CrossFit Journal - Issue 68.pdf - Crossfit Journals 1-68 - pakezyk

ISSUE SIXTY-EIGHT

April 2008

National Champion

Under Development

Matt DeMinico

page 1

Hand Rips

Causes, Treatments, and

Prevention

Phil Savage

page 5

Wrestling Set-Ups,

Takedowns, and Finishes

Chris Spealler

page 9

Youth Strength &

Conditioning Programs

Jeremy Thiel

page 12

Training the Pistol

Adrian Bozman

page 15

Media Tips, #2

Tony Budding

page 16

Characteristics of a

World-Class Trainee

Andrew Thompson

page 17

Pull-Up Bar Drills

L-Pull-Up

Jeff Tucker

page 19

National Champion

Under Development

Surviving in Brazilian

Jiu-Jitsu

Becca Borawski

page 20

Pat’s Oly Workout

Clean and Jerk

Mike Burgener

Matt DeMinico

page 23

Smoother Rowing for

More Power

Tom Bohrer

Andrew Astalos, an athlete at Motor City CrossFit, has recently astounded us with

some of his performances in the world of speedskating. At 13 years of age, in the

middle of Michigan’s winter, he elected to skip his family’s long-planned Caribbean

vacation and instead travel to Lake Placid to compete in the U.S. National Long

Track Speedskating Championships. It’s a good thing he did, because that weekend,

he not only won the national championship in his age division, but he broke every

single national record in his age class doing so. Then, to top it off, he traveled to

page 24

Pre-SOF Training

Part 5: “Land” Phase

Robert Ord

page 26

Sandbag Training

Part 2

Brian Jones

continued page ... 2

page 33

CrossFit Journal • Issue Sixty-Eight • April 2008

National Champion Under Development

...continued

Milwaukee the next weekend to compete in the North American

Long Track Speedskating Championships, where he also won

every race in his division and, based on his times, would have

placed second in the next division up.

his endurance in the longer races has gotten many times better.

At the Michigan state meet this year, he skated one of the “extra”

races at the end, which happened to be a 3000-meter race (27

laps around a 111-meter track; see insert at end of article for

more details). Typically this race is done in a large group at slow

speed. He sat in the pack for about seven laps and then out of

nowhere just took off, eventually lapping the second-place skater

at least twice and the majority of the pack three or four times.

What makes these achievements even more incredible is the

fact that Andrew is primarily a short track speedskater (think

Apolo Anton Ohno), which is a very different type of racing than

long track (think Dan Jansen, Bonnie Blair, etc.). And, given the

fact that there are only two indoor and three outdoor ovals in

the country (the closest of which is around a seven-hour drive

from his home), Andrew rarely gets to practice his long track

technique.

I’ve watched Andrew develop from a capable athlete when I met

him two years ago into a truly world class athlete today. One of

the coolest things about Andrew is the fact that he’s still just a

kid, and his parents and coaches aren’t forcing him beyond what

he wants to do. Sure, when he’s there for a practice, they make

sure he goes hard and don’t let him slack off, but he’s not stuffed

into the rink for hours on end every day, and he has a life of

his own outside of skating. Don’t get me wrong—he loves what

he does, and he’ll talk speedskating with you for hours, but it

doesn’t consume his life. This is the point I think a lot of parents

I don’t dare take any of the credit for his successes (Andrew

was a great athlete to begin with), but his parents have told me

time and time again that they believe his CrossFit training is what

made the breakthrough difference for him this year. One thing I

can say for sure is that he’s got a ton of explosive power now, and

CrossFit Journal • Issue Sixty-Eight • April 2008

National Champion Under Development

...continued

One of the coolest things about Andrew is the fact

that he’s still just a kid, and his parents and coaches

aren’t forcing him beyond what he wants to do. Sure,

when he’s there for a practice, they make sure he

goes hard and don’t let him slack off, but he’s not

stuffed into the rink for hours on end every day, and

he has a life of his own outside of skating.

Short Track Speedskating 101

and coaches miss when they’re developing rising-star athletes,

and then they wonder why the kids turn 16 years old, gain some

freedom, and suddenly lose interest in the sport they “love.”

