Functional Fitness always has 6 test and fixed modalities: Endurance, Strength, Bodyweight, Skill, Mixed modal and Power. That could be something for semi finals.
And I am always confused that the IF3 is often unmentioned in those Chats and Talks. The IF3 is specifically working on eliminating the issue of CF and making the sport of fitness olympia worthy. I believe this is an specific American problem, because of the sports development procedure in the states which is totally different to the rest of the world
also, not to not focus on the fitness, but I really think it would go a loooong way if they would go all in on the "community" aspect and take seriously the fact that they invited TWO HUNDRED AND EIGHTY ATHLETES to some of these semi-finals (140 to others) and had them do workouts that were all like 15 minutes long or longer (and very few that were races where you really needed to be watching the leaders for details), and I couldn't really tell you who any of these athletes were unless I was already following them online. The coverage was basically me watching one or two people huff and puff for twenty minutes at a time. So many of the big names weren't competing this year; it would have been a great opportunity to really introduce the new crop of athletes. They could have each athlete and team fill out a questionnaire or share anecdotes and then make sure each individual gets like a minute per workout to shine on the media side. Even at the games, it would be so great to make each athlete and team do their little photoshoot with a video interview and show that in between events. Maybe it's a function of the fact that the workouts were kind of boring this year, but I just felt like, ok if you really want to test these grindy bottlenecky workouts because you need to test fitness, at least help me root for people
I agree. You really only k ow CF because of a handful of people. The Tias and Frasers and maybe top 5… after that, you really do not know who the 6-20th fittest person in the world is if they came to your house and asked for water🤷🏼♂️
I loved the semi finals and think the programming is great. Predictability would change it completely. It seems as if there are many negative opinions about how Crossfit should be, every time they make changes people complain. The top athletes manage to rise to the challenges which is what makes it exciting to watch. Boz has raised the standard of high skilled gymnastics which the sport needed
I predict, forever and ever, until it comes into fruition: Rogue will buy out the CrossFit games and it will be an elite level competition with professional judges and pro level qualification standards. The prize purse will be big. And it will funnel people from CrossFit. CrossFit would keep licensed events (wza, mfc, lowlands) but finally separate. Fingers forever crossed
I think of Crossfit like Golf. Is it fun to see golfers go -20? Sure. Is it fun to watch the best in the world struggle & have to adjust? Yes. I, personally, like watching the struggle and the adjustment. IIRC, Ben Smith had some issues when the Games were just sprint/grip & go wods instead of having to think & strategize.
At the heart of CrossFit is the idea that we all train CrossFit to be ready for anything that life throws at us. In this vein I think the CrossFit Games always needs to be different - if it was the same all the time, like Hyrox, they would be moving away from what the core of what CrossFit is.
You should for every stage ( open, QF, Semis and even crossfit games) get a list of the movements at the beginning of the season. But don't put some standard workout you'll miss the fun of the sport. For example : Open : - burpees - row - snatch 43 kg - hspu - double unders. You don't know the workouts but you know which movement you'll have to work. And of course you explain the standards of every movement at the beginning of the season. You'll do the same for QF, semis and games so every athlete can work movement regarding his goals. ( i don't need to work on double under crossovers because the will be implemented at the games and my goal this year is the semis...)
I do like the thought of CrossFit competition really showcasing how much better the athletes are at the average athlete by letting them run through movements at high speed and high skill. Instead of constantly sitting and watching people fail or trying new things. There should be one thing or two things in the entire CrossFit games that make the athlete stretch. What is possible or learn something new, but the rest should just be letting these top athletes absolutely thrash workouts that make the common man look silly because they are so good
I think we should standardize all stages Open 4 test 1 Metabolic, 1 weight, 1 gymnastics, and 1 testing all 3 Quarter finals 1. MG, 1MW, 1GW, 1all 3 Semi like your idea of the 3 standard test and 3 unknown Games, keep it as is. Only the elite get the full unknown and unknowable.
