Topic: Your Idea's on Crossfit Training for High School Athetes ?

[Scott Tusic]

I am going to coach a young lady who plays AAU basketball. She is coming to the gym to increase speed, agility, balance, vertical jump (Explosiveness), ect... From what I have been reading on certain sites, Cross-Fit training seems to work the entire body. I use the Olympic lifts but, shouls I employ the Cross-Fit philosophy to total training of athletes, being medicine ball training, jumps, ect... along with my personal olympic lift movements. Opened for suggestions fella's. Your friend,

Hillbilly Scott

[Matt Rupiper]

Scott,

Cross-Fit is nothing special.  It is advanced cross-training with olympic lifting sometimes thrown in.....these other sites you speak of are probably biased by the level-I cross-fit certified....

Secondly, cross-fit is not meant for athletes, it is meant for fitness.  I would love for someone to do a study on this stuff and finally put to bed that cross-fit is simply a bunch of very fit people that push themselves to the limit each session.  They have done nothing revolutionary...adding med-balls stuff, remedial, kettleball, nothing new, jumps (a big duh, if you don't already use this).  Lastly, they have become so inflated (but improving) that there are many cross-fit certified that have no formal education on exercise science/program design/periodization, etc etc.  The additions of Mr. Rippetoe and Burgener does add credibility though. 

As for your lady, you are looking to increase facets of sports performance that will (if she is trained) decrease with the implementation of cross-fit methods.  Cross-training is not specific to power, it is specific to anaerobic threshold/lactate training. 

Remember that program design statement?

[Paul LaDuke]

Scott,

I am a strength coach employed at a high school and I work pretty closely with the very successful girl's basketball program.  I use Crossfit as a resource, mainly for some ideas on certain aspects of training.  Matt's assessment of Crossfit is correct - that is Crossfit's purpose is to promote all 7 areas of fitness and be equally good at all.  In other words, a die-hard CF'er is a Jack of all trades, Master of none.  While this is a great idea for Joe the Plumber, Barney the Cop and Rex the Firefighter, Crossfit is not the answer for athletes!  Why?  Because athletes have specific things that they must excel at to the highest level they can achieve.  Basketball players do not need to be able to run a 5 minute mile.  Basketball players do not need to be able to bench press 400# or clean and jerk 400#.  Basketball players need to be able to jump out of the gym, change directions quickly and explosively and be able to maintain that high intensity of play for about 1 to 1.25 hours.  During the course of a game are many chances for complete rest (half time, time outs, substitutions, between quarters).  Crossfit doesn't address the needs of the basketball player.  But Crossfit does have elements of plyometrics, anaerobic fitness and explosive training within their system so studying their ideas can help you develop your program for training basketball players.   

Hope this helps, thanks for posting a thought provoking question.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

I think crossfit is a great combination of very cool stuff.

[Shawn Thomas]

Scott,

 I am crossfit affiliate (south surrey). I completely agree w/ matt and paul. Crossfit like they profess are "generalists" not specialists. It is for fitness enthusiasts and ex-athletes that want a challenge. I believe for that purpose it is an excellent program. I use it for my clients and group classes, not my athletes. Unless there sports demands high lactate/anaerobic output i.e mma fighters.
 
 

[Fred Fialco]

my suggestion is to go straight to the source - send a message to Greg Glassman or someone at xfit HQ and ask them

[Arden Cogar Jr.]

i would agree with Fred on this one.  Defer to Coach G.

In my experience, and in my opinion, I sort of see many of the non weight lifting xfit workouts as very similar to the general conditioning high school athletes endure as part of their pre-season training.  It's when you get into your 30 rep snatch sets and 30 rep clean and jerk workouts that, IMO, a learning period and more detailed coaching is required.  Same goes for the heavier pulling workouts - but the workouts can be tailored to an athletes physical abilities.

Personally, I love the traditional xfit workouts _ Fran, Helen, Cindy - and I often use them as met-con days when I don't feel up to event training and want to push myself.  I have a goal of actually completing Linda before I turn 40 - 1.5xbodyweight dead, bodyweight bench, and .75xbodyweight squat clean for 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1.  The clean and pull wouldn't be a problem.  The bench shoots me every time.  Weighing 250+ is always a detriment when you're looking at bodyweight movements.  Oh well.  I can always lose weight..... 

All the best,
 Arden

[Dave Chiu]

There is great freedom w/in CF to run a program that ONLY uses O-lifts...

... or only bdwt stuff, etc.  The mix is not req'd, but typically adds much beyond the "that's cool" factor.

I do not agree w/ some things I see w/in CF, but I'll stay open-minded while also promoting what I feel are (in some instances) better ways.

CF actually welcomes such

Almost all athletes will benefit from some (like 2x/wk out of a 6+ wkt schedule) CF training, as also from some O-lifting.

Anyone serious about their physical well-being will benefit from becoming a competitive athlete -- people just thrive on doing REAL STUFF (as opposed to machines).