Yes, there is another focus area and I'm talking to Coach about it. I don't know if it's something that will be like CFFB, CFK or CFE but it might be interesting.

And, yes, I'm gonna leave you hanging... :o)

That Grace is insane ... nicely done Tycen.

We see more and more elderly patients with increasing medical conditions, limitations of mobility and carrying excess weight, that would so benefit from CrossFit and all it has to offer.
The next stage should be CrossFit Seniors.

Wow, I estimate that's about 0.79 horsepower!

CrossFit Wrestling...somebody oughta jump on that one!

Nice intensity Tycen.

Next time, try standing up under at least one of your push-jerks.

The trend towards faster times and shittier form/ROM continues.

Interesting to note that only as he gets tired does his cleans look anything like a power clean and not some reverse curl. This means the weight is virtually nothing for him. Hopefully his form isn't this shitty with some real challenging poundage for him.

CrossFit Wrestling. Hmm, honestly CF Mainsite or CFSB or CFFB fit perfectly for those. It's 3m all go for 3 rounds? Was it even 3. Hell, it's not even 3 full minutes if someone goes outside the ring or you have to go to dominant/submissive positions.

CFSeniors sounds just like CF-lite which is basically the scaled back CF workouts for noobs ala Brandx. It would be just as simple to use the CFKids WODS for seniors.

With CFE it covers a lot of people who do the endurance sports. A LOT of ppl do those damn endurance sports.

CFFB covers a huge cash cow in America. Only CF Basketball or CF Baseball would bring in as much money. Note that either sport bring in virtually nil at the HS and collegiate levels. CF Hockey would be served by a tweaked CFFB considering the time modalities.

The next biggest sport in the country - CrossFit Basketball.

Nice job Tycen on the 1:05. It looked like a broomstick the way you were throwing it around!

I'd like to see College CrossFit. Club teams from different schools would come together for competitions. It wouldn't require another site with different programming, but another level of organization and recruitment. If I were still in college, I'd get a team together.

First of all Tycen crushed "Grace". It was fun to watch. And i knew there would be haters. But he really pushed it to the limit. And as far as another sport that is perfect for CrossFit. I think CF Football should be incorporated into every athletes training, regardless of their sport. In athletics and any sport, the core is the most important part of the body and everything starts there and leaves to the extremity. We have baseball players doing the CF Football WOD's with the strength work also, and I can't wait to see that improve their game. I don't think it will be long before every high school, college,and pro athlete is doing CrossFit. Or at least it should be that way!!!

Tycen...WOW I don't know if i could complete Grace with PVC that fast.

In my opinion, your form was solid, you went from "floor to overhead" as fast as possible, which is(I believe)even how Coach G has sometimes described how to perform Grace

WOW Tycen! Ferocious...

Great effort and I'm not being a hater; you threw that weight around like it was nothing. However, you need to stand tall on each rep. Not one rep would have counted in a competition. And I know what I'm talking about. No matter, you would probably destroy anyone performing that workout correctly as well.

While I applaud the effort and output of Tycen, this is exactly the kind of thing people use as examples against our program. This is why CrossFit is sometimes called dangerous because there was a total disregard for the virtuosity Crossfit promotes. This was the 3rd shooting target they talk about @ the certs, so before you applaud too much ask yourself as a trainer is this the movement you would promote in your affiliate? Don't feed the monster it is all our responsibility to be stewards of CrossFits charter. Again Tycen awesome effort and I am sure you are an incredible athlete... maybe those trainers who totally ignored the safe movement should be the ones get upset about my comments ..not you.. If anyone has a question as to what I am referring to just google lumbar curve..

didn't watch the video - but if it has bad technique, i'm not interested.

anyways - i'd like to start CF Motocross. it would pale in comparison to the other specialty CF's in terms of following/interest... but it's my sport :)

I have to concur with most of the comments already made. While it was an impressive effort, none of the reps were legit. Too often, many coaches are simply concerned with watching the clock and getting fast times. These coaches don't correct the faults that their athletes are making. And that's assuming that they realize the mistakes are even being made...which they clearly don't. I've had the opportunity to travel to dozens of CF gyms around the country and I've seen this lack of coaching so many times. It's disheartening to see it over and over.

Like I said before, good effort Tycen, but you'll benefit greatly from some work on your form and technique.