I thought of something similar to that: you have a fixed number of tests for each stage (open, quarter etc), and they also have fixed modalities/categories, but the tests itself could be different every year. And the modalities could be something like: strength, aerobic capacity, gymnastic skills, classic crossfit, odd object, water
When a lot of people fail it sucks and is less fun to watch, but sometimes it creates the tension needed to see if someone will make a dramatic comeback or find a witness. If you do a shoulder endurance and skill test, will it spot a weakness for Laura and differentiate her vs Mal vs Tia etc? When Josh bridges struggled heavily in the Cinco 2, it showed a weakness compared to the field and slowed the comeback. That has to be a tough balance to program for. Test well but create good visuals
Now that you mention it. It would be super weird for athletes to show up for a race or a sport and them not no what they are there to do. Usain Bolt shows up for a 100 m race and when he gets there he finds out it a 100 m handstand walk. Good luck!
I actually love the „ unknown and unknowable” and I probably wouldnt want it to change to fixed tests. I love the variability as an athlete, but i also love to be doing that „guessing game” as a coach. However i think that there should be some guidelines on what we are going to test each year. Even something as simple as a list of movements, time domains, and equipment that will be used during this crossfit season. This way, we still get the exciting „ unknown and unknowable” but we reduce chance of athletes getting injured because they were not prepared for xxx movement.
I wish you guys could run the games! Everything you said was great, CrossFit is not managing their business well and it should be a separate sport category. A mix of standards and unknown seems like the best of both worlds. Fixing the horrible camera coverage so we see more then one athlete resting at the finish line would be really neat too!
As always, thank you for this "clip". 1) This year's competition isn't as viewer/spectator friendly? Maybe, it's because Boz isn't as focused on staging the show, making it viewer/spectator friendly, as Castro was? Maybe Boz is a great programmer but a poor stage director? 2) If the average jane/joe can easily experience what professional athletes are experiencing, a sport has a chance to be popular IMHO: running is that, soccer is that... In a way, CrossFit WAS that (Previously, I was looking at CrossFit the sport thinking "I can do that" - And I did some Regional/Games workouts on my own. This year, I'm just looking at CrossFit the sport).
Nobody should be able to practice any test. Everyone should be ready for a set of movements that have been announced at the beginning of the season. All movements have videos explaining how they should be done correctly. The fittest/best problem solving athlete will win 💪🏽
I wouldn't want to see a group of the same events at semis each year. They would have to be chippers with 5-6 movements each otherwise if they were standard couplets and triplets or specialised barbell tests then the athletes would just smash those movements in training and within a year or 2 would be so proficient at those tests that they would be pointless. Then you would get to the Games and have all these athletes that are essentially specialists at a small group of events and would struggle with some of the broader elements tested at the Games.
Why doesn't CrossFit come out with a list of equipment and movements like the Open to make the standardization even easier for the Games? Wouldn't this help the preparation aspect and still make the tests random enough? This would be the first step in the right direction from my standpoint.
I think to your point about whether you're finding the tests boring because you're jaded and old in the sport, I would disagree that it's solely because of that. I've only actually been following Crossfit at all for about two years and I barely watched any semifinals broadcasts because I just found the tests so uncompelling to watch. Did they probably find the fittest? Sure. But in terms of a spectacle I think Boz has made a massive error here. And it's bizarre because in some ways the Open and QF workouts were as much if not more of a spectacle somehow and they weren't performed in nearly the same way.
I feel like all of the novelty movements are taking away from the true test of fitness and what it initially was looking for, power output. Work capacity across broad time and modal domains. That’s why movements that move large loads longer distances QUICKLY have been chosen year in and year out. The quickly portion has been forgot about with some of these new tests, which in essence is the race. Seated rope climbs are a slower movement than rope climb and they are moving your bodyweight up a 15’ rope: same load, same distance, different speeds. If we wanted to watch a slow “race” we’d turn on Olympic race walking.
