Lauren Fisher at the 2014 Junior World Championship

Those female weightlifters sure are bulky, right, ladies?

Earlier, I wrote about CrossFit athlete Lauren Fisher sweeping her weight class at the 2014 USA Weightlifting Junior National Championship.  She also earned the title "Best Female Lifter" at that competition.  It would be an amazing accomplishment for anyone, but it's even more impressive for
Ms Fisher, because she's not exclusively an Olympic weightlifter.

“I do a lot of Olympic lifting, but I don’t do as much as most of these lifters do.” ~ Lauren Fisher

Unfortunately, the US is not as competitive on the world weightlifting stage as a country of its size should be.  On the men's side, I think that's primarily because the most genetically gifted power athletes in the US go to the NFL (where they stand to make millions) not to the USAW (where they'd have to keep a "day job" [night job?] to make ends meet).

Of course, there is no women's equivalent of the NFL, so that reason may be invalid.



This month, Ms Fisher competed at the Junior World Championship of Weightlifting.  She took 10th in the 63 kg (138.6 lb) weight class.  She weighed in at 60.53 kg (133.17 lb), and is probably the only woman I've ever read complain about losing weight.

60.15... I'm losing weight here @cjinvictus! 😩
— Lauren Fisher (@ltfisher12) June 20, 2014

Ms Fishers lifts went as follows:

• Snatch: 75 kg (165 lb), 79 kg (173.8 lb) [fail], 79 kg (173.8 lb) [fail]
• Clean and jerk: 102 kg (224.4 lb), 107 kg (235.4 lb), 110 kg (242 lb)
• Total: 185 kg (407 lb) 

This time, her American teammate, Martha Ann Rogers, beat her by one place.  Ms Rogers's lifts went as follows:

• Snatch: 88 kg (193.6 lb), 91 kg (200.2 lb) [fail], 91 kg (200.2 lb) [fail]
• Clean and jerk: 98 kg (215.6 lb), 102 kg (224.4 lb), 104 kg (228.8 lb) [fail]
• Total: 190 kg (418 lb)

The first place finisher was Diana Akhmetova of Russia (big surprise).  Her lifts went as follows:

• Snatch: 102 kg (224.4 lb), 106 kg (233.2 lb), 108 kg (237.6 lb)
• Clean and jerk: 124 kg (272.8 lb), 126 kg (277.2 lb), 128 (281.6 lb)
• Total: 236 kg (519.2 lb)

See what I mean about the US not being as competitive as other countries in weightlifting?  Still, a 10th place finish in a world championship is outstanding, and even more so for someone who doesn't specialize in the sport.

Here's a video clip of Ms Fisher's opening clean and jerk.



This clip is of her final clean and jerk.


Holding 242 lb overhead isn't easy when you weigh a mere 133 lb.  Notice how her midsection moves around as she waits for the judges to give her the signal that she executed a good lift.  Every muscle underneath the bar (i.e., all of them) is fighting to keep the bar balanced over her midline, which is a perfect example of why isolation movements waste your time.

Ms Fisher recently placed third in the 2014 CrossFit Southern California Regional competition, and qualified for the CrossFit Games.  Here's a short video clip of highlights from the competition.



You can watch a much longer summary here.



All the current elite CrossFit athletes transitioned into CrossFit after competing in some other sport.  Most of the top female athletes are former gymnasts.  Lauren Fisher is the first of a new generation of elite CrossFit athletes.  She started training with CrossFit when she was 12.  She used to play soccer and other sports back then.  She's been training exclusively with CrossFit since she was 16.  Now at 20, she's one of the best examples of CrossFit's efficacy as a training program.  The next few years should be exciting, as more kids who grew up training with CrossFit make it onto the international stage.

UPDATE: The Olympic weightlifting enthusiasts at Hokkgrip posted two more videos of Ms Fisher on their Instagram page.

Isolation Movements Waste Your Time

Hang around people in the fitness industry long enough, and you'll undoubtedly hear/read the term "muscle imbalance".  Muscles apply tension on joints, and that tension keeps joints operating like they're supposed to.  But some athletic pursuits strengthen the muscles that apply tension on one side of a joint more than their opposite counterparts.  That's an imbalance.

