Re: 2017 CrossFit Open, Regionals and Games Thread
 

I think one risk for the sport in the future is that "everything" has to be faster,more,heavier etc than before...is fastest the fittest?? You can add speed to a certain point, but then,after that it cost you from another aspects and injury-risk raises.
For example,some of the deadlifts are done with such a round back, it horrible...even with some top athletes.
In db-snatch/ringdip wod...how much slowlier would have the wod go,if the athletes would not have been allowed to change arm when lowering the weight, but instead the rule had been that you can switch arm only when the dumbell is on the floor, i belive the preformance would have been safer that way, probably the hole 21-15-9 would have taken slightly longer...but so what...
And, what if the armchange had to do when Db on the floor and the dumbell had been heavier each "set", for men, 21reps with that 80lbs,15reps had been with 90 lbs and the 9 with 100lbs, arms change on floor, the athletes would really be forced to consentrate on form, slowlier times, probably not all done by timecap, would it have been less injuries...we'll never know...
Of course it's easy to play wise afterwards :)

Re: 2017 CrossFit Open, Regionals and Games Thread
 

[QUOTE=Jan Hedman;1268591]I think one risk for the sport in the future is that "everything" has to be faster,more,heavier etc than before...is fastest the fittest?? You can add speed to a certain point, but then,after that it cost you from another aspects and injury-risk raises.
For example,some of the deadlifts are done with such a round back, it horrible...even with some top athletes.[/QUOTE]

Some very valid points Jan.

It's now time for CFHQ to find new ways to differentiate the elite in a different way.

Re: 2017 CrossFit Open, Regionals and Games Thread
 

Might be all of them

Re: 2017 CrossFit Open, Regionals and Games Thread
 

I think most everyone is in agreement that this is an unacceptable number of identical injuries and cannot simply be brushed off as "well, it's a competition". A lot of questions can come out of this but I think for the CrossFit community the two most important are:[INDENT]
1) Is this evidence that CrossFit is excessively dangerous as it's critics would claim?[/INDENT]
My Answer: I don't think so. Largely because nobody saw this coming. I don't know any CrossFitter or CrossFit critic that would have looked at that workout on paper and predicted numerous pec injuries. Critics haven't been yelling about how dangerous ring dips are and how stupid CF is to have them. Because nobody would have predicted the injury rate for this workout I think this fits more in the "freak occurrence" category.

[INDENT]2) Is this evidence that CrossFit HQ is complicit when it comes to safety? I.E. is HQ negligently allowing competitions to be more dangerous than they should be?[/INDENT]
My answer: Not yet. Again, largely owing to the unexpected nature of the risk. The real test is whether they program a workout like this again knowing that this is riskier than expected. Granted, now that we know this is more stressful than expected people can train specifically to avoid this, but why not just pick a safer test? With the million things these athletes already have to prep for maybe special attention for high rep ring dip prehab shouldn't be one of them.

Re: 2017 CrossFit Open, Regionals and Games Thread
 

[QUOTE=David Meverden;1268600][INDENT]2) Is this evidence that CrossFit HQ is complicit when it comes to safety? I.E. is HQ negligently allowing competitions to be more dangerous than they should be?[/INDENT][/QUOTE]

What was the quote? "People will die for seconds"?

Re: 2017 CrossFit Open, Regionals and Games Thread
 

[QUOTE=Andrew Bell;1268617]What was the quote? "People will die for seconds"?[/QUOTE]

Absolutely. That's why the competition organizers have a responsibility to make these competitions as safe as is reasonable, because the athletes won't keep themselves safe. They'll do whatever it takes to win.

The Murph in the heat at the 2015 games was, IMO, a case where the organizers recklessly endangered the athletes. Heat stress and thermal injuries could easily have been predicted given the direct sun, the heat, and the weight vest preventing some normal heat loss. But these pec tears aren't that. 21-15-9 of ring dips isn't at all crazy or something anyone would expect to take out top CrossFitters. So I'm giving HQ a lot of slack on this one.

The real test will be future competitions. Related issue: How did HQ respond to the rash of Achilles tendon ruptures during high rep box jump events? I haven't been watching things closely enough to know if high rep box jumps disappeared. Seems like box jump overs might have become the standard for competitions, which should be a safer option.

Re: 2017 CrossFit Open, Regionals and Games Thread
 

I agree with everything you've said, David. I like the comparison of Murph 2015, Regionals event 2, and the change in box jump standards. That gives insight into how CrossFit HQ approaches safety.

Notice how they redid Murph at the 2016 Games at a different time of day. Part of the field and the rig were in the shade, so better conditions than 2015. Better performance all around by the athletes in 2016 (faster times, no time caps).

Re: 2017 CrossFit Open, Regionals and Games Thread
 

Yes crossfit has attempted to stay up with the times. I like how they have gone away from the box jumps in the open. Re bounding is more for the regionals and games and really not that even. Plyometrics in my last sport was done with respect. Death jumps were like do maybe 5 each week.

I really don't know about the ring dips and all of those injuries from the men and only 1 from the women. That is a shocker.

Yes Murph in the hot weather straight thru.... plus fatigued might have been a better call to do it in the early morning.

In Madison wonder if they have a cool obstacle coarse with a triathlon combo for the folks. That area lends itself to this type of endurance test. Plus would be a great spectator experience being in the beauty of nature.

Re: 2017 CrossFit Open, Regionals and Games Thread
 

Well, it was an entertaining Games season. The spectacle has definitely been polished and dialed in. Presentation and commentary has improved.

It's a shame to see the decline of the discussion boards. In CrossFit we like to measure and quantify things. Here is the decline I've noticed on the forum:

2013 Open, Regionals and Games Thread: 2,224 comments, 476,692 views

2014 CrossFit Open, Regionals, and Games Thread: 1,800 comments, 547,598 views

2012 Open, Regional and Games thread: 1,527 comments, 358,013 views
2015 CrossFit Open, Regionals, and Games Thread: 1,076 comments, 455,547 views

CF Games 2011 General Thread: 994 comments, 124,650 views

These are the most popular threads in the Competitions section (by number of comments). Discussing the Games season used to bring in thousands of comments and hundreds of thousands of views.

The 2017 Games thread had just 197 comments and 61,000 views. I don't think this is because of a decline in popularity of the sport. It's a decline in popularity of the discussion boards.

I would love to see more discussion on the boards, and to hear more points-of-view on the Games season from more people. I would love to see an update to the format of the message boards ([URL="http://www.board.crossfit.com/showpost.php?p=1236998&postcount=29"]an idea in the works since at least 2014[/URL] - wfs). I would love to see more registered users here. HQ, are you listening?

[url]http://board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=88827[/url] (wfs)

Re: 2017 CrossFit Open, Regionals and Games Thread
 

The view counters have actually stopped working :mad:

I mailed the board but nothing has happened.

They have not worked for 3 weeks.