We already do tests and retests and they are awesome. Don't think they need announced beforehand bc they are well known. I am surprised Loud & Live or someone else hasn't bought the rights to CrossFit sport so CF can cut ties with their friction about sport vs non sport
As the resident young guy, I like the chaos and complexity of the sport. I see the point of known and knowable and I think there should be a repeat every single year every competition. I also would get bored seeing the exact same events again and again
There are a multitude of opportunities for improvement within Crossfit organizationally. The first of which is a focus on equal and consistent application of the standards across all athletes and categories. Now, to be fair, for this to happen there is a necessity to adequately define and codify the "standards" that is better than someone from HQ putting out an Instagram video very condescendingly telling the community they know what a Thruster is. I understand that Crossfit doesn't want some Omnibus, 500 page rulebook of movement standards, but what is clear over the past three years specifically is, Crossfit is not doing a good job of defining or enforcing their own standards equally. The other component of that is to remove the arbitrary randomness of "minor" and "major" penalties and apply a singular, consistent penalty for infractions, that isn't subjective like the current system. As an example I'll cite the coach touching the monitor for Roman Khrennikov during the Open. Do people want to see Roman disqualified from advancing due to an infraction like that? No. Does anyone think he wouldn't have won that workout, that's a little more grey of an area. The point being Anika Greer got disqualified for a technical issue last year and that was the end of her season. Trying to define some weird science algorithmic formula to add time as a means of assessing penalties is not a good way to do it, because you have athletes out there who know what "max penalty" they could receive on a workout, and they can game the system. If you want to make it easy and clear, define the standards, eliminate some of the movements from the library altogether that are constantly under scrutiny (i.e. pistols, etc) and define and enforce singular penalties (i.e. if the standard says no one but the athlete can touch the equipment, and someone other than the athlete touches the equipment, the athlete receives a score of 0 for that workout). Shameless plug as someone who has two decades of experience in writing policy and standards across multiple organizational disciplines, if Crossfit needs some help, let me know. As for standardizing the programming I think that makes sense, especially now that these events are being referred to as "tests". Hyrox follows that standardization of events model and it seems to work well for them. Maybe at the Games you have 6 standardized (known and knowable) events, and then the 7th event is the mystery event.
Great podcast. 1.) Young people care, my son is 19 and a semis athlete and get tired of the BS 2.) Torian Pro - got so many things right. No comms difficulties, even if the standards different to other regions they didn’t second guess it, and kept on going without disrupting comms. So I think CrossFit inc in particular run comps badly… 3.) the sport needs an international body, all countries have skin in the game - not just big training camps. Get rid of the business model
The current scene is who is the best at ridiculous Boz movements followed by more ridiculous standards, moving goalposts. Thankfully I can do CF methodology in my garage and watch a circus on UA-cam (if you are fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of someone not resting) which CF has become.
I like the idea of known and knowable. Crossfit is getting to the point where the average person will never be able keep up. Its like a dog chasing its tail😵💫
Average people are not meant to be able to do what the athletes in Semis and Games can do. It’s the pinnacle of the sport. The beauty of CrossFit is that the methodology allows for scale and progression to take someone from a noob to a competitive athlete, should they choose to commit to the process.
@@PrimalPetersen I agree however… how can the everyday athlete expect to catch up to the semi and games athletes if the sport keep changing…. A games semi/games athlete “base line” is a everyday athlete max lol. For example.. The snatch. If the daily athlete with aspirations of making the games is snatching 135 for max rep. By the time he can snatch what game athletes snatch… the standard would have changed 10x by then… thus… dog chasing his tail🤷🏼♂️
@@Joshelift Everyday/ average CrossFitters will never catch up. That is every sport. In the early 90’s I was a kid with dreams of becoming an international rugby player. Back then it was rare for a player to be over 100kg. When I became an adult the smallest players were 100kg. CrossFit is not unique in that the sport evolves, but is unique in that no one is safe. You cannot practise the course until perfection. That is the beauty of it. Also, Games level athletes are the pinnacle of the sport. Everyday CrossFit “exercisers” are doing similar things, but it’s a completely different animal. My 6 year old snatches a broom stick. He’s not Lasha though, and probably will never “catch up”.