Awesome power Tycen! You are Crazy Strong!

Hey thanks alot for your guys input..
When I first got into crossfit i watched a video on "Fran" and the commentary on it said his form was lacking but the idea was to get the job done as fast as possible.
I took that to heart when trying for "Grace." I have pretty good form when lifting something heavy.. but when i went for this i tried to only focus on a few things, Weight touching the ground between each rep and having my arms and hips lock out at the top...

Other than that i just tried to "get the work done as fast as possible"

But incase those of you who worry about my form are wondering.. the answer is YES.. my back was killing me after.. LOL

I'll go ahead and let my personal pearl out of the bag...and it falls along Graham and Lorraines comment.

Think of the exact population that you would prefer NOT to train at your affiliate. Be honest. The ones that take the most effort as a coach, and can be the most challenging/frustrating. Then figure out how to target them as a group, and systematically deliver the results they need.

I'm talking about training the old, sick, fat and injured (sorry to sound blunt).

That is one of my long term goals.

it was unreal..to beat a record by almost 30 seconds is just unreal. the intenstiy, to me, is what crossfit is all about!

"...having my arms and hips lock out at the top..."

Don't mean to pick on you, but take another look. Your hips never lock out at the same time as your arms. From the catch of the power jerk (bent hips/legs, straight arms), the bar goes back down while your legs straighten out. From what I see on the video, you never get to the position where you are standing straight up, arms locked out overhead.

Sacrificing form/safety for speed is a personal choice and I don't blame you, although it might not be the best publicity for CF. Athletes do dangerous things to get results every day. However, "record times" only count with full ROM. You deserve better from your trainers, we deserve better from this site.

@"Tired":
"We deserve better from this site."

Really? What do you deserve? Only videos with impeccable form done by beautiful people? Or maybe an intelligent discussion about form versus intensity, and some guidance for a young man who seems to have a lot of muscle, heart, and enough humility to come on here and post after people noted points about his form. (Thank you, Tycen.)

Do we only learn from the perfect model? Or do we learn from errors too? That's the real question.

1:05 was amazing. Watching him and reading his words about the back pain, I'm hoping that we see Tycen try again -- this time with impeccable form and a still amazing time.

Intelligent discussion about issues that pertain to CrossFit trainers and their community (by people with real names) is what I think this blog deserves.

Amazing job on Grace. Guys, we are community. Constructive criticism builds up. When he nails his form he will go even faster! I am sure he and his trainers are aware of this. A side note lets get this RRG funded! Don't wait until the last minute.

Lisbeth,
You were far more eloquent than I was. I now fall into the "What she said crowd".

Efforts like this show us what we can do. They are necessary to stretch the boundaries. Congrats on an awesome effort Tycen.

When athlete is chasing a pr in a trainers presence, it is the trainers obligation and duty to manage the effort not the athletes. Technique, intensity and safety have to be balanced on that razor wire. Tycen's trainers job now is to get him to a 1:05 with superior technique and form. I'm betting they get the job done.

Crossfit Basketball would be great. Speaking from my own experience, basketball players need more work in the weight room than any other sport, we spend too much time playing and not enough time lifting. But for the most part our lifting programs are a joke, I had a non-existant program and junior college and a terrible one at my transfer school.
Being over 2 years removed from a college career that was plagued by injuries (lack of lifting, and compensation for bad technique, and the occasional freak ankle sprain) I am now better than I ever was and more explosive than ever, due in large part to the increase in oly lifting. I would love to come up with crossfit basketball and help kids at the age I wish I could have been helped at.

Everyone keeps banging on the trainers and their lack of teaching the correct movement. In defense of kade and I who are the trainers at crossfit dixie, tycen has been doing his crossfit training at golds gym and he called us up and asked if he could come over and do grace at our gym while we filmed him. Of course we said yes so he came and did it. i think his form could have been better and if he was a crossfit dixie member and was with us before that i think it would have been better cause kade and i know the movements and strive to teach them correctly to all our athletes. that being said, tycen did an amazing job. he hasn't been doing crossfit for that long and he plays baseball so he travels around and that makes it difficult to train in a crossfit gym on a regular basis. And for him to crush grace like he did is pretty damn impressive. He threw that weight around like it was nothing. A lot of the negative comments will be taken to heart and i'm sure tycen will improve his technique. I will take constructive criticism all day and i'm sure tycen will too, but it pisses me off when people get mean and ugly about it. Crossfit is about positive attitudes and getting better everyday. Tycen, great job. you killed it. come back in and we'll get your form down and silence the haters.

