The dust has finally settled after the 2018 CrossFit Open, and we finally have an idea of the athletes that are moving on to Regionals. In what’s been regarded as one of the toughest CrossFit Opens to date, we were curious what a CrossFit trainer who competed, worked with, and judged multiple athletes thought about the Open.
[Coach’s Corner is a strength sport focused Q & A that’s brought to our readership with Andre Crews, Head Trainer and Owner of 150 Bay CrossFit in Jersey City, NJ.]
In this episode of Coach’s Corner, we sit down with Andre Crews from 150 Bay CrossFit in Jersey City, NJ, to learn more about what he thought about of this year’s CrossFit Open. We asked Crews about trends he saw from different level athletes and what different populations can do to take their competitive edge to the next level.
Athletes Who Competed Scaled
The first group of athletes we talked about were those who competed scaled, but want to eventually move into competing in the RX division. Crews points out the main focus of development for this athlete should be overall strength. He mentions that if you look at all of the workouts, the main difference between scaled and RX is the amount of weight used.
Crews recommends performing more compound movements to build a stronger foundation of strength through the use of linear periodized workout programs.
RX’d Athletes Who Want to Place Better
Our next group of focus were the athletes who competed in the RX division, but didn’t place how they wanted to. Crews gives a direct example on CrossFit Open Workout 18.3 where he states most of his members got through the double-unders and overhead squats with ease, but couldn’t get through the muscle-ups.
For this group, Crews recommends improving and dialing in on your gymnastics skills. Things like ring dips, tempo pull-ups, and handstand variations are a great place to start.
Competitive RX Athletes
The final group we discussed are RX athletes who were competitive at local levels, but want to take their game to the next step up, possibly Regionals level. Crews himself falls within this category and points out that the difference between his skill level and the Regionals level athlete is work capacity/conditioning.
That being said, Crews recommends really honing in and hammering down on conditioning. Rowing, biking, and muscular endurance workouts are going to be one of the best ways to start.
Feature image from @andrecrews Instagram page.
