Lines. It’s all about lines. Everything we do is about lines, linear, moving straight, moving up, moving down. CrossFit, functional fitness, functional movements, it’a all about straight lines.
Really there aren’t many movements in any sport that aren’t best done in a straight line. Whether it’s the actual act or movement, like throwing a baseball or football, or the mechanics of a movement that isn’t so linear, like tossing a javelin or shooting a basketball. Everything comes down straight lines.
It took me a while to learn this. I spent years as a baseball coach, specifically one that worked with pitchers, searching for the secrets of how to get my pitchers to be monsters on the mound with the most amazing stuff there is. I traveled everywhere, literally like the Johnny Cash song, searching for the best teachers of the sport, specifically the ones who held the secrets I yearned for to create the best pitchers I could. I learned some ridiculous things, seriously had one elite program coach show me a drill where he had pitchers whirl their hands and arms around while taking steps forward to create “rhythm”. It legit looked like they were doing a combo of a dance routine and having a seizure. Unfortunately for me I was too young to confidently develop my own thoughts and systems that made sense. When you really think about it, when it’s stripped down to the basics, pitching, throwing a baseball in general, is all about the physics of staying in a straight line as long as possible.
Best pitcher ever…everything going straight to home plate
I have since (obviously) transitioned from baseball to CrossFit but this time more quickly learned that this need for establishing the connection with physical efficiency and moving in a straight line was in everything we do here. While we certainly have movements that don’t move in a straight line, the muscle up for example, our energy production needs to be a straight line going up. The hip extension, the pull of the arms, the turning over of the torso, all happens on a straight axis…or at least that is what we WANT to be doing.
httpv://youtu.be/WcaQIguhBd8
Olympic lifts? You better believe we are trying to move as linearly as possible! Again there is some curve to what we are doing, like getting the snatch into the right position overhead, but those who can move the bar as straight as possible from the floor until that final pull are the one’s who have the most success. Even when moving at high reps and high intensity, the best athletes move that bar as straight up and down as possible. That whole shortest distance between two points being a straight line? That applies with what we do here too, and since efficiency when it comes to moving us/an external load is highly dependent on limiting time under tension, we want to move things as quickly as possible! Coach Stacey showed this pretty well with doing 25 reps of a power clean at 135# on Monday in 2 sets. Here is part of the last set.
httpv://youtu.be/LfoUf8Rdr-4
Notice how linear that bar is moving in relation to her body ESPECIALLY when coming off the floor. The only curve happens in her last second shrug and pull of the bar back into her body after contact with the hips. 25 reps at 135# in under 2 minutes is incredible. Lines = efficiency! We can get as complex as we want with this but for the sake of you all actually caring about what I’m talking about we are going to keep it simple. Everything you are trying to do at the box, whether moving yourself or moving an external load, centers around an axis that runs straight through your body. Center of gravity, center of mass, whatever you want to call it. Keeping weight closer to this center of our body makes it easier to lift, and moving our body along this imaginary straight line gets us to our target in the fastest and best way possible.
httpv://youtu.be/MtF2vWo-x8E
Think of the pull-up and the kip. A stationary bar you are trying to pull yourself over. The kip might be somewhat circular but even the kip at it’s best efficiency moves on an even axis. The purpose of the kip is helping get the chin up over the bar (or chest to the bar) so the opening of the hips is best served when doing so moving straight up TOWARDS the target. The circular motion of the kip is purely to build momentum but mainly to get the hips in a position where they can close and open quickly.
A movement like today’s thruster has us moving an external load. Still the line is what is important. Keeping the bar in the front rack position as long as possible with a proper torso position keeps the bar right on that center of gravity talked about before. This is why keeping your chest and elbows up to keep the bar in a great rack position is critical for the front squat and thruster. After this what is the most important part of the thruster? Driving the bar up overhead in a straight line (getting the head out of the way to avoid bashing ourselves in the face). Keeping the bar moving in a straight path makes for the greatest possible efficiency, just like moving our body along a straight line upwards makes for the most efficient pull-ups, muscle ups, handstand push-ups, and more.
httpv://youtu.be/BenPtxTU3vw
Keep this in mind when doing things here at CrossFit Lando, especially when it comes to barbell movements. Snatches, cleans, jerks, all the squats and presses, even KB swings, all are best performed when moving the external load in as straight a line as possible. We throw a lot of technical jargon at you in classes and I know it can get confusing or cluttered. To keep it as simple as possible try to always remember how you can move the object, or how to move yourself to the object, in as straight a path as possible. If you can think of it in this way all the mechanics and cues make sense even if you don’t understand what it is asking for in particular.
WEDNESDAY
Strength: Every Other Minute for 16 minutes
2 Deadlift, hand release at the bottom
WOD
7m AMRAP
7 Thruster 115/80
7 Toes to Bar
*135/95
SkWAT Team: 200m sled drag (forwards). 90/70. Must be heel-toe pace, trying for non-stop walk the entire time.