For example, long distance runners' hamstrings are often weaker than their quadriceps.  The difference in tension between the hamstrings and quads often results in knee injuries after years of running.

The conventional method of balancing the strength of muscle groups acting on opposite sides of a joint is to isolate the muscle groups and exercise them individually, often using machines.  Most physical therapists would advise a long distance runner with weak hamstrings to strengthen the quads and hamstrings separately with leg extensions and leg curls.

But that brings up a fairly obvious question.  Or, it should, anyway.  How does an athlete performing leg extensions and leg curls know if  his/her quads and hamstrings are balanced?  How does he/she know if they are operating as they are designed to?  Put simply, he/she can't know.  It's impossible.  Because the movements he/she is performing are movements his/her body is not designed to perform.  In fact, the human body can't perform those movements without the assistance of machines that were invented in the 1970s.

So, how can an athlete strengthen his/her quads and hamstrings evenly and help prevent knee injuries?

Simple.  Squat.

Unlike leg extensions and leg curls, the squat is a natural movement our bodies are designed to perform.  Because of that, when an athlete performs a squat correctly, all the muscles involved in the squat are automatically balanced.  The athlete doesn't need to think about which muscles to "fire" (I hate that term, by the way) because his/her nervous system does it instinctively.

You can find the following illustration on page 19 of the third edition of "Starting Strength".

Figure 2-11, page 19, Starting Strength Basic Barbell Training 3rd Edition

It demonstrates how the quads and hamstrings work together to help perform the squat.  As helpful as this illustration is, however, I recently ran across a video that I think makes this point much more effectively.



In the video clip above, CrossFit athlete Brooke Ence performs the squat with excellent technique, and you can watch the quads and hamstrings engage, contract and stretch in perfect concert with each other.  And it's not just her quads and hamstrings.  Her hip adductors, tensors, glutes, etc. work together to flex and extend her hips and keep her knees pointing over her toes.  Simultaneously, her abs and the muscles in her back maintain proper spine alignment and thus transfer force from the ground all the way to the bar.  And every muscle from the bar to her feet works to keep the weight balanced and centered over her feet.

That's why isolation movements waste your time.  It would take hours to train all those muscle groups by isolating each of them.  A 5x5 set of squats does it in minutes.  And even if you did manage to train all those muscle groups by isolating them, you'd never know if they were really in balance with each other.

Are there cases in which isolation movements are not a waste of time?  Sure.  Competitive body builders need isolation movements to compete in their sport.  Besides, they get judged on appearance, not performance.  Also, if an athlete is injured and can't perform compound movements like the squat, it's better to do something than nothing.

If, however, an athlete is not injured and wants to improve performance and prevent injury, compound movements - squats, deadlifts, presses, the Olympic lifts, etc. - are the way to go.  For such an athlete, isolation movements are an unnecessary, counterproductive waste of time.

Flying Jeep Outside Manhattan, KS

This craziness isn't quite "flying", but... it's... well... just watch.

 

From Fox4kc.com:

According to the crash report, the accident happened eight miles east of Manhattan Exit 313 in the westbound lanes of I-70. The driver “for an unknown reason” drove onto the shoulder of the highway, striking an unattended vehicle and then traveled airborne before coming to rest in a ditch. 

The driver, identified as Greg A. Harris, 41, was wearing a seatbelt. He was transported to an area hospital with unknown injuries.

What baffles me is why the driver of the Jeep would drive at that speed on the shoulder of the freeway.

Gotta love Kansas!

Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant Supports "Gun Control"

Totalitarian regimes of all stripes have many things in common.  The one feature they share most ardently is a pathological obsession with restricting their subjects' behavior.  In that spirit, the terrorist organization currently taking over Iraq, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, AKA the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham; ISIS), released a set of rules they imposed on the people of Mosul (Nineveh) in northern Iraq. 

