Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

I have to say that I am pretty happy that I didn't sign up for the Open. Now let me explain my reasoning. I started Crossfit exactly 5 months ago today. Not very long. In that time however, I have been able to grasp every workout and movement that we've done....EXCEPT DU'S! I just can't seem to do more than 1 at a time. I can do handstand pushups, T2B's, clean, jerk, snatch. Everything but DU's. If I had signed up for the Open like every coach and a bunch of other members at my box encouraged me to, I would have been ****ed off. To frustrate myself for 10 minutes and possibly having a 0 score to show for it would have been totally discouraging. Also to have to totally forfeit the very first workout would have felt like a waste of time and money. I completely understand why HQ put Du's into the Open workouts. Their mission is to weed through 200,000 to find the absolute best to go to regionals and then on to the games, I get it and agree. What I don't really understand is how they can market the Open as a beneficial test of fitness advancement for Joe Average Crossfitter. The way it was marketed on youtube and Crossfit Mainsite and pushed by box owners seems a lot like a money grab. I mean 200,000 people paying $20 each is not chump change. I have been stewing over this since the announcement on Thursday and just wanted to get it off of my chest. If I can grasp the DU's this year, I may sign up for the Open next year, Maybe. I could also just do the publicly announced workouts on my own and see where I would have fallen. I have no aspirations or misconceptions of being a competitive Crossfit athlete. Your thoughts?

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

Does DU's or more specifically your lack of ability to do DUs suddenly make the 1st open workout not viable for the AVERAGE Crossfitter?

You don't need to be elite, games level or even high level to have the ability to do Double Unders. Making a WoD high level or elite only is having really heavy weight. Heavy Olympic stuff or super high rep difficult BW movements - like 50+ C2B or 50+ HSPU. Making a WoD high level or elite only is requiring some sick work capacity - like 500ish+ Fight Gone Bad rep scores.

Average Crossfitter movements ARE Double Unders. What separates the bad from the good to the great is how they move, how strong they are, how explosive, how athletic and simply how fit. Not one of those adjectives are needed for Double Under mastery.

What is needed however is an honest dose of "do it every single day, for quite a while, until it is no longer an issue."

Fact is, I'm guessing you and many others haven't put forth that effort. Do you spend more time on your daily Crossfit training than you do on DUs? If so why? You know you don't have them down. Mikko Salo mentioned something like (and I'm paraphrasing) "After the 2010 games I realized many of my weaknesses, like Double Unders. It cost me points, spots and possibly the podium or the win. As for Double Unders now? Well I worked on them every single day, for as long as necessary until they are no longer an issue."

Are you telling me that is exclusive to Mikko because he is elite? No, he is willing to do what needs to be done to be called a Crossfitter. It doesn't mean to be elite or high level vs. your average weekend warrior. It means to train in a fitness program where so much is thrown at you that you are humbly shown where you are weak. You then attack those weaknesses until that is no longer the case. Isn't that how you prepare for anything?

Problem I see is, with myself included and many others, we all want the glitz and glamour of Crossfit. We want Ring Muscle-ups, high rep Olympic lifts and BW Snatch. We want to be able to do a sub 3min Fran. However, we neglect the very basic movements of Crossfit to begin with - such as Double Unders.

You need to be able to do a Pistol. Maybe not weighted but able to do it. You need DUs. You need a pull-up. You need a decent Deadlift and Back Squat. You need to be able to run 400m at a decent pace without dying. You need to understand and be able to churn through a Row interval. You need to be able to knock out push-ups like its goin' out of style. You need to be able to box jump in the 30" range. None of this is elite, high level or exclusive to those in the game for a long time. THEY ARE BASIC movements.

Instead, we gloat about "I did a WoD today that was a couplet of Bar over Burpees and Thick bar Overhead Squats because I saw Froning do it!"...then open 14.1 hits and people get all...

you know.