Lisbeth,

Thank you so much for your comments.

I was drawn to and still love CrossFit largely due to the amazing community we enjoy -- one that is full of mutual respect and mutual support.

While there's nothing wrong with pointing out flaws in a constructive way, I agree with you that the real challenge is to engage in these discussions with contributions that are constructive.

That being said, I agree with all the comments about both form and intensity regarding Tycen's performance.

One question that might be worth discussing in light of this video is how and when do we, as trainers, decide to push for (or allow for) intensity versus form with our athletes -- or do many of us let the clients themselves make that decision? At my box, we err perhaps too far on the side of good form... and I sometimes regret that our less-than-stellar numbers on the boards reflect that.

So I'm curious to know if anyone out there has seen a truly bad outcome from one of your athletes "going for broke" -- taking intensity way past good form -- to hit better numbers? I'd be curious to hear any stories out there of trainers wishing they had stopped an athlete in an attempt to set a record.

Way to go, Tycen! Awesome performance!

Congratulations on hitting 100 affiliates CFK HQ. I hope i'm there for 200.

I have huge respect for Tycens attitude, both for the work he put in on the video and his response here. At the same time, I think it is the duty of this community to note that his movements do not meet the specified requirements. If one wants to call anything a record, it must conform to the standards. To me, for a competition or "record" it can be as ugly as he wants, rounded back and all and it counts (although I do not see the point), but must meet the ROM requirements. So push jerking and not standing to finish the rep equals "Zero".

I think the attitude that gets expressed hurts CrossFitters going for a competitive sporting approach. If I was a judge at the Games (as I was last year, and at the Mid Atlantics) I would not count those reps.

#26 - Dan,

Good question. I have the same one regarding form on heavy lifts. For example, I am uber paranoid on deadlifts and pull guys off the bar long before they reach what was previously their PR. It can be very frustrating for them to give up 50# and say they still feel strong, but that back looks bent to me.

That is one the main thing that I look forward to at each and every cert...Judgement. What is the range of allowable movement? How much do they let slide, and when do they pull the plug. You only get that from being around more veteran coaches and specialists.

I'm fortunate to have some good ones in our area, and their two cents is invaluable.

@Tom,

Every video I have seen on this lift has said that it has to go from the ground to overhead, anyway the athlete can get it there.
The rep starts from the ground and finishes when the athlete locks his/her arms above their head. (which Tycen does)
If the games have different rules, then that is one thing. But it looks like he isn't competing to me. So until Crossfit posts other rules to this lift, I'm going to go ahead and say the record belongs to Tycen.

Great job kid

Tycen, as soon as I hit play I said to myself holy #@%$

Right on, Lisbeth. I give the CF community plenty of hell, but it's all in an effort of trying to improve the product and image. Nobody here is "deserves" anything, least of all some jackass who signs with a fake name and email address (my test email to you came back).

Tycen, strong work my friend! Anyone who can do +20 jumping jacks with 60kg has monster work capacity, and that's what you're working on. A WR effort should be just about to come apart (watch reruns of Alberto Tomba ski). Sometimes you get a little too close to the sun. Big deal. Clean it up and go sub-1 next time. Either way, pat yourself on the back for that effort.

PS Anyone who calls Tycen out on form needs to check himself. Range of motion is the issue here, not form. They are not interchangeable terms.

Comment #7 - Blair Lowe: "CFSeniors sounds just like CF-lite which is basically the scaled back CF workouts for noobs ala Brandx. It would be just as simple to use the CFKids WODS for seniors."

Given the words you have chosen, it sounds like you haven't trained very many, if any, seniors with CrossFit. If you have, it would be interesting to hear why you think kids and seniors have the same fitness requirements. For instance, children, especially between the age of 6 - 10 are increasing their mental and physical capacities each year, even without training. In contrast, seniors are decreasing in their capacities without training. Wouldn't that change your focus/programming of your seniors classes? I know it does for me when I train senior clients.

does anyone have any experience working with someone who has MS and what might be concernsas far as intensity and what recommendations would anyone make?

