights with only 2 or 3 hours of sleep, one child puking his brains out and the other with an ear infection, dealing with doctors who want her attention at all hours of the night and a husband freaking out over fantasy football. She stays positive in all situations and can somehow always find the good in even the worst scenarios. She’s the best:)
So there you go, and take heart as these 4 traits of successful athletes can be learned, they can be practiced and they can lead you to your next PR! Work on developing these traits and soon the fulfillment of all your goals will follow.
Thanks for reading!
Sincerely,
Coach Alecio
