Does this scene sound familiar?
The trainer yells “3, 2, 1 ... Go”
The music turns up loud
People are grunting and groaning
The next thing you know you’re caught up in the frenzy
Everything you learned about performing any particular movement well goes out the door
Someone is yelling something at you, but you don't have time to listen
You are flying through the workout
In the end, you’re sprawled out on the floor
You killed it !!

Oh, wait a second, there was a trainer there yelling coaching cues to you about your movement during the workout ?
What does the trainer know ?
You finished first and you did it “As Rx’d”

You are a CrossFitter !!

In anything we do in life, doing things wrong is always less efficient than doing things right

Unfortunately, training at high intensity has what we call "The Slop Factor" ... reach the point of exhaustion, and there is going to be some loss of good technique in your movement
I agree with this 100%, but you should not be sloppy for the ENTIRE workout just for the sake of being the fastest

You should not be thinkng ... “Why do it right if I can do it wrong”

You can break down how I sit on a toilet seat in the morning and figure out how I can do it more efficiently (probably not a photo compilation you would want me to post on this blog)
All human movement involves “technique”
When you start adding objects into the movement (weightlifting) or manipulating the human body through space (gymnastics), the technique sometimes changes from what we do easily (walk, run, sit) to something we need to learn

The human body is an amazing machine
It knows how to work its many intricate parts together to do awesome things, but you can train it to be even better

Training in a nutshell is simply refining your technique
In CrossFit, we sometimes forget about refining our technique
Need to do 30 clean and jerks for time ? ... just bend over and pick up the bar !!
50 burpess in a row ? ... no problem ... just flop on the floor and get up as fast as you can !!
Get done as fast as possible and who cares about technique

DUMB ... DUMB ... DUMB

A workout is not a contest
You don't win a prize for doing the workout the fastest
A workout is part of your training
It's practice time
Why would anyone want to practice doing something wrong ?

You ever wonder why some gym beasts suck at competitions ?
They practice moving badly for the sake of moving quickly
They follow the mentality of ... "Why do it right if I can do it wrong"

Slow down to go Faster

It doesn’t make sense to most people
You need to get out of your head that being the fastest isn’t the goal

Watch CrossFit Games champions Rich Froning or Annie Thorisdottir do thrusters and pull-ups during the workout “Fran”
Their movement is beautiful for almost the entire workout AND it is fast
Why ? ... because in their training they practice good movement
Capacity, and ultimately the speed, came second after the efficiency

The best in any athletic endeavor don’t train at being sloppy
They never think ... “Why do it right when I can do it wrong”
Every single training session they are thinking about moving well

Take your time during a workout to think about what you are doing
I’m not saying you need to come to a grinding halt and everything needs to be perfect
Just think about the little things that make a movement better, especially if you know you have a tendancy to not do those little things

How is your set up ?
Are your feet where they should be ?
Am I keeping a tight back ?
The list of things to think about is huge, but there will come a time when you will move faster without having to think so much
You just need to practice to get there

This Is Training