I have been training wrestlers and mma guys for the last year and have been developing sport specific training in that area. If anyone else has I would like to share some ideas.

@Jared
Yes, the arms have to lock out overhead, but the hips also have to be fully extended at the same time for the rep to be complete. The issue many people are highlighting is that both did not happen at the same time, therefore ROM was compromised.

Outstanding effort though and to find out Tycen doesn't usually have the benefit of an affiliate to help and encourage him makes it even more spectacular. Great work Tycen!

And congrats to CF Kids for the success of their program! Great to see all your hard work pay off Jeff, Mikki and the team at CF Kids HQ.

Maybe I should suggest a CF Geeks program for all us IT workers out there? :-)
After one session humping servers around the datacentre (on my own when everyone else needed 2 or 3 people to handle one server) I discussed "racking and de-racking servers for time" as a WOD. You could scale based on rack units, 1U for Puppies, 4U for Pack, 6U or fully populated SAN units for Big Dawgs and throw in rack height as a variable. Of course you have to cable it completely to include a co-ordination and dexterity component and the server has to actually be able to boot with no hardware errors for the “rep” to count. :-)

merle-
I have been training a 63 year old woman who has MS for almost two years. I would love to share any info I've learned!

The results have literally been life saving for her. Not because I'm anything special, but because in two years she has only cancled 3 sessions. Her commitment has helped us both learn alot and I am eager to share with any coach that is willing to take that on! -email me any time, I'll help any way I can.

BTW- As far as the 'CrossFit Senior' focus. I see this as an ever-expanding oportunity for CrossFit to fill a gap that has been prevelent for far too long. Seniors are capable of working much harder than most 'fitness/medical' communities give them credit for. I have seen amazing results from people who thought the best they could ever hope for was to 'mantain'. After ramping up the intensity gradually for a few months- to hear someone say 'I never thought I would be able to do that!' is one of the most rewarding moments in coaching.

Last week I had a 62 year old man get five GOOD push-ups and after, he exclaimed- "I haven't done that for DECADES! -never thought that would happen!"

I could go on and on...

Check out what Jim Baker is doing. Awesome!

I wish I could watch youtube at work so I could see this awesome performance, form aside.
Also, if he can get to 55 seconds then that would be a full one horsepower! Can anyone do it yet? Someday soon I hope with video not at youtube.
Great work Tycen.

Tycen ... smokin' time, and I love the sound of those steel plates!

Lisbeth, thanks for a great response.

I think the main site WOD is pretty close to perfect for wrestling and mma folks. CFFB is also great for things like hockey, lacrosse, rugby, etc ... but I'd like to see more people do "regular" CrossFit first before deciding they need something different.

I would love to and have been working on a crossfit aquatic program. Not just crossfit for swimmers but changing the way swimmers, water polo players, and surfers train.
I have had huge success in cutting down yardage with my water polo athletes by using the pool much like the rower or the track or the jump rope.
I am working on some video...

Danielle
Crossfit Santa Cruz
UCSC Mens and Womens water polo

Definately a seniors / handicapped / obese or other physical limitations class would be of great interest

Definately a class on how to teach functional movements to seniors, obese, physically challenged. That is really where we do the most good - getting those who never exercise into some sort of program they can enjoy and that works for them

I think that the fact that we -"CF"- have gone the path of sport specific training (CF Football) is a slippery slope and purely a marketing strategy to reach more people w/ CF.

Unfortunately I see CF working more towards promoting itself for monitary gain than Glassman's original intent to promote fitness. Or was the promotion of fitness just a rouse?..Maybe I'm CF idealistic and have bought into the idea that fitness was CF's focus.

I mean look at all the Certs previous to CF Football.. Without exception EVERYONE of them added to CF and made CF BETTER..How does CF Football or the activity of football add to CF? It doesn't..In fact it TAKES from CF to make Football- The Sport- better.. Its baffling why there is a CERT for it.. How long before CF Golf or CF Lacrosse or whatever.. Its not far off..

I get the issue of showing specific sports how CF can make their athletes better in their GPP..And we all know it does..But why the CERT? If we need to do something sport specific make it a seminar or something but NOT a CERT..

Its a slippery slope I think that weve started on with sport specific CF Certs.

Leftridge,

How would you propose we "promote fitness" without "reaching more people"?