“ Regularly learn and play new sports ”

– From CrossFit’s “World-Class Fitness in 100 Words,” by Greg

Glassman

On the topic of coaches, Andrew has been blessed to learn

under the tutelage of Sue Ellis, the coach of the 2002 U.S.

Olympic Short Track Team. For those of you who read Mark

Eaton’s “Good Coach, Bad Coach” article in the CrossFit Journal

last month, picture all the “Good Coach” characteristics, throw

in a few more for good measure, and you’re starting to scratch

the surface of who Sue Ellis is. She truly is the John Wooden of

the world of speedskating. She has coached a large number of

the top age-class and elite-level skaters in the U.S. and Canada,

but not everybody benefits from her coaching the way Andrew

has, because not everybody is willing to listen like he does (see

“Characteristics of a World-Class Trainee” in this issue). It’s true

what they say: “When the student is ready, the teacher appears.”

Coach is always encouraging us to get out there and try new

sports. Many of us, before we started CrossFit, looked at paral-

lettes and gymnastics rings and thought “as if I’ll ever be able to

do anything with those.” We looked at the Olympic weightlifters

and thought “they must be genetic freaks to be able to lift that

over their head.” And we thought there was no way we’d ever be

able to run 10k without stopping. But most of us by now have

done all these things to some degree, because we were open and

able to try new things, thanks to CrossFit.

Well, I’m here to tell you, if there’s one sport that will teach you

cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility,

power, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy, it is short track

speedskating. The races last anywhere from 41.066 seconds (un-

til a new 500-meter record is set), to in excess of five to seven

minutes for the torturous 3000-meter distance. And, in a different

style from CrossFit, the time it takes you to finish really doesn’t

matter, so long as you’re the first one across the line.

Andrew has worked with Sue in much the same way many

CrossFitters have learned proper technique from Coaches

Glassman, Rippetoe, Burgener, and others. It goes to show that

success in one field has much in common with success as in any

other field. When those coaches teach the squat or the clean,

they don’t slap 250 pounds on the bar, step back, and say “go for

it.” They give you a length of PVC pipe or unloaded bar and drill

the basics. Some people look at them and their insistence on

fundamentals and think “Are you nuts?” but the best of the best

know what needs to be done, and those who trust them and the

process end up going farther than they ever could have imagined.

It’s a sport that requires technique more than anything else. It em-

ploys methods and principles similar to those described by the

POSE method, where you utilize your weight to generate as much

power as you can, conserving your muscles for when you need

to make a pass or keep someone from passing you. You have to

learn to maneuver your entire body and keep it all under control,

all while accelerating at nearly five g ’s around the tightest part of

a corner.

I can tell you from firsthand experience that the same thing

happens in clinics with Coach Ellis. Before anyone even steps

on the ice, there’s usually a couple of hours of discussion, video

review, and drilling the basic skating position. After that, there’s

a good half hour of work on skating movements using Techni-

Cords (bands used to hold us up while we lean sideways and

every which way—basically, think of resistance bands on crack).

Then when we finally do step on the ice, the first 60 minutes

(sometimes even the first two sessions, 90 minutes each) are

devoted to doing basic drills back and forth from one end of the

rink to the other, doing nothing that really resembles “speed”

skating to an outside observer. But the guru knows that what

she is building in her students here are the basic movements and

patterns that will allow them to exceed what they could have

done otherwise, and to get there faster in the long run. A real

athlete knows this and patiently follows along, doing exactly what

is instructed.

And not to mention it’s stinkin’ fun . I mean, who wouldn’t be hav-

ing a blast if it was their face in the picture above? Anyone can

learn to skate. I had been on skates about four times in my life

before I was 25 years old, and now, two years later, it’s like second

nature to me (well, almost).

If you’ve got an interest in trying out speedskating, look for a club

in your area (to find one, go to www.usspeedskating.org in the

U.S., or www.speedskating.ca in Canada. If you’re elsewhere in the

world, just search the Internet. I can’t list them all, but they’re out

there.

And if you’ve got questions, or need help finding a club, send me

an e-mail and I’ll help you out: mdeminico@gmail.com.

CrossFit Journal • Issue Sixty-Eight • April 2008

National Champion Under Development

...continued

Andrew started training with us at Motor City CrossFit in the

summer of 2007, before Motor City CrossFit really even existed.

