Like blocking and tackling in football, like dribbling in basketball, like throwing and catching in baseball… CrossFit athletes too, need to focus on the basics. Often times we get caught up in what others are lifting, or at which speed or intensity someone else is working and we lose touch on why we are at the gym to begin with. In a recent article by Greg Glassman in the CFJ, he discusses the concept of VIRTUOSITY. The art of “performing the common, uncommonly well.” The mark of a true master in any discipline is virtuosity.
Glassman writes, “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.”
At Anchor we focus on the CrossFit fundamentals before graduating to the WOD’s. The fundamentals class is paramount is reaching the next level and getting better. We must have a perfect airsquat to begin work on the overhead squat. We must have a perfect overhead squat to begin working on the snatch. We must have pull ups and ring dips to perfect the muscle up.
Point being, let us perform the common, uncommonly well. Let us have a strong foundation on which to build.
