Preparation for the Open

Ladies and Gentleman. It is time.

It is quite literally, the most wonderful time of the year. I hear you reading this and instantly jumping on the horn to say Dan, Christmas was 2 months ago. But all CrossFitters know that Christmas pales in comparison to open season. The open is a magical time full of energy, excitement and people breaking through thresholds they never thought themselves capable of.

Now I am not going to waste this article selling the open to you. I'm going to assume that if you’re taken the time to open this article, then it's something you’re already bought into. Instead I am going to use this article to share some tips and insights I have accumulated over 12 open seasons. That's 12 open seasons as a community member, as a serious athlete and as a coach. I’ve walked all the roads and as such feel somewhat like I have learned a few things that could help make the next few weeks easier to manage.

As we approach the open I find it very important to discuss the context of the 3 weeks. I write this assuming two major things. The first is that the vast majority of people reading this are not in the top 1% of the world and that makes this the main event of their season. The other is that the people reading this have been training for a good amount of time in preparation for this event. With those assumptions in mind I once again find context very important. For the next 3 weeks we see ourselves as athletes at our event. We’ve prepared and we are ready for action.

What I mean by this is that we do not have any additional fitness to find. We can sharpen the sword and I will dig deeper into that next, but for the most part the sword we have, is the sword we have. Take confidence in the work you’ve put in and see the training you do in the next 3 weeks as maintenance and practice. There is only 1 workout a week that matters during this period and that is the Open one. The rest of your workouts should be focused on quality of movements, quality of standards and minimising fatigue as far as possible.

The open season in this regard is very comparable to team sport knockout events such as a world cup. At these events teams play roughly 1-2 fixtures per week and for the rest of the time they prioritise recovering. The training that they do is skill and tactical based but they are confident in the fact that they cannot gain more fitness in that period, more importantly that to seek more fitness will only hurt your performance on game day. I find this a very important point to drive home because as CrossFitters we are hard work obsessed, and sometimes, More is less.

Now please don’t get me wrong. I am not for a second saying that you should not be training during this period. But the focus of our training days should shift. In approaching a workout it is more beneficial to think about movement efficiency and strategy than it is total rounds and reps or total time. I am a big believer in one of the main components of success in CrossFit is workout IQ. A smart athlete with adequate fitness will beat a fit athlete with low workout IQ 9 times out of 10 because CrossFit is so much more than fitness.So spend the next 3 weeks obsessing over the details of your workouts. Was your set

breakdown adequate, how much time did you spend standing around in between movements and during breaks? Did you REALLY need chalk? Did pulling your knee sleeves up and down really offer you anything extra or did it just waste time? These are the details that really matter.

I would encourage you to film your workouts this week and figure out in hindsight how you could have been faster without necessarily having to push harder. CrossFit is intensity based, I know. Myself and a lot of my colleagues are in agreement that CrossFit is the sport of pain management. So I understand that what I’ve said above could be challenging to execute but I want to point something out. Potentially controversially so, but I believe that the majority of CrossFit athletes are operating at a less than optimal state due to the fact that they are chasing intensity way too often. True maximal intensity takes the body a while to recover from. Now this isn't a simple black and white thing but again assuming the demographic that is reading this article I’m going to assume that this logic will apply to most, if not all of you. I also want to briefly point out that doing a hard workout and feeling beat up afterwards doesn't necessarily mean it was hit with the highest possible intensity; it was likely done with an intensity level that was available to the body under the specific circumstances.

With that in mind we want to ensure our body is absolutely primed for maximum intensity when we do our open workout. We do this in three ways. The first is that we avoid fatigue inducing movements and workouts 2-3 days from competition. Secondly we ensure we’re sleeping and eating a lot to ensure our engine is rested and fed and lastly; we touch bursts of intensity (non-fatiguing) to ensure that our body remains awake and ready for action. This can look like short workouts with low impact movements such as double-unders, bike and box jumps a few days out from competition.

The next big thing to focus on is movement efficiency. Every movement we have in our sport has its most optimal way of execution that will expend the least amount of energy for the most amount of work. This, and the movements that are likely to show up in the open are very predictable. It is then worth seeking these out and spending time practicing the execution of these techniques in a very controlled setting.A great example of this is the burpees over the dumbbells from last year's open. The standard in a sense was difficult as ensuring your feet passed directly over the dumbbell the more that fatigue came on was challenging.

I saw countless people unnecessarily no repped because the fix truly was very simple. The trick wasn't in the jump itself but in the hand and hip placement in the burpee. The most logical thing to do when performing this movement is to place the hands next to the dumbbell before dropping into the burpee.

This however then sets the hips too far away from the dumbbells. This in turn means that when you pop out of the burpee your feet are behind the dumbbells and a shuffle forward is needed.

However, if when initiating the burpee you send your hands in front of the dumbbells, you’ll land your hips right next to the dumbbell, stepping out our your burpee you’ll find your feet smack bang in-line with the dumbbells and the jump from there is easy. This is a great example of how a simple movement can be done well to ensure we waste no time or energy. These details exist in all movements, take the time to seek them out. It will make all the difference for you.

Lastly, make sure you spend time over the next few weeks recovering. Mobilising before a workout and stretching afterwards is a great way to both prepare well and recover well which helps you be ready for the work to come in the days that follow.

Most importantly though, Use this as a time to take pressure off rather than add it on. As I mentioned in the beginning, this is a magical time. Make sure you embrace the magic and use this as an opportunity to celebrate your fitness and the work you’ve put in leading up to this.

-Coach Daniel