How To Manage Common Pain Points of the CrossFit Open With Your Athletes

The 2022 NOBULL CrossFit Open is quickly approaching and for many athletes, so is the nervous excitement that comes with it. The Open is a great opportunity to bring your community together, but it also has the potential to bring out uncertainty and insecurity in your athletes. Athletes often become extra critical of their performances, and get down on themselves when they can’t do a programmed movement or see others with far better scores on the leaderboard. As coaches, it’s our job to help our athletes overcome these pain points and give them the tools to ensure they not only have a better Open experience this year, but for many years to come.

Below are four types of movements that are likely to show up in the Open and tips on how to coach your athletes through them, plus one strategy that will serve your athletes no matter what time of year it is.

Muscle-ups

Muscle-ups (ring and bar) and gymnastics skills in general are  challenging for many athletes. This could be due to a lack of year-round preparation on the part of the athlete, or because the movements are rarely or never programmed at their affiliate. If the second half of that sentence made you shift in your seat, we’ve got you covered. Look forward to future articles that will discuss how to include these high-skill movements in your programming.

For now, we’ll touch base on a common fault we see  when athletes are doing muscle-ups: the chicken wing. The dreaded chicken wing happens when an athlete doesn’t get high enough to travel their shoulders equally over the rings. Because they are close to being high enough, they can flail one side of the body over one ring, catch themselves on top of the rings, and then hitch the other arm over in what becomes a two-part movement. At worst, this can lead to an injury, and at best, the athlete will be inefficient in the movement leading to failed reps. From a coaching standpoint, assuming  the athlete has adequate strength, two things tend to be the primary causes:

• The athlete separates their feet on the kip.
• The athlete doesn’t get enough height on the back swing.

When an athlete separates their feet, it will likely cause them to rotate their torso resulting in a  chicken wing, with one arm landing on top of the bar and the other arm getting stuck below the bar. To fix this, have the athlete practice keeping their feet closer together and/or have them practice kip swings and muscle-ups while squeezing a sponge (or any object) between their feet.

Lacking height on the back swing may force the athlete to compensate with their upper-body movement to get over the rings (or bar) and can lead to a failed rep. If this is an issue, your athlete may practice various ring swings or hips-to-rings drills to assist with developing the kip.

See this video or this video for additional tips

Both of these drills can be practiced in a warm-up. If an athlete chooses to repeat an Open workout, these drills are great  for the athlete to practice in the few days between their first and second attempts.

Bonus Tip: For  advanced athletes, following the transition of the pulling portion of the ring muscle-up, have athletes perform a back swing of the legs to kip the dip. This technique maximizes efficiency and can shave valuable seconds off  their time as there is no need to pause on the transition from the pull-up to the dip phase of the movement. See video.

Barbell Cycling

Barbell cycling refers to the ability to efficiently move barbells at light to moderate loads for multiple reps. In the tips below, we’ll focus on barbell cycling for snatches and cleans. When it comes to barbell cycling, all too often we see athletes put themselves into poor set-up positions, which leads to arrant movement patterns.

So, as a start, have athletes focus on and read their bar path. The bar should not travel in front of the shoe laces and there should be no pauses on the descent of the movement, although a slight brush of the hips is encouraged on the lowering phase of the movement. When athletes become fatigued or sloppy, the barbell will travel forward of the shoe laces, pulling the athlete forward on the next ascent and disrupting the intended bar path. The simple effort of controlling the barbell so this does not occur will help the athlete improve their cycling ability. Additionally, at light loads athletes can practice  a foot placement that does not require them to adjust their feet at all, which may save valuable seconds.

See this video and this video for more on barbell cycling and brushing the hips in the lowering phase.

Bonus Tip: Performing quick singles can be a viable strategy for workouts that  demand a high volume of reps, and will allow  the athlete to sustain a consistent pace throughout the workout. This technique takes out the eccentric phase of the movement, which will lessen the fatigue on the grip and lower back. Just be sure  your athlete is quick to get back on the bar and does not waste too much time between reps! 

Linking Toes-to-Bars

Toes-to-bars have appeared in all but one Open  (2021). While the movement is common, it is deceiving in  difficulty level, especially when linking reps. For many athletes, the cause of their inability to link toes-to-bars is a breakdown in the length of travel in the kip. As the athlete fatigues, the back swing of the kip decreases putting more onus on the legs to lift a greater distance. For an athlete to begin to understand the different patterns, have them get an adequate press down on the kip such that half of their body is on either side of the bar on the ascent. On the descent, the athlete should focus on quickly pulling the legs down and back into the arch position of the kip.