Firstly it tells "anyone who is asking," who its members are and what it is about: "We are soldiers of Islam and we've taken on our responsibility to bring back glory of the Islamic Caliphate."

Obviously, they understand the utility of a mission statement.

It confirms that it seized up to half a billion dollars from the Mosul branch of the Bank of Iraq but states it can be trusted with the funds.

"Comrades, turn in your arms!"

Stealing coupled with assurances of moral purity - another common feature of totalitarian regimes.  Here's the best part.

No public gathering other than those organised by ISIS will be allowed at any stage. No guns will be allowed outside of its ranks. 

From Lenin, to Hitler, to Stalin, to Mao, to Castro - and now ISIL/ISIS - totalitarians agree.  Oppressing people is much easier after you've disarmed them.

Ironically, the Iraqi government, impotent against ISIL/ISIS' advance, asked Iraqi civilians to fight the terrorists in its stead.

Iraq’s embattled government urged the terrified residents of Mosul to set up armed vigilante groups and fight Islamic militants who have taken over  the city, the country’s second-largest and in Nineveh province. 

In a meeting in Baghdad presided by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, members of the Nineveh Crisis Team said the city vigilantes should help the Iraqi police and security forces in their fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which stormed into Mosul on Sunday, after about 24 hours of clashes with the police and army.

It's ironic because the Iraqi government already did a great deal of ISIL/ISIS' job for them.

Dhia al-Wakil, spokesman for the office of the armed forces commander-in-chief, suggested that the firearm registration scheme made sense for "organisational and statistical" reasons. 

“It is designed to limit the numbers of arms owned by civilians, and hence it’s in the interests of people's safety and security," Wakil said. 

Officials at the interior ministry, whose police will issue the gun licenses, said the process would be properly conducted. 

"The people who get gun licenses will undergo checks," deputy interior minister Ahmed al-Khafaji said. "The decision permits possession of a firearm inside houses, not outside them, and just one per home – no more.” 

By limiting gun ownership to one gun per household, the Iraqi government made it impossible for law abiding Iraqis to defend their communities against ISIL/ISIS.  And by forcing law-abiding Iraqis to register their guns, they made it easier for ISIL/ISIS to finish disarming decent Iraqis.  All the terrorists have to do is go to each local police station (most of which are abandoned anyway), take the list of registered weapons owners, then go house-to-house confiscating their guns.  With only one gun per house, there's no way a family could defend themselves against a group of armed, battle-hardened men.  An entire neighborhood, with only one gun per house, would be unlikely to defend themselves.

How do mostly-disarmed people defend themselves against this?

Fast Car With Weird Name Built in West Richland, WA

This one is for my friends and family back in Washington State, particularly the Tri-Cities.

It looks like American supercar builder SSC is finally getting ready to start construction of its new factory in West Richland, WA. Planning for the facility to build the Tuatara (pictured above) goes back to at least 2011, but, according to the local Tri-City Herald, a delay in funding is the cause for the setback. 

Now, things finally appear to be back on track. Construction is scheduled for August with completion in early 2015, according to the report. However, it will be several months after that before deliveries will begin. With approximately 40,000 square feet of floor space, SSC will be able to finish one car a month at first with production ramping up later. 

The planned Tuatara supercar packs a claimed 1,350 horsepower and 1,280 pound-feet of torque, allowing a prototype model reached 200 miles per hour in an impressive 16 seconds. Deliveries were slated to begin by January 2014. 

I think my Sprinter van reaches 60 mph in 16 seconds.  Maybe.  Plus, the Tuatara is supposedly designed for a 275 mph top speed.  You can read a lot more information on SSC and their Tuatara by following this link to Autoblog.com.  This is the link to the article from the Tri-City Hearald.

In case you're not from the Pacific Northwest, the Tri-City area (Richland, Kennewick and Pasco) is best known for the Hanford nuclear site and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.  It's not exactly a hotbed of manufacturing, so SSC's choice is definitely unconventional.  Whatever their reasons for choosing West Richland, I wish them great success, and I hope to visit the factory some day.