I understand what you are saying…im not arguing that point. The “cream” will rise to the top in any sport. Im saying crossfit promotes the crossfit games as “anyone” who works hard can do it. I agree thats how it USED to be back in the day at the ranch, Just like spartan races etc.. but as the sport itself grows, the main population are in late 30s and up. You are basically telling a 18yr old with aspirations of making the games… train like Mat/Rich and you will make the games in 5-8 years… MAKE not WIN… and o ya.. all the standards that you are learning now with handstands etc… that will continue to change … the way i see it.. CF games is 99% genetics and 1% luck. Thats why you dont see someone who is 5’5 better than Jordan playing in the NBA. CF needs to separate the 2.. have CF the sport and CF everything else. Stop combing the two lol🤦
Time to hate..kinda 1. I hate the idea of fixed tests in the sport of CF. That’s what makes CF unique to the other sports you were describing - swimming, track and field, triathlons etc. - it’s the chaos that makes it unique. The idea that at the Super Bowl of CF, the Games, with the best athletes in the world, that I’d have to watch them complete the same tests year over year sounds so boring to me - I mean by week 3 of semis it’s already a snooze fest having to watch the same workout over and over and over. The sport forces you to adapt and overcome. To learn on the fly and push beyond your limits. Not train all year, knowing the tests, just so you can show up like a dress rehearsal and see who can do cleans and muscle ups fastest. To me, it destroys the whole essence of the sport. 2. I wonder if the complaints at Semis stems from their being sooo many athletes. Watching the same workout for 12 consecutive heats will wear anyone down. Not to mention with the bigger fields you’re seeing more athletes struggle and get bottlenecked in the lower heats. So to the casual viewer they’re like “wow, no one can really do those legless rope climbs huh??”
YES Clear standards! You can still make things "Unknown and Unknowable".. the workouts dont have to be the same but the movements and standards should be standardized and known. And CrossFit NEEDS paid judges not random volunteers. Cant get fair events if the judges are not standardized themselves. Just my 2-cents.
Laughable in terms of fairness and standards was the extra fat bumper plates used in SA that kept tipping over and they used assault bikes not echo. Only semifinal I’ve seen that didn’t use roque plates and echo bikes from memory. Not 100% sure about Africa. Pretty sure Asia has echo bikes and Rogue plates. Point is, more than just standards, now we’re talking about equipment too.
Any business/ brand that comes into the functional fitness space will be judged as “like CrossFit”. CrossFit needs to be the one to professionalise the sport of fitness. If it isn’t them, it’ll never become a global sport.
If you read between the lines (not that hard), Crossfit doesn’t sleek to want to progress the competitive sport of CrossFit. It seems to be going through the motions and focus is going to be back to affiliates and growing membership base for entry level CrossFit. The problem with that is that we need the pinnacle of the mothodology, the CrossFit competitive season to become professional, so that the newbies, the interested and the committed everyday CrossFitter has a high level pinnacle to look up to, to aspire to, to feel connected to. If you don’t have this, then it’s just another exercise option that you’ll have no loyalty to.
1- remove Boz and his ego 2- large body of CrossFit camps come up with workouts. All workouts released immediately afterwards. 3-no variable inputs to workouts (sled biases, equipment issues)
It's nice in theory but it will never happen as long as the logo says "CrossFit Games". If you know what the tests are then you're not doing CrossFit, by their standards.
"continue to grow"?? the growth stopped in 2016. getting smaller ever since. This year, the title sponsor didn't even have a presence at the semifinals. A decade ago, this was sponsored by reebok and shown on ESPN. Now it's sponsored by NoBull (who?) and shown on Chase Ingram's podcast. Wake up dude.
One of the many things that suck about Hyrox is the mundane and boring nature of their programming. Imagine studying for the same test year after year, trying to better your score. If you judge Hyrox as a preparation for functional fitness, imagine life throws a thruster or a rope climb or a swim or a clean at you. You’d fail. On the other hand every single CrossFitter would be able to compete and possibly do well in a Hyrox comp without necessarily training for it. The idea of moving away from mixed modalities or unknown/ unknowable is ludicrous. CrossFit is meant to prepare you for whatever is thrown at you. Standards for movement is essential. Judge training is probably even more critical. If top athletes are failing it’s the programming fault. Boz is a major fail for CrossFit. He doesn’t get it. He’s arrogant (more so than Castro, because Castro was at least excellent).
Hyrux is really a lame version of sport compared to CrossFit, it's basically one event of CrossFit and that overlap is cool and it's nice to be able to run a race like that. But What makes CrossFit so cool is that you can do high rocks. You can run a marathon. You can row a marathon you can do. A Olympic style snatch and clean a jerk, and somehow these athletes can do all of that within the 95th percentile of the whole world.
Functional Fitness always has 6 test and fixed modalities: Endurance, Strength, Bodyweight, Skill, Mixed modal and Power. That could be something for semi finals.