A simple drill to encourage this pattern is to have athletes perform a complex consisting of 2 kip swings + 1 toes-to-bar + 2 kip swings. This video from the CrossFit Training Instagram page illustrates what to assess for linking toes-to-bars.

Bonus Tip: Some athletes will ask if they should keep their legs straight or bent. Both styles have pros and cons. The tuck-to-extend method may be more beneficial for low-rep rounds as the cycle time is quicker while the straight-leg variation will likely allow the athlete to optimize their kipping mechanics and may be more sustainable in the long run. A simple test to see which style may be most beneficial is to have athletes perform a pike stretch on the floor. If they can get their nose near their knees (with legs straight) and touch their hands to their toes with ease, the straight-leg variation might be a viable option. If an athlete cannot get their hands to their toes with ease, they may benefit from performing a bent-leg or tuck-to-extend variation of the movement. 

Chest-to-Bar Pull-ups

The chest-to-bar pull-up is a staple in the CrossFit Open and is significantly more difficult than the traditional pull-up due to the range of motion it demands. For a quick description on the differences between these two styles of  pull-ups, watch this video.

Here are a few quick tips for athletes who have the prerequisite strength to pull their chest to the bar but struggle with the precision of the movement:

• Perform range-of-motion drills for shoulder extension prior to the workout.
• Widen their grip to reduce range of motion and make it easier for their chest to reach the bar.
• Gaze above the bar as they slightly extend their chest to the bar.

It is important to note that chest-to-bar pull-ups are typically performed at high volumes during Open workouts so it may be beneficial to break up the reps early or even perform singles. A general guideline for a high-volume workout is to limit the athlete’s reps per set to no more than ⅓ of  max effort. For example, if an athlete can perform a maximum of 15 consecutive chest-to-bar pull-ups, they may benefit from performing no more than 5 reps at a time with controlled rest periods throughout the workout.

Bonus Tip: For athletes who are striving to perform butterfly chest-to-bar pull-ups, encourage an aggressive back swing and a brush of the bar that occurs at the apex or descent of the movement.

Workout Mindset

Inevitably, a workout will be announced that is not in everyone’s wheelhouse. The workout may contain movements  they hate (see: aren’t good at yet) or movements that force them into the pain cave for a long period of time.

Once the workout is announced, athletes may stress out for the next few days. They may lose sleep, talk themselves out of doing it, or self-handicap to save face.

While their concerns may be valid, as their coach, you need to assess the factors that your athletes can influence versus the factors that they have no control over. For example, they have no control over the workout that is announced. They can control their bedtime routine, nutrition, hydration, meal timing, strategy for the workout, time of day they do the workout, general warm-up routine, specific warm-up routine, the workout set-up, and whether or not they choose to repeat the workout.

Using the above factors as guidance, spend some time writing down how you will assist your athletes in minimizing stress and maximizing their decisions around the things they can control. Remember, just because it’s the Open, it doesn’t mean  an athlete’s habits, workout strategies, and routines go out the window. Their time doing CrossFit  and practicing movement patterns and skills over the past year should make for less guesswork. Guide your athletes to recall and rely on these practiced habits, and help them avoid falling victim to the moment and trying new things that are totally out of the ordinary.

Bonus Tip: Provide athletes with process-oriented goals to achieve throughout the workout. For example, the goal may be to attempt 3-5 consecutive chest-to-bar pull-ups every 30 seconds. Be sure to provide a fallback goal if 3-5 reps are not being achieved. This guidance and goal setting can help athletes chip away at the workout without worrying about what is yet to come. 

Keep these tips handy as your athletes will inevitably run into one of these issues during the Open. Beyond coaching your athletes to maximize their performances, be sure to create a fun environment and make the Open a positive experience for all of your athletes regardless of ability level or experience.

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About the Author

Eric O’Connor is co-creator of the CrossFit Competitor’s Course and a Flowmaster for the CrossFit Seminar Staff who has led more than 300 seminars. He is a Certified CrossFit Coach (CF-L4), and one time he went to the CrossFit Games.