That's One Way to Test Body Armor

I've never been shot, but I've heard from people who have that - even while wearing body armor - it's painful.  This fellow, however, appears no worse for wear.


Is there an Italian version of OSHA?

Las Vegas Cop Killers Were Occupy Protesters

Main stream (i.e., Leftist) media outlets did their best to link Las Vegas cop killers, Jerad and Amanda Miller, to the Tea Party...

The Wingnut Bonnie and Clyde duo, Jerad and Amanda Miller, stormed into CiCi’s Pizza and shot two metro cops, Alyn Beck and Igor Soldo, at close range while shouting “This is a revolution!” They flung the Tea Party’s favorite coiled snake Gadsden flag and a swastika on the still-warm corpses and then moved to a nearby Walmart to murder a shopper before turning the guns on themselves.

...but here's a little detail they ignored.  Jerad and Amanda Miller were part of the "Occupy" movement.

While living in Lafayette [Indiana], Jerad and his wife Amanda took part in last November’s “Million Mask March” – a gathering of protesters from the Occupy movement, anarchists, and hacktivists. 

Of course, the Occupiers have nothing to do with the Millers.

Nick Wertz, one of the organizers of the Lafayette march, said it attracted many people upset over a lot of issues. 

“Everyone there just seem kind of like normal people. At least they were going to stick up with what they thought was right,” he said.
Wertz said he didn’t really know the Millers, but weeks after the march, Amanda Miller contacted him. 

“She was moving to Vegas for whatever reason and they had a dog they couldn’t take with – and I was like, ‘If I can help,’” Wertz said.
But that was the end of it, he said.

Nothing at all, right?

The Millers left a swastika and a “Don’t tread on me” flag on the body of one of the two officers they killed, and promoted an ideology shared by “militia and white supremacists,” including the belief that law enforcement was the “oppressor,” authorities said Monday.

Gosh, where have I heard that before?  Oh, yeah.  That's right.

In fact, Occupiers hate cops so much that they refused to report crimes committed in their camps cesspools to police...

...when people in Zuccotti Park become aware of crimes, instead of calling police, they form a circle around the perpetrator, chastise him or her and chase him or her out into the rest of the city to do who knows what to who knows whom

...and threatened to kill people who reported crimes to police.

"You got our friend arrested. We're gonna kill you! Watch your back!" the trio warned the young woman on Monday - two days after her complaint led to the arrest of Garfield Leslie, police said Tuesday.

And there were a lot of crimes committed by Occupiers during their nationwide reign of terror infantile, entitled temper tantrum.  You can browse a long list of their crimes at this link.  They include everything from vandalism and petty theft, to assault, rape and murder.  There's even a case of conspiracy to commit terrorism in Cleveland.

Three self-described anarchists were sentenced to prison Tuesday for trying to blow up a highway bridge between Cleveland and Akron using dummy explosives provided by an undercover FBI agent. 

Douglas Wright

Douglas Wright, 26, of Indianapolis, whom federal authorities described as the ringleader, received an 11½-year term. He apologized to his family and the community, saying he was an addict and needed help, the Akron Beacon Journal reports. 

Brandon Baxter, 20, of Lakewood, Ohio, was sentenced to nearly 10 years, and Connor Stevens, 20, of Berea, Ohio, got eight years.
... 

The five were arrested April 30 as they tried to detonate dud bombs at the base of the Ohio 82 bridge over Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The FBI said Wright recruited the group from the Occupy Cleveland movement.

Yep.  Occupiers hate cops, love crime and love, love, love cop killers.

Brandon Baxter

Dorner, who had been on the run as a suspect in a recent killing spree, was reportedly killed Tuesday during a shootout that left one law enforcement officer dead and another wounded. Dorner’s body was apparently burned in a fire that swept through a cabin he had held up in for the gunfight. 

The statement of support and solidarity was posted on the Occupy Los Angeles’ official Facebook page Wednesday. The statement came in the form of a posted picture captioned with the phrases “Rest In Power Chris Dorner” and “Assassinated By The Police for Trying To Expose LAPD Corruption.”