And I am always confused that the IF3 is often unmentioned in those Chats and Talks. The IF3 is specifically working on eliminating the issue of CF and making the sport of fitness olympia worthy. I believe this is an specific American problem, because of the sports development procedure in the states which is totally different to the rest of the world
also, not to not focus on the fitness, but I really think it would go a loooong way if they would go all in on the "community" aspect and take seriously the fact that they invited TWO HUNDRED AND EIGHTY ATHLETES to some of these semi-finals (140 to others) and had them do workouts that were all like 15 minutes long or longer (and very few that were races where you really needed to be watching the leaders for details), and I couldn't really tell you who any of these athletes were unless I was already following them online. The coverage was basically me watching one or two people huff and puff for twenty minutes at a time. So many of the big names weren't competing this year; it would have been a great opportunity to really introduce the new crop of athletes.
They could have each athlete and team fill out a questionnaire or share anecdotes and then make sure each individual gets like a minute per workout to shine on the media side. Even at the games, it would be so great to make each athlete and team do their little photoshoot with a video interview and show that in between events.
Maybe it's a function of the fact that the workouts were kind of boring this year, but I just felt like, ok if you really want to test these grindy bottlenecky workouts because you need to test fitness, at least help me root for people
I agree. You really only k ow CF because of a handful of people. The Tias and Frasers and maybe top 5… after that, you really do not know who the 6-20th fittest person in the world is if they came to your house and asked for water🤷🏼♂️
Agree. They really don’t care about the athletes who are not sponsored by Nobull and Rogue
I loved the semi finals and think the programming is great. Predictability would change it completely. It seems as if there are many negative opinions about how Crossfit should be, every time they make changes people complain. The top athletes manage to rise to the challenges which is what makes it exciting to watch. Boz has raised the standard of high skilled gymnastics which the sport needed
I predict, forever and ever, until it comes into fruition:
Rogue will buy out the CrossFit games and it will be an elite level competition with professional judges and pro level qualification standards.
The prize purse will be big. And it will funnel people from CrossFit.
CrossFit would keep licensed events (wza, mfc, lowlands) but finally separate.
Fingers forever crossed
I hope
I think of Crossfit like Golf. Is it fun to see golfers go -20? Sure. Is it fun to watch the best in the world struggle & have to adjust? Yes.
I, personally, like watching the struggle and the adjustment. IIRC, Ben Smith had some issues when the Games were just sprint/grip & go wods instead of having to think & strategize.
At the heart of CrossFit is the idea that we all train CrossFit to be ready for anything that life throws at us. In this vein I think the CrossFit Games always needs to be different - if it was the same all the time, like Hyrox, they would be moving away from what the core of what CrossFit is.
You should for every stage ( open, QF, Semis and even crossfit games) get a list of the movements at the beginning of the season. But don't put some standard workout you'll miss the fun of the sport.
For example :
Open :
- burpees
- row
- snatch 43 kg
- hspu
- double unders.
You don't know the workouts but you know which movement you'll have to work.
And of course you explain the standards of every movement at the beginning of the season.
You'll do the same for QF, semis and games so every athlete can work movement regarding his goals.
( i don't need to work on double under crossovers because the will be implemented at the games and my goal this year is the semis...)
I do like the thought of CrossFit competition really showcasing how much better the athletes are at the average athlete by letting them run through movements at high speed and high skill. Instead of constantly sitting and watching people fail or trying new things. There should be one thing or two things in the entire CrossFit games that make the athlete stretch. What is possible or learn something new, but the rest should just be letting these top athletes absolutely thrash workouts that make the common man look silly because they are so good
“Did you pull a Hiller!”
I think we should standardize all stages
Open
4 test
1 Metabolic, 1 weight, 1 gymnastics, and 1 testing all 3
Quarter finals
1. MG, 1MW, 1GW, 1all 3
Semi like your idea of the 3 standard test and 3 unknown
Games, keep it as is. Only the elite get the full unknown and unknowable.
I thought of something similar to that: you have a fixed number of tests for each stage (open, quarter etc), and they also have fixed modalities/categories, but the tests itself could be different every year. And the modalities could be something like: strength, aerobic capacity, gymnastic skills, classic crossfit, odd object, water
1 Standard test each day sounds dope af
Spartan also has DEKA which has more hybrid racing events in the US than Hyrox does, so there's a lot of opportunities there
I think I'd prefer a list of say 100 standardized movements to choose from
When a lot of people fail it sucks and is less fun to watch, but sometimes it creates the tension needed to see if someone will make a dramatic comeback or find a witness. If you do a shoulder endurance and skill test, will it spot a weakness for Laura and differentiate her vs Mal vs Tia etc? When Josh bridges struggled heavily in the Cinco 2, it showed a weakness compared to the field and slowed the comeback. That has to be a tough balance to program for. Test well but create good visuals
Now that you mention it. It would be super weird for athletes to show up for a race or a sport and them not no what they are there to do. Usain Bolt shows up for a 100 m race and when he gets there he finds out it a 100 m handstand walk. Good luck!