Not to be a parrot, but money follows quality. When we do the right things for the right reasons and do it with excellence, it is not unfair to be compensated for it. This forum is full of people whose livelihood depends on being good coaches and spreading the word. If you are suggesting that promoting fitness and making money are mutually exclusive, I think you are missing the boat here.

CFFB is a great ambassador program that will spread awareness in the sport community. If the capable coaches deliver a service that makes their athletes, coaches and teams better then you're darn right they deserve to be compensated for it.

I don't play basketball....

However, CrossFit Basketball would be interesting.

I just wanted to comment on the statement of the trainers who said Tycen was training on his own at a Globogym... I've been doing CF for about a year and a half. While I try for the best form I can get, I am sure I am doing some things that wouldn't count as reps. Not intentional on my part, but it is difficult when you do it alone and don't have another set of eyes to help.

#47 JB,

No, I don't think they are mutually exclusive by any means..But nor are they mutually dependant. Money is a biproduct of a good foundational program. I suggest we don't need to promote CF outside its foundational concepts (ie incorporation of functional movements to gain fitness- in short) but that is exactly what we are doing w/ CF Football.

I guess my insinuation is:
1) CF Football is motivated by something other than promoting fitness.. I think it is about promoting CF as an organization not the concepts
2) If it were about the concepts of CF then there would not be a Cert for this as CF Football does not add to Crossfit in the sence of incorporating it's (football) functional movements to improve the CF program.

Just my 2cents.. Not ment to be an attack on CFFB just a difference is philosophy of where CF should be headed I guess.

I am really open minded to being convinced of the usefulness of the sport specific certs..

No denying this was a great effort, but as already stated Tycen's form was less than satisfactory. I think we would be doing ourselves and CrossFit a huge disservice if we fail to hold the very standards that makes CrossFit the respectable and effective S&C program that it is.

What we really need to do is understand and distinguish the difference between 30 Clean and Jerks for time with 30 powercleans + half push presses for time. In an effort to chase the clock, we have regretfully confused the two.

@ Leftridge

The point of CFFB and hope more crossfit sport specifics programs to come is for those athletes who do only one sport to be the best they can be at it. For some of these athletes it, being the best they can be at one sport in particular is how they make a living or afford college in my case.

Obviously after these sports specific careers are over then I would transition them into Crossfit as a whole and not sport specific version of it, but what an easy transition if these athletes are already familiar with crossfit as a whole.

The point is to bring the intensity, programming effectivness, and team-building concepts of crossfit to sports teams...I see only positives in coming up with sport specific crossfit certs.

That dude has some crazy metcon capacity and he's friggin strong! He tossed that weight up easily. In my humble opinion, his technique wasn't so bad, but his range of motion was definitely not complete. And I would argue that if he did a full range of motion "overhead movement" (knees locked out, hips open, the load overhead in line with the midline) his time would be slower. Not a lot slower cuz he's so damn strong, but definitely slower. For me, the most impressive Grace video I have seen to date is still Big Mike of Crossfit Central doing it in 90 seconds. I think Tycen could beat it.

@#35

Yep, you're right that I don't have much experience training anybody over 55. That's about my parents age and probably the oldest anyone has ever been in my adults gymnastics class. However, both of my parents have limited ROM in their legs ( out of shape, wear and tear ) with what stuff I have been going over with them when I see them.

With children, I would scale lowly the movements and load because usually they are uncoordinated and have poor movement patterns. Seniors sometimes are similar that they have lost ROM besides being weak which lead to poor coordination. Both groups would have poor coordination besides poor strength levels. Not all kids and seniors are this way but many that come to my classes ( gymnastics or at times gymnastics-esque fitness ) are.

So basically I'm scaling back the movements to baby steps and go from there.

However, some of the seniors that I've had the experience of working with are pretty bad ass as seniors and beyond my strength levels. Nothing like getting schooled by someone twice your age.

2 cents. True awesome effort on the grace, and honestly who has perfect form when performing a max effort? Has anyone ever seen a limit deadlift with a perfect lumbar curve/flat back? That being said...vids like this are unfortunately fodder for the S&C community showing high rep olympic lifts done with little regard to form.

Idea for a specialize CrossFit (this seems weird) but how about CrossFit Rescue...think about it.

