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Aerial Awareness and Learning to Move with Precision
We usually perform a lot of our movements relative to something solid and rigid, most of the time we're testing ourselves against gravity while rooted on the ground. It's easy and almost comforting to train against gravity as we have a lifetime of experience with it. But what about movements where we are not anchored and can't use solid footing as a reference? The double unders on the jump rope feels tricky even though you're only hopping inches off the ground. The rope climbs are no go even though you can climb a ladder no problem. The muscle up transitions feels impossible with the rings going all over the place.
So how do you train for that moment of weightlessness, and how do you master movements when you're not pushing or pulling against a rigid surface? One tool that gymnasts use to gain aerial awareness is the trampoline, where the athlete is able to spend more time in the air. As an exaggeration of reality, the athlete can then focus on precision movements to achieve proper positioning and controlled transitions under any orientation.
Over the few weeks, with the help of The Modern Gypsies we'll show you several progressions using the trampoline. If you have access to a trampoline, go try it out! But only go as quick as you can stay in control, don't be a knucklehead and get yourself hurt.
We're less than two weeks away from our seminar at CrossFit Omaha and CrossFit TNT! These sessions are almost sold out, so last call to sign up if you haven't already.
Thanks for the birthday wishes!
Coach CarlHard Work, Passion, and Talent
It's only the beginning of April and hard to believe that I've already travelled four continents, five countries, and four states for 12 seminars! If you don't know what my seminars are about, here's a video trailer with a glimpse of the action that one of the participants in Ecuador filmed and produced. We had no idea that this video was a gift and huge surprise, so special thanks to Dana, the videographer and producer of the video, for her hard work, passon, talent, and mind-blowing creativity.
Next month will be a busy one, as I'll be hitting up the CrosFit TNT in the St. Louis area and CrossFit Omaha, Thames CrossFit in London and Mundo CrossFit in Madrid, and CrossFit White Rock in Dallas and CrossFit Austin for more seminar sessions. Please sign up soon before they sell out!
This week we complete another progression series on the Back Extension Roll:
Thanks!
Coach CarlAn Amazing 2012 Open!
A special shout out to our friends at Reebok, Rogue Fitness, and Beyond the Whiteboard for syndicating our CrossFit Games Breakdown series this year for the 2012 CrossFit Games Open. With an impressive 100K+ views on YouTube and the GWOD site for the Games Breakdown series, we hope these videos helped you prep for more PRs and resulted in injuries during this round of competition. Stay tuned as we'll continue our coverage for the Regional Workouts!
As we continue our training, it's time to make time for more skill work once again. This week we take another fresh look at the Back Extension Roll where you'll notice in practicing this movement that the hip extension and quick hands will skill transfer well to your Oly lifts:
Thanks!
Coach CarlRoll Out
This week we continue with our Handstand Forward Roll progression. If you practiced a bit and feel good about shifting weight on your hands while finding that globally extended position, you might be ready for a few more steps away from the wall or in the open. At this point, stop what you're doing and learn how to forward roll out of a handstand to save your neck - safety first!
Thanks,
Coach CarlChasing Quality Positions
This week we are going to practice a fun skill that you've all been asking for - the Handstand Walk! If you want to walk more than a couple of steps, you have to find a quality handstand position that you can control in extension to chase with your hands. Go practice and chase quality positions - literally.
Don't do anything sketchy, keep it close to the wall for support for now to get comfortable with these positions and we'll get into some safe exit strategies next week.
Thanks,
Coach CarlStick the Landing!
If you watched our CrossFit Games Breakdown video for 12.3 and/or the Box Jump video on the CrossFit Journal, you may have already clued in on the importance of landing properly. Jumping is not just all about exploding up to the top, there's some skill to keeping your landing clean so you can transition to the next movement - whether it is linking another jump, or squatting heavy out of a clean or snatch, or getting into the next position for your sport. Practice it and perfect it!
Thanks!
Coach CarlNew Skills = More Options
This week we return to our important conversation about Jumping and Landing mechanics to give you more exposure to new skills, so you can ultimately have more options when you're shooting for a new personal record or a spot at the CrossFit Games. Jump Lunges (or Mountain Climbers) is another one of those skills that look simple but have so much value in practicing. Think about receiving a split jerk or a few heavy Snatches from 12.2, or improving your running mechanics, or even stepping off a high box after you're smoked from a ton of box jumps. Learn it, practice it, and use it an option on the field.
Thanks!
Coach Carl7 Minutes of Awesomeness
San Francisco CrossFit does 12.1
I want to congratulate everyone who did 12.1 and thank those commented or tweeted me about your results. It's pretty impressive how you all turned 7 minutes of suck into sheer awesomeness. And then some of you even redid the workout after analyzing and fixing your technique and destroyed your previous records - WOW! This is why I love my job - let's keep killing it!
This week's progression is long overdue:
And stay tuned every Thursday for our CrossFit Games Breakdowns!
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+CPBack to Basics
You may have heard me say this before - if you've got to 60% of the way you're ready to move onto the next step, but always come back to revisit the basics and practice until you get a solid foundation. Well this week, we're going back to the basics with the Bar Pull Up and the Kip. KStar and I had discussed the Pull Up recently on the MobilityWOD from the faults perspective, so let's go over it again in some detail as many of you had questions about what is proper. Then we'll talk about the Kip on the bar, a skill that is pretty universal in translating to all kinds of other movements and skills:
More Freestyling! In the last couple of weeks we showed you how to get to your feet off your belly efficiently using the Burpee, this week we'll do the same off your back using the Candlestick Roll:
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Coach CarlOn Tour
Throwback!
Hey gang! Currently having a blast back on the tail end of my European tour after an awesome weekend in South Africa - I can't wait for my seminar along with Annie Thorisdottir at CrossFit Reykjavik this Sunday! It's just been a phenomenal opportunity I've had to be able to travel the world and find CrossFit in every city and just around every corner. If you get a chance to travel CF style I'd highly recommend it - check out the good folks at WODTours as they're making the dream happen!
This week we're going to talk more about jumping and landing and with a squat. Control is key, especially during that transition in the air. Do a few, check your feet, and see if you can you make it look the same coming down as you do going up.
Another bonus Freestyle feature with more Burpee skill transfer in the field:
Thanks!
Coach Carl