I actually love the „ unknown and unknowable” and I probably wouldnt want it to change to fixed tests. I love the variability as an athlete, but i also love to be doing that „guessing game” as a coach.
However i think that there should be some guidelines on what we are going to test each year. Even something as simple as a list of movements, time domains, and equipment that will be used during this crossfit season.
This way, we still get the exciting „ unknown and unknowable” but we reduce chance of athletes getting injured because they were not prepared for xxx movement.
I wish you guys could run the games! Everything you said was great, CrossFit is not managing their business well and it should be a separate sport category.
A mix of standards and unknown seems like the best of both worlds.
Fixing the horrible camera coverage so we see more then one athlete resting at the finish line would be really neat too!
As always, thank you for this "clip".
1) This year's competition isn't as viewer/spectator friendly? Maybe, it's because Boz isn't as focused on staging the show, making it viewer/spectator friendly, as Castro was? Maybe Boz is a great programmer but a poor stage director?
2) If the average jane/joe can easily experience what professional athletes are experiencing, a sport has a chance to be popular IMHO: running is that, soccer is that... In a way, CrossFit WAS that (Previously, I was looking at CrossFit the sport thinking "I can do that" - And I did some Regional/Games workouts on my own. This year, I'm just looking at CrossFit the sport).
Nobody should be able to practice any test. Everyone should be ready for a set of movements that have been announced at the beginning of the season. All movements have videos explaining how they should be done correctly. The fittest/best problem solving athlete will win 💪🏽
Sounds like we need Castro back!
I wouldn't want to see a group of the same events at semis each year. They would have to be chippers with 5-6 movements each otherwise if they were standard couplets and triplets or specialised barbell tests then the athletes would just smash those movements in training and within a year or 2 would be so proficient at those tests that they would be pointless. Then you would get to the Games and have all these athletes that are essentially specialists at a small group of events and would struggle with some of the broader elements tested at the Games.
If they release all the potential movements at the start of the season that would be enough for me.
Why doesn't CrossFit come out with a list of equipment and movements like the Open to make the standardization even easier for the Games? Wouldn't this help the preparation aspect and still make the tests random enough? This would be the first step in the right direction from my standpoint.
CrossFit should sponsor the IF3. 😊
I think to your point about whether you're finding the tests boring because you're jaded and old in the sport, I would disagree that it's solely because of that. I've only actually been following Crossfit at all for about two years and I barely watched any semifinals broadcasts because I just found the tests so uncompelling to watch. Did they probably find the fittest? Sure. But in terms of a spectacle I think Boz has made a massive error here. And it's bizarre because in some ways the Open and QF workouts were as much if not more of a spectacle somehow and they weren't performed in nearly the same way.
You are explaining the OPT-athlon. James “OPT” Fitzgerald was doing this years ago.
I remember it well - was a good concept when they did it
I feel like all of the novelty movements are taking away from the true test of fitness and what it initially was looking for, power output. Work capacity across broad time and modal domains. That’s why movements that move large loads longer distances QUICKLY have been chosen year in and year out.
The quickly portion has been forgot about with some of these new tests, which in essence is the race. Seated rope climbs are a slower movement than rope climb and they are moving your bodyweight up a 15’ rope: same load, same distance, different speeds. If we wanted to watch a slow “race” we’d turn on Olympic race walking.