Connor Stevens

There are no riots at Tea Party rallies.  There are no assaults on police officers at Tea Party rallies.  There are no chants of "f**k the police" at Tea Party rallies.
 Nobody praises cop killers at Tea Party rallies or on Tea Party websites.

At violent, disease ridden, parasite (human and otherwise) infested, urine and feces splattered "Occupy" rallies, on the other hand...



Face it, Lefties.  Jerad and Amanda Miller have a hell of a lot more in common with your darlings, the Occupiers, than with the Tea Party.

Red Bull Tribute to Fathers and Motorcycles

This is too cool.

Buying a Car Like Buying a Gun

What if buying a car was like buying a gun?  The Truth About Guns answers the question, at least for Californians. 

With the national debate of gun control again rearing its head, let’s do a quick comparison. Since vehicles kill or injure roughly three times more people a year than guns, let’s suppose we applied the same standards to vehicle operation that we do to guns. We will use California for example. Let’s start with purchasing a vehicle. You need a full background check, must be a citizen or legal resident and have no prohibiting factors in your history. Now you’re going wait 10 days to pick up your vehicle. If you’re buying used, you and the individual selling the vehicle must both go to the dealer for the transfer. Don’t forget the dealer’s fees; after all he has to make money too . . .

This is easy so far, inconvenient but easy. Your 10 days is up, time to pick up your vehicle and drive off. WRONG! Now you must have your vehicle transported to your home in an enclosed and locked trailer and stored in a locked garage. Your 10 gallon fuel tank must be EMPTY during transport, and you better make sure all your garage entrances are childproofed. Keep in mind you have now legally purchased a vehicle and stored a vehicle, your rights are not infringed at all.

That's just the beginning.  There's more.  A lot more.  Read the whole thing.

No politician would ever dream of proposing such onerous regulations for car ownership, because their constituents would never let them get away with it.  Americans love their cars.

But here's the irony.  Driving on public roads is not a right.  It's a privilege.  It's certainly not explicitly protected by the Constitution.

Gun ownership, and the carrying of said guns, is a right explicitly codified in, and protected by, the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights of the US Constitution.

Amendment II
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed 

Merriam-Webster's Dictionary defines "infringe" as follows:

in·fringe (verb) \in-ˈfrinj\
: to do something that does not obey or follow (a rule, law, etc.) ( chiefly US )
: to wrongly limit or restrict (something, such as another person's rights)

California's gun laws clearly do not obey or follow the highest law in the land - the US Constitution - and they wrongly limit or restrict Californian's Second Amendment Rights.  California's gun laws, then, infringe the right of the people of California to keep and bear Arms.

California's politicians proposed and passed those laws with the support of the majority of Californians.  That means that a majority of Californians would fight tooth and nail to keep their non-Constitutional privilege to drive, but paid politicians handsomely (politicians like the gun-trafficking Leland Yee) to violate their Constitutional right to keep and bear arms.

The same is true of voters from other states that similarly infringe on Second Amendment rights.

Crazy, isn't it?

Miss America Promotes Self Defense, "Feminists" Explode

Nia Sanchez (Nevada), the new Miss USA, just gave "Feminists" a whole new reason to hate pageants. 

Miss Nevada Nia Sanchez, a fourth-degree black belt in the Korean martial art of

Source: NYP

taekwondo, was crowned Miss USA 2014 on Sunday night.

...

Judge Rumer Willis, the 25-year-old daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, said 19 percent of U.S. undergraduate women are victims of sexual assault and asked Sanchez why she thinks this is being swept under the rug and what should be done about it.

Sanchez said bringing awareness to the issue was important, as well as women taking it upon themselves to learn how to defend themselves.

Naturally, "Feminists" - who claim that women are capable of doing everything men are capable of doing - took to Twitter to vent their rage at the idea that women are capable of learning to defend themselves.

Let's apply to other crimes - and to men - the "logic" that "Feminists'" applied to sexual assault and to women.

I'm sorry, but women shouldn't need to take self defense classes to protect themselves from rape #MissUSA—
Peter Simon (@PeterSimon12) June 09, 2014

I'm sorry, but men shouldn't need to take self defense classes to protect themselves from aggravated assault.