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

The point that I was trying to get across was that I cannot do DU's therefore the Open is not for me. My opinion is that the Average Crossfitter cannot do DU's. I base that opinion only on what I have seen with my own eyes. The Crossfit workouts that I have seen that have included DU's that were performed by normal everyday people were scaled and those people performed singles. Mikko has a lot of money riding on whether or not he can do DU's. The average Crossfitter does not. I simply do not have time to perfect my DU's therefore when those are called on in a workout, I do singles. Does that mean I will never be a Crossfitter because I can't do this basic movement as you call it? I think we have a difference of opinion on what a "basic" and an "advanced" movement is. I don't do Crossfit for glitz and glamour. I don't do it to compete with other people. I know that there are plenty of people out there that think I'm wasting my time doing Crossfit if I don't want those things. I disagree. I am not trying to be argumentative. Again, this is just my opinion.

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

If 14.2 is AMRAP air-squats then I also will be rethinking the $20 I spent. :p

Seriously, I don't really have DUs either and I think 14.1 was a good workout. DUs are a staple CrossFit movement (coordination, accuracy, speed) that you need to have down to consider yourself a good CrossFit athlete. They were going to be featured in this year's Open sooner or later, just as they've been featured every previous Open. Yet, DU singles (as in you do a double-under and then you stop swinging the rope to regroup) aren't that hard. I've seen people get 2--3 full rounds by doing DU singles.

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

Ron, great points. Most Boxes and CFHQ have definitely promoted the open as something every crossfitter should be part of. Having DU's in the very first WOD, is discouraging to many.

While I agree that DU's are an important crossfit movement, your frustration makes total sense and I've heard the same from many.

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

Agreed as well.

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

Thanks guys. I just want to stress again that I am not downing the open or the choice of workout for 14.1. I just don't think the open is for me because I can't do the movement.

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

I fought this fight in another thread so I won't rehash all my arguments but I agree. This first WOD wasn't nearly as inclusive as the previous two years have been. Double unders may be a CF staple but there's still a fairly sizable chunk of the population who can't do them either at all or very well. Every single person on the planet could have at least registered a score the previous two years, but the same can not be said this year.

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

I suppose your reasoning that the Open isn't for you makes sense; however, how do you think you'd feel if DU's showed up in WOD 4 or 5? I think most people expected the workouts to progressively get more difficult (less inclusive), but this year HQ threw a curveball and had DU's in the first workout. It seems like if they had waited until a bit later to put in DU's people wouldn't be as upset, they would just think "oh, it's week 4, that makes sense that it's more difficult now."

To your point about your coaches pushing you to join the Open, I think that's more about them trying to enhance the gym's culture and get as many people as involved as possible. The Open can either be 'just another workout,' or, if your coaches want it to be, it can be a really fun way to get tons of energy in the gym and get members excited. At my gym, it's all about getting people excited, improving the community, etc. Other than the largest gyms in the world who get free tickets to the Games for having the biggest teams, there is no financial incentive for gyms to get a huge number of people signed up.

Hopefully you'll work on the DU's so when they show up next year you'll crush em.

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

Ron, I do agree with you.
However, you said you couldn't do more than 1 at a time. This means, to me at least, you can do 1. So, surely you can do this.

In some respects, I like this aspect too. It forces people to actually try to to a DU. They can just do lame singles for the rest of their lives lamenting at the fact that they "can't do DUs" or they can knuckle down and try.
Over come adversity and really try for 10 minutes to get as many DUs as they can. If they get a score of 5. Then it may be 5 more than they thought they could do, and, 5 more than anyone else who ran from the box crying as soon as the wod was posted.
I guarentee you there will be stories of people getting their first DU in 14.1 Even if it took 9 mins to do so. Such perseverance is what it is about. Other stories in years past ... Snatch PRs, First DU, First MU, First C2B pull-up, First T2B etc.

For your CF future, whenever DUs are programmed. I'd seriously suggest doing the first 25% as DUs or at least DUs attempts, even if it is 1 at a time, rather than just falling into the 3:1 single trap. That does nothing but eat up the clock.

Even when you "have" DUs. they can be fleeting. You may have been able to do DUs, everything was working well. You can do 50 of them no problem. Then 14.1 starts ... 3..2...1.. go. And Trip. Trip. Trip. Trip. 1..Trip... Trip... seriously, that is how it goes sometimes. It may not be first round, it could be 2nd and 3rd (which is how it went for me. 1st round np. 2nd/3rd round terrible. Rest fine). But i didn't donate $20 either.