Congratulations to CrossFit Kids! :)

I agree with Kyle on comment #27. We are a community guys, and constructive criticism is what makes the CrossFit program thrive. I read what Kyle wrote about Tycen being a Globo Gym junkie. His performance and strength is rediculously fast. However, in a coaching point of view, Grace (Cleand and Jerks) is an Olympic lift on crack. Whether we do a 1 rep max or 30 for time it is the athlete's responsibility to complete the full range of motion. And that needs to be a mutual understanding between coach and athlete. It should have been the Coach's responsibility to call him out and make him redo the reps he did not complete to full ROM. You will never see in any Olympic Lifting Contest an athlete jerk the weight over head and stay in the bottom of the jerk, drop the weight and jump for joy as a completed lift. Just make sure you stand all the way up and lock the knees out at the top next time.
I am not hating or being a dick in any way; as a matter of fact I admire what a strong athlete Tycen is. I am just contributing my constructive criticism, so when the next video of Tycen comes out doing Grace, he will only see positive comments and his Fat Grace will smoke Jason Kahlipa.

Tycen,

There are some great posts tonight on the AB. It has to be hard to hear all of the criticism going around. You have some incredible strength and power my friend, and with some tweaking to your form you will surely give a lot of people a run for their money. It is correct that I personally would not have counted the reps because your hips never reached full extension and you bar was far from what would be considered overhead. As for the coaching going on in the background.....that is where I put the fault. Maintaining "PERFECT" form doing "MAX" effort is not the point, because as you know your form will slightly be sacrificed the harder you go. Check out the technique vs. intensity lecture. However, full range of motion cannot be sacrificed and your coaches should have known that. This is a lot of work to be done for none of the reps to count. Here is a good example of some guy who is going for max effort push ups.

Check this out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJEtmqnfmjo

I guarantee you he feels like he is working hard, but, all of these reps would be counted as a big fat ZERO. Why? It's clear in the video that his chest never touches the floor and he never reaches full extension at the top of the pushup. (Not to mention the wet noodle midsection he had.) I hope the coaches at your facility would call this guy out on his pushups. Now ask yourself, why would a clean and jerk be any different? It's not. If the poor bloke had a good coach to tell him that none of these counted, I bet this workout would have taken him 21 hours instead of 21 minutes. Include the intensity and strength that you have with some good technique and you will crush it bud!

I don't know about it as an affiliate sub-speciality, but I think the big gaping hole missing in the certifications is a pre/post natal cert.

It seems like most affiliates will tell you their clients are majority female, and those women have babies! Pregnancy presents all sorts of special considerations, espeically when dealing with a high intensity sport like CF. Even for women that had their babies 20+ years ago, they still can have chronic weakness in the core, back, hips, etc if those issues were never addressed properly post-natal.

I've been manifesting Annie over at crossfitmom.com to put together a cert for a long time now! Fingers crossed...

ANDREA! I meant Andrea, not Annie!

Tycean is a beast! That was an awesome feat of strength and fitness, especially for someone new to CF. Thanks for posting the video.

To the harsh and extensive critics on form and ROM: go coach your clients or yourselves. You sound incredibly condescending here ("..with good technique, you will crush it bud!"). I want to puke when I read comments like that.

It wasn't a competition or a qualifier, it was a guy in a box throwing 135lbs overhead in 1:05 like it was 45lbs. Watch it from the perspective of power, not ROM and form.

To the dumbasses who are worried about criticism of CrossFit because of a video like this, believe me, you aren't going to eliminate criticism of CrossFit. And, criticizing the affiliate blog for posting the video is hypocritical.

1) CrossFit Seniors

2) CrossFit Firefighters

3) CrossFit Moms

That push up video posted by Rach is quite crazy, unblievable !

Sick intensity on that Grace ! If people fuss about ROM, don't give them anything to fuss about.

There could be a crossfit specialty for any and every sport/activity. I think an individual could program a several week protocol for nearly any sport, but the more specific you get perhaps the less the program is a true crossfit program. Just my 2 cents.

I've seen one coach that integrates CF and CFE for his soccer team.

I also think that hockey and lacrosse would be naturals for CF based GPP as the "ideal" CF body type seems to be in line with the "ideal" hockey and lacrosse body types.

Basketball would seem like a good fit as well. Caity Matter might be a good one to talk to about that!