He performs WODs with some pretty intense weights for a guy

his age and size and learns new movements not because they

always come naturally to him (a lot of them don’t), but because

he works hard to learn them the right way. When it comes to

intensity, he will not let himself be beaten, even by someone who’s

using half the weight he’s using, and, if he is, it bothers him—not

in a “tear the other guy down” kind of way, but in with a spirit of

“ok, let’s go again; I’m gonna win this time.”

With this attitude and hunger to win, we’re going to see some

great things out of Andrew Astalos, and if he keeps up the good

work, we should look for him in the Winter Olympics in Sochi,

Russia, in 2014.

Online Video

Video

http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFitJournal_AstalosAmericanCup500m.wmv

http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFitJournal_AstalosAmericanCup500m.mov

In this video, Andrew is racing in the American Cup 3 race in Cleveland

Heights, Ohio, in early 2008. He is skating against some of the top skaters

in the country, the majority of whom are 5 to 10 years older.

Matt DeMinico is the owner of Motor City CrossFit in

Sterling Heights, Michigan. He also owns a leadership devel-

opment business and is a public speaker on the topics of

leadership, personal development, business development,

and Christian apologetics. He is also a research scientist in

the area of robotics, and the father of three children un-

der the age of four. He began speedskating in 2006 at the

age of 25, and aspires to make the U.S. Olympic Short Track

Speedskating Team in time for the 2014 Olympics in Sochi,

at which point he will be 33 years old, which would make

him one of the oldest (or possibly the oldest) short track

skater in the Olympics. For putting up with this busy sched-

ule, he wishes it to be known that his wife, Chrissy, is an ab-

solute saint. Matt can be reached at mdeminico@gmail.com.

All images provided courtesy of Jerry Search

CrossFit Journal • Issue Sixty-Eight • April 2008

Hand Rips

Causes, Treatments, and Prevention

Phil Savage

Rips of the skin and calluses on the hands are an annoying and

painful part of any physical exercise that uses the hands intensively.

Anyone can get them, and there’s no getting around that fact. You

can get them from shoveling snow, playing baseball, throwing the

javelin, climbing ropes, or swinging on bars. You can get them from

doing just about anything involving the hands. Gymnasts have to

deal with them all the time, as do weightlifters and, of course,

people who do a high volume of kipping pull-ups.

Hand guards (grips)

There are several ways to prevent or at least minimize rips or tears

on your hands. As a gymnastics coach, I encourage my athletes to

wear hand guards or grips when they are training on the rings and

high bar so they can train longer and harder without worrying

whether their hands are going to tear. Gymnasts typically wear

these leather hand grips (guards) when training and competing

on the rings and the horizontal bar (high bar) or uneven bars.

Grips for the rings have two inger holes (photos 1 and 2) and

those for high bar have three (photos 3 and 4); all types have a

strip of leather that protects the working side of the hands, and

some have dowels in them to extend the ingers’ reach and help

the gymnast lock onto the bar or rings. You can order these grips

online from most any gymnastics equipment and supply company.

I personally use american-gymnast.com .

Photo 1

Photo 2

Rip causes and treatment

Photo 3

Photo 4

There are basically two qualities that make your hands susceptible

to ripping. Your chances increase a lot if you’ve got either a) soft

hands with little or no callus build-up or b) too much callus build-

up that makes bumps or ridges on the surface of your hands. You

need the happy medium—deep but smooth and supple calluses

that protect the hands but remain intact when working.

Once you get a rip (photo 5), the healing and maintenance process

must begin immediately. If you happen to have fairly thin calluses

and thus the ripped skin is fairly thin as well, I suggest that you

carefully pull the hanging skin off by pulling on it directly away

from the point at which the skin is still attached. If the skin is

stubborn and not easily detaching, get some small nail clippers or

small scissors and carefully cut as much of the skin as you can away

from its point of contact. If the ripped skin is very thick (heavy

callus), wait until you can use nail clippers or scissors to remove

the loose skin.

When my gymnasts get a rip, I usually remove their dead skin

myself almost right away (I’ve had 35 years of experience with

this tricky situation). Then I have the athlete wash their hands

with soap and water (yes, this stings) to remove any blood and

other impurities and cleanse the area of possible bacteria. After

Photo 5

CrossFit Journal - Issue 68.pdf

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