Miss Nevada was asked about rape at colleges and answered that women need to learn to defend themselves... OR MEN COULD JUST NOT RAPE.
Anna Garcia (@a_mariagaria) 8 Jun 2014

Miss Nevada was asked about murder in Chicago and answered that men need to learn to defend themselves... OR MURDERERS COULD JUST NOT MURDER.

Miss Nevada described how individuals need to protect themselves from rape, instead of teaching others not to rape. Stop the victim blaming.—
Haley Ploucha (@hallepalouka) June 09, 2014

Miss Nevada described how men need to protect themselves from armed robbery, instead of teaching others not to rob at gunpoint.  Stop the victim blaming.

Women shouldn't need to learn to protect themselves against rape #missnevada  educate and respect yourself as a woman #rapeculture
Anna Beth West (@annabethwest) 8 Jun 2014

Men shouldn't need to learn to protect themselves against home invasions educate and respect yourself as a man (home invasion culture).

Yes, I refuse to use hash tags in my writing.

Sexual assault is a crime.  All crimes are violations of an individual's rights to life, liberty and/or property.  Evil people who violate others' rights have always existed and always will.  Therefore, the need for individuals to defend themselves from evil people has always existed and always will.

It's why we lock our doors.  It's why we buy security systems for our houses and cars.  It's why we avoid high crime areas.  Advising people to take practical precautions to avoid being a victim is not victim-blaming.  That remains true even if the crime is sexual in nature.

It's also why our Bill of Rights includes the Second Amendment.

The Second Amendment protects the individual's right to own the most effective self defense tools available - firearms - so that the individual may defend him/herself from those who would violate his/her rights - whether the violators are ordinary criminals or criminal governments.

In fact, the worst thing I can say about Nia Sanchez's response is that she failed to mention using a gun in self defense.  Nobody's perfect.

But the vast majority of "Feminists" abhor the Second Amendment.

I guess the idea of a woman having the power to effectively defend herself against her attacker(s) is just too empowering for the average "Feminist" to consider.

Ironic Dave Ramsay

I was listening to Dave Ramsay in the car today.  One of his callers asked advice on paying off her and her husband's combined $200,000+ student loan debt on a combined $65,000/year income.  Her debt alone totaled $150,000.  Her $150,000 degree was in...

...wait for it!...

...economics!

You can't make this stuff up!

Instapundit » Blog Archive » MALE PRIVILEGE, CIRCA 1944:

Instapundit » Blog Archive » MALE PRIVILEGE, CIRCA 1944:

Glenn Reynolds is as pithy and poignant as ever.

EBR 1190RX - Erik Buell Racing | On Two Wheels - YouTube

EBR 1190RX - Erik Buell Racing | On Two Wheels - YouTube

Contrary to Zack Couts' narration, the real question is not whether EBR's new bike is any good.  The real question is whether EBR's new bike is good enough to compete with the best from Japan, Italy and Germany.



Wait... Americans contending with Japan, Italy and Germany?  Where have I heard that before?

Champion Boxer Trains With CrossFit Coaching Staff

Robert "The Ghost" Guerrero has an incredible resume.

Robert Joseph Guerrero (born March 27, 1983 in Gilroy, California) is an American professional boxer. Nicknamed The Ghost, he is the current interim WBC welterweight champion. He is also a former IBF Super Featherweight world champion, a former interim WBA and WBO lightweight champion and a former two-time IBF featherweight champion. He vacated the IBF Super Featherweight belt due to his wife's battle with leukemia. Guerrero's coach is Ruben Guerrero. He is managed by both Bob Santos and Luis Decubas Jr.

In case you weren't counting, those are six different championships in four different weight classes.  After going undefeated since 2006, he lost to Floyd Mayweather on 4 May 2013.

Apparently, Guerrero thought part of the reason he lost to Mayweather is that - in stepping up to a higher weight class - he simply could not out-fight a bigger, stronger athlete who is also arguably one of the most talented boxers ever.