We already do tests and retests and they are awesome. Don't think they need announced beforehand bc they are well known. I am surprised Loud & Live or someone else hasn't bought the rights to CrossFit sport so CF can cut ties with their friction about sport vs non sport
As the resident young guy, I like the chaos and complexity of the sport. I see the point of known and knowable and I think there should be a repeat every single year every competition. I also would get bored seeing the exact same events again and again
There are a multitude of opportunities for improvement within Crossfit organizationally. The first of which is a focus on equal and consistent application of the standards across all athletes and categories. Now, to be fair, for this to happen there is a necessity to adequately define and codify the "standards" that is better than someone from HQ putting out an Instagram video very condescendingly telling the community they know what a Thruster is. I understand that Crossfit doesn't want some Omnibus, 500 page rulebook of movement standards, but what is clear over the past three years specifically is, Crossfit is not doing a good job of defining or enforcing their own standards equally. The other component of that is to remove the arbitrary randomness of "minor" and "major" penalties and apply a singular, consistent penalty for infractions, that isn't subjective like the current system. As an example I'll cite the coach touching the monitor for Roman Khrennikov during the Open. Do people want to see Roman disqualified from advancing due to an infraction like that? No. Does anyone think he wouldn't have won that workout, that's a little more grey of an area. The point being Anika Greer got disqualified for a technical issue last year and that was the end of her season. Trying to define some weird science algorithmic formula to add time as a means of assessing penalties is not a good way to do it, because you have athletes out there who know what "max penalty" they could receive on a workout, and they can game the system. If you want to make it easy and clear, define the standards, eliminate some of the movements from the library altogether that are constantly under scrutiny (i.e. pistols, etc) and define and enforce singular penalties (i.e. if the standard says no one but the athlete can touch the equipment, and someone other than the athlete touches the equipment, the athlete receives a score of 0 for that workout). Shameless plug as someone who has two decades of experience in writing policy and standards across multiple organizational disciplines, if Crossfit needs some help, let me know.
As for standardizing the programming I think that makes sense, especially now that these events are being referred to as "tests". Hyrox follows that standardization of events model and it seems to work well for them. Maybe at the Games you have 6 standardized (known and knowable) events, and then the 7th event is the mystery event.
Great podcast.
1.) Young people care, my son is 19 and a semis athlete and get tired of the BS
2.) Torian Pro - got so many things right. No comms difficulties, even if the standards different to other regions they didn’t second guess it, and kept on going without disrupting comms. So I think CrossFit inc in particular run comps badly…
3.) the sport needs an international body, all countries have skin in the game - not just big training camps. Get rid of the business model
Torian was excellent from a viewer standpoint!!
The current scene is who is the best at ridiculous Boz movements followed by more ridiculous standards, moving goalposts. Thankfully I can do CF methodology in my garage and watch a circus on UA-cam (if you are fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of someone not resting) which CF has become.
As a fan the sport is fine the way it is
Fitness racing is a pretty good name
I like the idea of known and knowable. Crossfit is getting to the point where the average person will never be able keep up. Its like a dog chasing its tail😵💫
Average people are not meant to be able to do what the athletes in Semis and Games can do. It’s the pinnacle of the sport. The beauty of CrossFit is that the methodology allows for scale and progression to take someone from a noob to a competitive athlete, should they choose to commit to the process.
@@PrimalPetersen I agree however… how can the everyday athlete expect to catch up to the semi and games athletes if the sport keep changing…. A games semi/games athlete “base line” is a everyday athlete max lol. For example..
The snatch. If the daily athlete with aspirations of making the games is snatching 135 for max rep. By the time he can snatch what game athletes snatch… the standard would have changed 10x by then… thus… dog chasing his tail🤷🏼♂️
@@Joshelift Everyday/ average CrossFitters will never catch up. That is every sport. In the early 90’s I was a kid with dreams of becoming an international rugby player. Back then it was rare for a player to be over 100kg. When I became an adult the smallest players were 100kg. CrossFit is not unique in that the sport evolves, but is unique in that no one is safe. You cannot practise the course until perfection. That is the beauty of it. Also, Games level athletes are the pinnacle of the sport. Everyday CrossFit “exercisers” are doing similar things, but it’s a completely different animal. My 6 year old snatches a broom stick. He’s not Lasha though, and probably will never “catch up”.
I understand what you are saying…im not arguing that point. The “cream” will rise to the top in any sport. Im saying crossfit promotes the crossfit games as “anyone” who works hard can do it. I agree thats how it USED to be back in the day at the ranch, Just like spartan races etc.. but as the sport itself grows, the main population are in late 30s and up. You are basically telling a 18yr old with aspirations of making the games… train like Mat/Rich and you will make the games in 5-8 years… MAKE not WIN… and o ya.. all the standards that you are learning now with handstands etc… that will continue to change … the way i see it.. CF games is 99% genetics and 1% luck.
