So I’ve been sat staring out the coffee shop window here waiting for inspiration to write something to come along and smack me in the face.
And nothing.
All I can think about is that I’m on a 2 day course this weekend learning about Heart Rate Variability as it pertains to fitness from Mr Joel Jamieson.
And about the members of my Kettleheads GS Team heading down to the Irish National Kettlebell Sports Championships this weekend.
And about Aneta from the Irish Karate Kyokushinkai federation heading out to Lithuania for a full contact tournament.
So I turn to facebook, the source of inspiration for everyone everywhere.
And I get a treat.
An article is shared by a friend of mine, Mick Coup. Mick knows his training and is recognised as one of the foremost self defence consultants in the world.
It’s titles “How Dave Castro Ruined Crossfit”
And I’m not here to take a pop at crossfit (neither was Coup) What he and I were impressed by was this quote:
“There is a compelling tendency among novices developing any skill or art, whether learning to play the violin, write poetry, or compete in gymnastics, to quickly move past the fundamentals and on to more elaborate, more sophisticated movements, skills, or techniques. This compulsion is the novice’s curse—the rush to originality and risk. The novice’s curse is manifested as excessive adornment, silly creativity, weak fundamentals and, ultimately, a marked lack of virtuosity and delayed mastery. If you’ve ever had the opportunity to be taught by the very best in any field you’ve likely been surprised at how simple, how fundamental, how basic the instruction was. The novice’s curse afflicts learner and teacher alike. Physical training is no different.”
A rare moment of lucidity from the rather eccentric Glassman.
But there’s so much truth here.
Yes, I train competitors. But I also train “normal” people.
And you know what? Their training programs don’t look that much different.
In fact, some of the most advanced guys in my gym have the simplest looking programs.
Take the kettlebell sports guys for example.
Other than obviously working on the competitive lifts, the Jerk and the Snatch, they do Squats, they do Deadlift variations, they do core work and of course they do kettlebell swings.
Nothing fancy.
What they also do is spend more time than most on the finer points of technique.
Nothing is rushed.
Even though they compete against the clock, they never rush.
Smooth controlled movement is the call of the day, and this is only achieved from absolute mastery of the basics.
I posted up on my facebook page the other day about how you should always return to white belt techniques, regardless of your actual level.
The basics are the basics for a reason.
They are the fundamentals.
They are independent of your ego.
And if you don’t have the basics, you can’t do the advanced stuff.
Which is why if you’ve ever attended my group sessions, you’ll be doing Squats, Swings and presses.
Occasionally something fancy is thrown in for interest, but every class is focussed on the big basic movements.
The kind of movements we go into great detail on how to teach in the upcoming CKT course.
Read about that here: http://wg-fit.com/wp/certified-kettlebell-teacher-ckt-level-1-course/
regards
Dave Hedges
oh, and the full article the above quote comes from is here: http://www.karmacrossfit.com/coaches-blog/2016/2/25/how-dave-castro-ruined-crossfit