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

Does it matter if it's the first WOD or the last one? Everyone knows there is going to be DUs in the Open. Our gym is primarily average CrossFitters and each one of them that did the Open could at least do single-double. You know why? They practice them, because they know it's a skill they need. Literally ANYONE can do them if they practice. It's not a MU, HSPU, 300lb clean.

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

I have to say that DU's suck big time for me and I have never been able to link two in a row. I knew going in that there would be a workout involving them but still donated my $20 bucks for a good cause.When 14.1 was announced I was thinking to myself Sh!^ this sucks. I realized that after a year of starting Crossfit I was the only one to blame for not being able to perform DU's. I normally just opt for doing three to one when they came up in any WOD. I went ahead and did 14.1 doing all DU's one at a time. Throughout the workout I was actually able to link a few together for the first time ever. Even tho I only scored a measly 97 I had around two hundred single's that were no reps. I was very happy to have progressed and now I will never substitute singles again.I will put forth the effort to master my DU's and I can guarantee you that triples will be thrown into a workout in the very near future, maybe even at this years games.

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

Frustrating, sure, but we had several people get their first double unders this week -- some the the day of Open WOD. I'm crap at DUs but still did it.

Lots of folks did single-single-double, etc.

Part of what makes the Open so great is the isn't any scaling -- you have to push yourself. The weights were light, and we had lots of people do more than they thought possible, especially the women.

So while I groaned when I saw the WOD, since I seriously suck at DUs, we still are glad people did it -- it was great to see people go for it.

I am, of course, hoping for a seriously heavy clean ladder next week... :)

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

My problem is not with your point that the Open isn't for you, but it is the fact that you said "I simply do not have time to perfect my doubles." You're telling me you can't spent 5 minutes, maybe 10 on them pre or post workout? I never do more than 5-10 minutes of them, only on days that I go to my box, and I went from none to getting through 3 rounds in the open (I've been CFing for 2 months).

I totally get that you weren't thrilled with 14.1, I wasn't either. I wanted something that I could smash. But saying you don't have time to get doubles is not an excuse, it is one of the few ultra basic moves that you can practice at home with next to no cost. Things like air squat, push-up, doubles and running all are very basic and can be done at home. I totally get not being able to do a power snatch, not everyone has a bar or the strength to do that, however anyone can run around and jump over a rope.


Big upside is now doubles are out of the bag.. Maybe we get that clean ladder Mark is looking for...

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

The Open is a test of fitness. If something comes up that you are not good at or did not want to see, then you have a hole in your game. It's not about making sure you have a number that "looks good". $20 to scare the crap out of me all week and to have to get out from under the covers and face my monsters under my bed is a heck of a deal. Many of my first time Open athletes were very upset too when they saw the DU's but after they fought through getting one at a time or their first stretch of them, they all said they were so glad they entered the Open.

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

I will admit, I was annoyed when I saw DUs in 14.1. Especially when I realised I couldnt scale them for singles.

I am at the stage where I hit 1 out of 3 of the DUs I go for, but only after doing 2 single skips to get going.
So I knew DUs would have a massive impact on my score for 14.1.
But the desire to be involved, and the spirit in the box when we did 14.1 yesterday was great, so I knuckled down and did it.

My plan was 2 singles, hit the DU. Reset. So the DUs took a hell of a long time, but I knew I could bash out each set of the ground to overhead as single sets of 15, so hopefully that would claw back time. Dumb strength would be my saving grace to compensate for my lack of DU technique!

My genuine goal was to get one complete round in. In the end I completed 2 rounds and an additional 18 DUs. So I was absolutely over the moon!
And Im going to work DUs every single day now until I have them dialled.

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

I did 14.1. If I am lucky I can string 3 DU's together but mostly 1-2. The snatches were super easy from a weight perspective but I only got 3 rounds total due to my poor DU. It can be done if you have the will even 1 DU at a time. :)

I think is was a fair workout even if you had to do one DU at a time. Which I believe most Crossfitters can do .

