6-4-2013
June 4th, 2013
For Time:
As many of you know, We were in Salt Lake City this past weekend competing at the CrossFit Games Southwest Regionals. You also might have seen that our weekend was cut short and we didn’t compete past the first day. Unfortunately we didn’t complete the “minimum work requirement” for one event to move on in the competition. Here is our story.
We were so optimistic going into regionals. We had such a great showing during the open finishing 8th in one of the toughest (if not the best) region in the world. When the workouts were announced we stayed positive. The third workout on the 1st day involved a 7 minute AMRAP of Burpee muscle ups. See WOD description: http://games.crossfit.com/
The “minimum work requirement” was 6 muscle ups from the men and 6 muscle ups from the women. Each athlete could not do more than 3 muscle ups at a time.
At the time the workouts were announced we only had one female athlete (Abbey) with muscle ups. For the following 3 weeks before regionals we worked with our other female athletes on getting their first muscle ups. After a lot of hard work these girls got their first muscle ups. In fact Christine was able to get 10 Burpee muscle ups in 7 minutes, just 4 days before regionals. Bri was also getting 4 within 7 minutes. We couldn’t have been happier. Not only did we think we were going to hit the minimum work requirement but we were aiming for 15-21 reps from our ladies.
So the first day of regionals comes around and spirits are high. We complete the 1st WOD “Jackie” (see video below) worse than we ever have in practice. Their are multiple factors here but despite Bryant’s 5:30 pace on Jackie, we did not finish the workout before the cutoff.
We forget about it and look toward OHS and Burpee muscle ups. The men do muscle ups while the women go for their 3 rep max on OHS. after 7 minutes we switch. Our men put up a great score of 58 Burpee muscle ups and our ladies all hit what they needed on their OHS.
Now it’s the women’s turn on Muscle Ups. Let’s first talk about a specific rule that would call for a no rep on the Muscle up. ” A kipping muscle-up is allowed, but the heels may not rise above the height of the rings.” During the workout abbey was no repped 3 times because of this rule. Being very good at Muscle ups she moved on and completed 3 approved reps. Our next best girl at muscle ups was Christine so naturally she went second. She was ALSO being no repped for the same reason. We do not agree on the call and do not believe the judge had a proper angle to make the call. How can you determine that the heels are to high if you are standing nearly 2 feet below the rings? After being no repped several times, Christine had lost all strength to even come close to completing a rep. Unfortunately Bri could not go until Christine had finished all 3 reps(see video below). This means we did not hit our minimum work requirement. This means we were out of the competition.
Immediately after, we went to appeal the ruling on the competition floor but were told that the judges word is final. If he says “no rep” then there is nothing we can do about it. We argued several points but none of it mattered.
Of course we were all very upset/embarrassed. We all had dinner that night and vented about the whole thing. The next day our attitudes changed. We were excited to get back and train for next year. We could not wait to get back into the gym and work towards 2014.
Our gym has so much potential. We have so many great athletes that really want to work hard and be better. It is our passion to do everything in our power to help each one of you achieve your goals. And we mean it!! Everyone one of you, from the Stay at home mom to the super fit. We care about each of you the same. Lets throw ourselves into the fire and get to work!
We take this past weekend as a learning experience. Our weaknesses will become our strengths. Without ever losing how can we ever learn to win.