130319 Tue – Some of the top ladies in NorCal, and some notes on team selection

Some of the top ladies in NorCal throwing down on a daily DCF WOD. Eleni F, Liz Stewart, Sandra P, Whit H, Nicole P, Emily E, and . . . wait is that Justin R?  What is he doing in there!?

Mobility:  Hip Mobility.

Skill Practice Warm Up:  None. Spend more time on practicing overhead squats.

Workout:  “Spring Fling” – As many rounds as possible in 12 minutes.

6 strict presses (Advanced: 95lbs, Intermediate*: 63lbs, Novice: 33lbs)

6 overhead squats (same weight)**

100m farmer carry(Advanced: 45lb bumper plates, Intermediate*: 35lb dumbbells, Novice: 25lb dumbbells)

40 double unders* (Intermediate/Novice: 20 including attempts)

Scaling Guide:  3 – 6 rounds

*Women’s “As Prescribed” weights and reps (Rx)

** After the last strict press, lower the weight on to your back and then do overhead squats from there.  A ‘snatch balance’ is acceptable as your first rep.

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Compare To:  New Workout!

Article:

A little explanation of team selection for the CrossFit Open.

Going into this Games Season posed a conundrum for the gym; what would be our main goal? Win the Games?  Send individuals to the Games? Send two teams to the Games?

Last Year vs This Year

The main difference between last year and this year is that the depth of our talent has increased immensely. I remember the fire that people had after last year’s Open and many were able to use it to their advantage to keep reaching all year long to make major gains.  We also have Sandra Pichelli going for an individual run at making the Games along side of Coach Margaux.

Ultimately we had these goals in mind (in no particular order).

• Send at least one team (possibly two) to the Games with a shot of getting back onto the podium.
• Get Margaux and Sandra to the Games as individuals.
• Get 4 teams to qualify for Regionals.
• Send Craig, Yvonne, Hylie, and Coach Tami to the Games as Masters.

The DCF Draft

I sat down with Jamie Lee, D Roe and Ben Wise to do a “DCF Draft”.  We took all the names of people we knew who were going to do well in the Open and laid out multiple scenarios of team combinations.  One thing we learned from last year is that using multiple alternates wastes talent.

We decided to use basically the same roster for Anejo as last year, but with fewer alternates and a couple additions.  Chris Zaccaro and Liz Stewart were added as they seemed to have the skills and abilities that complimented the other athletes the best.

For Reposado, we had a few changes because D Roe and Christy were now available for boosting this team.  Shannon, PJ and Stavros were all transferred from last year’s roster to this year’s.  Billy M was added along with Payam (a ‘lightweight specialist’ mainly because this team is pretty beefy, man-wise). We also added Hylie since she is force, and as a Masters athlete she will only compete at Regionals if we absolutely need her to.

3 teams or . . .

We could have easily used only one more team (as we did last year), and had a very high chance of sending all three teams to Regionals.  Instead, we decided to spread the talent out so that more people have the opportunity to make it to the Regional competition.  It lowers the chances of both teams, but we had the faith that it was possible, and that the risk was worth it.

Mezcal consists of 13 very well rounded athletes including a couple of specialists.  Blanco includes Margaux as well as some of our top performers, backed by the depth of our entire gym.  The rosters chosen for each one of these teams was not necessarily because certain top performers were better or worse than the others. We organized these two teams to both have equal chances of making Regionals.

At Regionals, only 3 men and 3 women will be on each team.  We will pick these final athletes based upon our overall performance and forming the best team in our opinion.  The Open itself will have little bearing on actual team selection.  The Open workouts are usually very different than what is required at Regionals, using the Open (only) to select a team would be poor strategy.

We are almost halfway done

There are still 3 workouts left, so anything can happen!  No matter what happens, I am proud of all of our members who are stepping up and participating.  You all have entered into the Arena.  You have accepted the challenge of doing 5 workouts without scaling, 5 workouts where ‘cherry picking’ is not an option. 5 workouts where your weaknesses will be exposed, but getting out there and giving it your best makes you a better athlete. . . and a better human. -jj

Flashback Tuesday: I got so caught up in writing about the Open I almost forgot it was “Flashback Tuesday!”

Most of you are familiar with Coach Jordan, but most of you are not familiar with how far he has come physically!  The “after” picture on the right already 2 years old, so we’ll have to snap another one of him more recently, but here you go!

When you look around DCF there always seems to be a large amount really fit (and kind of intimidating) people doing amazing things.  Just remember that even our coaches were Newbies once, and it was hard work and determination that got them there! Stick with it and you’ll get there too.