Before you read this take the time to congratulate Max on his new PR’s set this weekend. He snatched 140 kg and clean and jerked 190!!
Take John Welbourn, Max Mormont, Kelly Starett, and Raphael and put them in a room together with 40 of the top Crossfit coaches in the nation and you are guaranteed an amazing weekend.
Lets get something straight before we dive into the weekend. This Cert was amazing. It had a clearly defined purpose and that purpose is not to make you a better Crossfitter, but to make you more fit for football.
John did a great job explaining why Crossfit Football. The pinnacle of Glassmans performance pyramid is sport. John takes it a step further and splits sport into practice and gameday. Is this important to understand when you are training athletes? Fuck yea it is!
This was followed by a killer explanation of why and how to better warm up by K-star. The man is brilliant. Yes there is more to warming up than just 3×10 pull up push up squat. The warm up can be fun and should leave you wondering if you will make it through the workout. It can also be something to reinforce good movement and to have fun (We all know i am a fan of this!).
The CF Football movements are Back Squat ( high bar), Deadlift, Bench Press, Power Clean, and Split Jerk. I loved their explanation of why they picked these movements. They really showed how each one transfers into sport both with demos and film. Along with the progressions they make the movements easy to teach to larger groups r teams.
I never put much thought into sprinting until i met Raphael, a long time strength coach for many NFL and other professional sports athletes. We spent sunday morning learning proper mechanics, start positions, combine drills and techniques for each. I have never felt so ready to go to the NFL combine…
I can’t say enough good things about this portion. For all of you pose guys out there imagine just falling into a guy like John welburn. Yes you have to push off and drive.
The afternoon was started with a nutrition talk by the original paleo man (John). His focus was on performance with brief discussions about how to gain weight and stay healthy for the long term.
The last portion of the weekend was programming. Let me tell you, these guys get it. They have a fully comprehensive strength program incorporated with a kick ass conditioning program. This will make you better at football.
My recommendation: If you will be training football or any other sport athlete this is well worth your time. John’s insistence on thinking for yourself as a coach made me smile. They give you the tools to make this happen. Enjoy!
Just bought the DVD Dutch, looking forward to it…
Also, I was wondering if you could give any examples of the types of warmups that Kelly mentioned at the cert.
Nick,
I would never try to teach what Kelly does. He is amazing and on a whole different level then myself.
To summarize:
DROM
Something to warm the body.
End range emphasis
Reinforce skills.
That is just a brief list and an incomplete one at that. I am sorry to say that you will have to go see Kelly or the Football cert to get the good stuff.
The CF Football programming looks awesome. I’ve been watching it for a few weeks now but haven’t had a chance to try any of the wods. My boys Justin and Greg from NYC said the cert was a blast too.
Dutch great overview of the CFFB Cert. I’m stationed overseas until Dec 09 and cant wait to get back and get to your seminar and the CFFB Cert. I worked with the football team at San Clemente High School before I deployed and this would have been great to have in the arsenal. Great site here…
Sounds like an awesome weekend; thanks for the insider’s perspective.
And, having listened to John Welbourn’s CrossFit Radio interview, and reading your CFSB vs MEBB post… I can’t help but see the similarities. It seems as there’s a distinct “strength work/metcon” combination that’s rising to the top of the programming in these specialty (dare I say, “elite”?) approaches to CrossFit.
I’ll be curious to see if this approach continues to show up in other places.