Thats why you dont see someone who is 5’5 better than Jordan playing in the NBA. CF needs to separate the 2.. have CF the sport and CF everything else. Stop combing the two lol🤦
Time to hate..kinda
1. I hate the idea of fixed tests in the sport of CF. That’s what makes CF unique to the other sports you were describing - swimming, track and field, triathlons etc. - it’s the chaos that makes it unique. The idea that at the Super Bowl of CF, the Games, with the best athletes in the world, that I’d have to watch them complete the same tests year over year sounds so boring to me - I mean by week 3 of semis it’s already a snooze fest having to watch the same workout over and over and over. The sport forces you to adapt and overcome. To learn on the fly and push beyond your limits. Not train all year, knowing the tests, just so you can show up like a dress rehearsal and see who can do cleans and muscle ups fastest. To me, it destroys the whole essence of the sport.
2. I wonder if the complaints at Semis stems from their being sooo many athletes. Watching the same workout for 12 consecutive heats will wear anyone down. Not to mention with the bigger fields you’re seeing more athletes struggle and get bottlenecked in the lower heats. So to the casual viewer they’re like “wow, no one can really do those legless rope climbs huh??”
YES Clear standards! You can still make things "Unknown and Unknowable".. the workouts dont have to be the same but the movements and standards should be standardized and known. And CrossFit NEEDS paid judges not random volunteers. Cant get fair events if the judges are not standardized themselves. Just my 2-cents.
Laughable in terms of fairness and standards was the extra fat bumper plates used in SA that kept tipping over and they used assault bikes not echo. Only semifinal I’ve seen that didn’t use roque plates and echo bikes from memory. Not 100% sure about Africa. Pretty sure Asia has echo bikes and Rogue plates. Point is, more than just standards, now we’re talking about equipment too.
Any business/ brand that comes into the functional fitness space will be judged as “like CrossFit”. CrossFit needs to be the one to professionalise the sport of fitness. If it isn’t them, it’ll never become a global sport.
If you read between the lines (not that hard), Crossfit doesn’t sleek to want to progress the competitive sport of CrossFit. It seems to be going through the motions and focus is going to be back to affiliates and growing membership base for entry level CrossFit. The problem with that is that we need the pinnacle of the mothodology, the CrossFit competitive season to become professional, so that the newbies, the interested and the committed everyday CrossFitter has a high level pinnacle to look up to, to aspire to, to feel connected to. If you don’t have this, then it’s just another exercise option that you’ll have no loyalty to.
1- remove Boz and his ego
2- large body of CrossFit camps come up with workouts. All workouts released immediately afterwards.
3-no variable inputs to workouts (sled biases, equipment issues)
It's nice in theory but it will never happen as long as the logo says "CrossFit Games". If you know what the tests are then you're not doing CrossFit, by their standards.
"continue to grow"?? the growth stopped in 2016. getting smaller ever since. This year, the title sponsor didn't even have a presence at the semifinals. A decade ago, this was sponsored by reebok and shown on ESPN. Now it's sponsored by NoBull (who?) and shown on Chase Ingram's podcast. Wake up dude.
One of the many things that suck about Hyrox is the mundane and boring nature of their programming. Imagine studying for the same test year after year, trying to better your score. If you judge Hyrox as a preparation for functional fitness, imagine life throws a thruster or a rope climb or a swim or a clean at you. You’d fail. On the other hand every single CrossFitter would be able to compete and possibly do well in a Hyrox comp without necessarily training for it. The idea of moving away from mixed modalities or unknown/ unknowable is ludicrous. CrossFit is meant to prepare you for whatever is thrown at you.
Standards for movement is essential. Judge training is probably even more critical.
If top athletes are failing it’s the programming fault. Boz is a major fail for CrossFit. He doesn’t get it. He’s arrogant (more so than Castro, because Castro was at least excellent).
Hyrux is really a lame version of sport compared to CrossFit, it's basically one event of CrossFit and that overlap is cool and it's nice to be able to run a race like that. But What makes CrossFit so cool is that you can do high rocks. You can run a marathon. You can row a marathon you can do. A Olympic style snatch and clean a jerk, and somehow these athletes can do all of that within the 95th percentile of the whole world.