He doesn't explain how, but Guerrero happens to know Dave Castro, former Navy SEAL and CrossFit HQ's programming director.  Castro somehow convinced Guerrero to make CrossFit his strength and conditioning program.  Warning: cursing ahead.



Castro chose Brian "Tosh" Chontosh to train Guerrero.

Major Brian R. Chontosh (born 1974 in Rochester, New York) is a retired United States Marine Corps officer who was awarded the Navy Cross for his heroic actions during the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. At the time, he was a platoon commander for Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division.

You can watch part of a presentation Tosh gave to the American Society of Exercise Physiologists here.



If I could choose anyone to coach any athlete, I think the first thing I'd do is ask Kelly Starrett to identify inefficiencies in his movement and fix them.  Here's a video of Starrett explaing pull-up mechanics.



Tosh did that, but Starrett is the master when it comes to the mechanics of athletes.  Also, boxers need to stay loose to be quick, and Starrett is the the mobility guru.

I like that Castro brought in Chris Spealler.  Spealler wrestled in college, so he's well acquainted with combative sports.  Perhaps even more importantly, the CorssFit Games have no weight classes, and at 5'5" and 150 lb, Spealler is accustomed to using efficiency to beat much bigger, stronger athletes.

You can watch a perfect example of that in this video of the 2010 CrossFit Games event named "Amanda", which pairs two very technical movements, muscle-ups and snatches.


Where bigger, stronger athletes muscled their way through those movements, then fatigued near the end and were no longer able to do so, Spealler's impeccable technique made him more efficient, wasting much less energy and carrying him through the end with what looks like ease (it isn't, but Spealler makes it look easy).

Spealler is also an outstanding coach, which you can see from the Guerrero video.  I really would've liked to see Spealler as Guerrero's strength and conditioning coach.  Anyway, I'm not as familiar with Tosh, but I'm sure he's doing a great job.

My favorite part of the Guerrero video, though, is where they talk with his head coach (and father), Ruben.

I like what I see... he's using his hips.  He's bending, punching up, and that's more explosive right there... And before it was really hard to get him to do that.  He wouldn't really do it.  He would do it, but only when I told him to do it. 

At the CrossFit Level 1 seminar I attended, the coaches preached over and over that the most powerful movements begin at the hips and radiate outward to the extremities.  That is true whether one trows a ball, swings a bat or throws a punch.  Spealler makes that point very clear in the video.  The best way to train that physical adaptation (regardless of ones sport) is to first strengthen the hips using squats and deadlifts, then increase power and coordination with the Olympic lifts.  Sport-specific training then applies the adaptation to the skills necessary to compete in the sport.

CrossFit HQ makes some big claims about what CrossFit can do for an athlete, and they've always insisted on testing their claims.  The CrossFit Games are the ultimate testing ground for those claims, but few world champions have been willing to apply CrossFit to their training.  That makes sense.  After all, if their current programming made them champions, changing it could mean flirting with disaster.

Robert Guerrero will fight Yoshihiro Kamegai on 21 June 2014 at the StubHub Center in Carson, CA, where the 2014 CrossFit Games will take place from 25-27 July, appropriately enough.  We'll get to see then if CrossFit can really make a world champion even better.

Actually, we'll really get to see that if/when Guerrero fights Mayweather again.  Good luck, Ghost!

Can we mere mortals who'll never be world champions at anything learn from Guerrero's training?  Yes.  Tosh evaluated Guerrero's movement, identified inefficiencies and weaknesses, then spent a lot of time training him on technique before going heavy or adding a lot of volume.

CrossFit HQ emphasizes over and over that we should work on technique first, then add intensity, then add volume.  Too many coaches and athletes neglect that progression with disastrous results.  They skip right over technique, jump head first into intensity or - even worse - volume, and injure themselves.  Then they blame CrossFit, even though they failed to follow CrossFit's prescription.

So, remember, whether you're a champion (like Guerrero) or ordinary (like me), the progression and priority goes:

1. Technique
2. Intensity
3. Volume

Happy training!