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

My double unders are crap. Plain and simple. My goal was to finish three total rounds, but I knew there was a real chance with how bad my DUs were that I may only get through one round (if I was lucky). But within 5 minutes of the 14.1 live stream concluding, I pulled my car out of the garage and spent an hour working on double unders, because I knew that the next day I was doing 14.1 at noon. After I finished for the first time and scored 149, I worked on them some more, because I knew I wanted to do it again and that I could do better. The second time, my score improved by 23 more reps, due to extra time put in on the double unders.

I was surprised it wasn't as inclusive as some previous workouts from the past, but if this is the worst it gets, then I'm pretty happy with that. I've seen so many people who didn't have their DUs whip themselves like mad just to get them this weekend, and be elated with their scores. Put in the extra time and work, and you'll be able to get them. You will thank yourself once you have them.

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

I keep seeing posts like this, and it seems a bit...whiney. It isn't like you didn't know that DU's were a possibility. They are one of the basic CF movements. And before you ask - I can do maybe 5-7 in a row. Then I trip up and have to start again. Would that stop me from trying? No. Because a low score is better than a score of zero. They didn't surprise everyone and schedule weighted 1-armed muscle-ups. They repeated a basic workout from a few years ago.

Not wanting to have done the Open is one thing, but don't blame it on the workouts. We had one guy at our gym who had to do 5 singles for every double. And he pushed through the entire 10 minutes and finished it.

I'll step off my soap box now... :D

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

I saw this post on FB the other day. I wish all with approach the Open like "Phillip"!

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

I've only been doing CF for a short time so I really did'nt know what to expect from the Open. I guess I could have looked up past Opens to see what the programming was. I do work on DU's and I will continue to work on them until I have them down. I can see the point of the box owners that doing the open brings an inspiring atmosphere. But couldn't your box do the open workouts without donating $20 to HQ? I guess there is some motivation to see your name on a leaderboard along with CF elites even if it is hundreds of spots lower. I must not be conveying my point if I'm coming across as whiny. I'm not upset with CF or HQ about putting DU's into 14.1. We all spend a lot of money to do CF. I still haven't heard a really good reason why I would spend more to fumble around a workout. I'm not saying that the Open is pointless to anyone, again I am just speaking for myself.

On a seperate note, How many of the 200,000 that signed up for the open have a realistic chance of going to regionals?

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

First off, I can do DUs and still think this is a bad opening workout because it excludes so many people. DUs should be part of the open, but shouldn't be the MAJOR component of the workout. In my opinion, the 14.1 workout goes more to determine one's skill at DUs rather than fitness.

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

I can't really see the point of anyone doing the open who doesn't have all the basics down including muscle ups. If all you want to do is see where you stand you can still just do the workouts and look at the leaderboards. Most likely there will be something you can't do like DU's or MU's and then you will just be clumped into the rest of the pack who could only do a portion of the workout and was stopped short due to a lack of strength, skill, or some of both.

I really like the idea of the open because it allows anyone to have a shot but that doesn't mean anyone actually does have a shot if they do not possess the skills/strength to compete.

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

When this workout showed up in 2011, I was also just a few months into CrossFit and couldn't do consecutive double-unders. I muddled through the workout and I think ended up with three rounds.

I took that as a challenge and started practicing double-unders at every warm up. Three months later I could do 45 unbroken. There is a learning curve that is absolutely maddening, but once you "get" them, they are pretty easy. It's just a rhythym thing. Now I consider myself proficient at double-unders, though when I am tired can only get sets of five or so. I have done 100 unbroken a couple of times. I still do an unbroken set during every warm up and usually get 45-70.

Anyway, if you view the Open as your chance to shine and outdo the next guy, then failing at double-unders in the first movement of the first workout is going to be frustrating. If you view the Open as a way to gauge where you're at and improve your weaknesses, then it's no big deal. Learn, improve, move on.

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

Couldn't someone do this without the Open?

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

You, as an individual, could do it without the Open. If there were no Open at all, then you don't have the data from others to compare yourself against.

I get it. You're competitive. If you're going to enter a competition you want to be prepared to do well. I'm sure there are thousands like you who are frustrated with the first workout. There are many thousands who entered for other reasons and are making the most of it even if they can't do double unders.

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

My wife started doing crossfit about 3 months ago and had NEVER done a single DU until Thursday night. I, along with others at the gym, talked her into signing up and because of this we practiced DUs for an hour after the announcement and then again the next day.

She ended up getting 114 reps along with 11 in a row at one point. She did them in a 2 single/1 double rhythm and was THRILLED!

She literally would not have DUs in any way without being signed up for the Open.

Moral of the story: if you don't have DUs, practice and you will.

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

If your goal is to do well in the open, you know you have to be good at double unders. They are in the workouts every year. When I first started crossfit, I had never jump roped at all before, let alone done double unders. If you practice them for like 5 minutes a day you will be good at them within a month or two.

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

That's a valid point. I can see how it would nudge people to get past a sticking point.

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

The Open is the same as every day in the gym. "You do what you can". No difference. It is you against you...

I understand your frustration but don't look at it negatively, look at it as an opportunity to compete and see where you are...understand your weaknesses and move on. Most importantly, have fun. I did the 2012 open with about 5 months of time in our gym. The experience taught me a lot...pacing, coaching (being coached), being in front of others in a competitive environment, etc...would not trade it for anything. I truly believe it helped me a lot more than it hurt me.

Beyond all that the energy in the gym when we all throw down is awesome. Gotta just jump in and grab a hold of that if nothing else.

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

I disagree, some people will never be good at double unders no matter how much they practice. One of the better masters in our gym will kill it on ever other workout, but has a hard time with DUs and has been doing Crossfit for several years.

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

FWIW we had several people get their first double unders in this workout, simply because they weren't given the option not to. They were elated.

That's the kind of stuff I remember from the Open, not the Regional competitor scores.

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

I too was disappointed to see double unders as the first WOD this year. The reason being that I felt like I could have done the WOD's from the last 2 years RX for the most part.

However, the difference between me and you is when I saw DU's for 14.1, I didn't think to myself "dang, I just wasted $20." No.

I said to myself "I have 3 days to work on this and hopefully I can put my best effort forward on Monday when I do the WOD for real."

And you know what? That's exactly what I did. I practiced in my garage on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I took a little video and tried to figure out why I can't string together more than 3 or 4 in a row.

When I did the WOD today, in round 2, I strung together 16 in a row!!! That's the most I've ever done by a large margin. Most of the reps before and after that were one at a time, but I didn't care.

I finished 3 rounds RX. 135 reps. That's the lowest of all the men in my class, but I don't care.

Check the scoreboard. There are 56 pages of participants who registered ONE REP. One rep. Don't tell me you couldn't do more than 1 rep.

http://games.crossfit.com

Crossfit isn't about picking and choosing. You've gotta take what they program for you.

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10101936430779287

WFS - Hope you can see this, because people who complain about DU kills me..

Basically guy in wheelchair doin the Overheads and Battling ropes for 14.1

Don't think he complained about DUs...

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

How many of the 20,000 that run the Boston Marathon have a realistic chance of winning?

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

Winning comment.

You do it to say you did it, to say, you 'ran' the same course the elite athletes did. You do it to say, hey, I finished in the top half, or top third, or top two-thirds. Whatever. It's an achievement to have under your belt.

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

I wasn't being sarcastic. I was genuinely curious to know if anyone knew the number. The problem with these message boards is there is a lot of mis-interpretation. I put this post out there to express my thoughts on the open to see if I was not alone or to see off I was way off base. If heard good points on both sides but there are always the few that have to throw a stab in here or there.

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

I wasn't taking a shot at you if that's the way you took it. I read your post about the number of people with chance the wrong way I guess. I apologize. To answer your question, there are 17 regions and I would say 100 or so per region have a shot depending on what the WODs are. So men and women, 3400. When you figure in teams it adds another 6000 maybe. So less than 5%.

This is all just me throwing crap at the wall so it could be way off.

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

Finishing a marathon is an accomplishment in itself. Completing the open is not hard, doing well and being competitive is.

Re: Pretty glad I didn't sign up for the Open
 

Thanks for the info John. I saw on the games site that they take 43 individual men and women in each region plus teams. I was curious to know how many people that signed up for the open had a legit chance at those spots. If your numbers are right, then it's pretty impressive to find 190,000 people signed up without any hope of going any further. Like I said before, I'm not downing the Open. I just know myself enough to know that I would not have been happy with a single digit score on round one. That's just me though.