A Christmas Present

The winners have been crowned, the dust has settled, the soreness is gone, and our gym is finally back to normal. I've been wanting to write this ever since the last wod finished Saturday afternoon (granted it was an hour and a half behind schedule, but we made it through!). I've got more to say than I'll even remember to put down right now, but let me give it a try. First off, I need to give thanks, to a lot of people. I apologize if I forget you, as there were soo many people involved in this:
THANK YOU,
Shannon, for helping with the entire process, and sticking with it all while having the flu the week of.
Every single person that judged or helped move a piece of equipment.
Kelsey Storey and Molly Jackel for running the show outside and keeping it organized.
Katie Vehr for checking everyone in and dealing with the t-shirts.
Anyone who was originally going to compete, and wasnt able to so they helped judge instead (I know how hard that must've been). I know Margaret Boone, Mark Shelton, and Heather Bassett were a few examples.
Everyone who let me borrow equipment:
Stephen from CF Middle Tennessee
Brandon and Rob from CF 615
Dennis and Tara from CF Talon
Evan and Angela from CF Murfreesboro
Preston Soechting from CF Nashville
Jason Daniel from CF Old South
Jason Hughes from Wright Rubber
Anyone who helped me get and/or return equipment (John Causley, Jeremy Hazelwood, Alex Slagle, Shannon Jansen, Stephan Oskian,. My brother, for the use of his truck anytime I need to transport anything more than a single barbell.)
All the spectators who came out to support your friends/family.
All the spectators who came out to support, not even knowing what the heck CrossFit is (even if you still think we're crazy!).
Bo Dutton from B-Unlimited for the awesome T-shirts.
Lee Maxcy for the sound system.
Lisa Perry from Paleo Works for supplying us with snacks.
Joey Scavone for setting up the scoring website. (If you want his info, let me know. He's inexpensive.)
All the members of CrossFit Rampage for helping out, and dealing with the madness in the gym the entire week.
Every single competitor, you guys are what made the day what it was!
All of the massive "support crews." I know CrossFit Nashville, CrossFit Brigade, CrossFit Middle Tennessee, goCrossFit and CrossFit Old South had real big crowds there supporting their folks.There were likely more I just can't recall.
Mike Kerul from Plymouth CF in Michigan, Jonathon Edwards from CF North Alpharetta in Georgia, and Chris Shewmaker from CF Kenessaw for testing our competition WODs on the members of your gyms and giving me feedback.
Michael Fitzgerald, Jeremy Murdock, and Stephen Baker for insight on programming.

I was recently asked, (in reference to hosting a local competition) "is the juice worth the squeeze?" The more I've thought about this, the more I can confidently say YES. Hosting a local competition is not something you do for profit (anyone who has hosted one can second that), and it surely isn't for marketing because everyone that comes is already a member of another gym somewhere. We've hosted the Christmas Throwdown 2 years in a row now, but for what? We do it because it brings people together, it's a lot of fun and the community loves it. Local competitions prove that CrossFit is a community driven sport/program/thing,...whatever you want to call it, and we like to embrace that. Seeing all of the smiling faces, the hard work and effort of the competitors on competition day makes it all worth it. The days leading up to, and the days following leave Facebook flooded with statuses and pictures of people sooo excited about being a part of the competition. That's what does it for me. I wouldn't be in this business if it weren't for making people feel better, and that's exactly what a local competition will do. We had some first-timers compete from our gym, of which were pretty nervous and second-guessing themselves before-hand. Once it was all said and done, talking to these people and seeing the excitement on their faces for having completed their first CF competition was priceless.  Sure, it is a ton of work, and takes a lot of time from your regular "business" but I see it as a way to give back to the community. We all go in the gym and work hard every day, and some of us just want to show that off.

The Christmas Throwdown is also placed within close enough proximity to the CrossFit Open to give people a good idea of where their current fitness is at, but far enough away to leave room for improvements.  I've heard many compliments on the programming, and to that I would like to say thank you. We wanted to keep the entire competition simple, from the workouts, to the actual "show." This would ensure that people came for CrossFit, and that's exactly what they got. I would like to point out, that nowhere did we say anything about any prizes whatsoever. We put the registration link up on a Saturday morning and had to shut it down by that Sunday afternoon because we were full. We had 70 people sign up in 2 days, because they wanted to compete, not because they wanted a prize of some sort. This says a lot for our local community in my opinion. The CrossFit Games gives away a quarter-million dollars, the recent Outlaw Open gave away ten grand. Yes, this is a sport, but when big money gets involved sometimes people tend to have less fun and get to worked up about the little things. That's not what CrossFit is about.  Again, we had 70 people sign up in two days, and there was no prize ever mentioned. That's awesome.

When it came to programming for this event, I wanted the winner to clearly be the fittest. Not necessarily the strongest, nor the fastest, nor the most skilled. I also wanted there to be some exercise science within the testing process, as this is what I spent 6 years of college studying. Through 6 scored workouts we were able to test all three energy systems, an equal amount of strength/power vs skill/endurance, as well as the other components of fitness as listed in CrossFit's "what is fitness" article. To anyone who says it was written for the stronger person, lets look at this. There were 6 events, 3 of which were 1) Max Double Unders, 2) A brutal trail run, box jumps and wallballs, and 3) a short AMRAP with a weight of 135/95 -which is not considered a "heavy" load to your competitive crossfitter. (Some might argue that 135/95 is heavy, and for those individuals it very well may be, however, it is still light enough that most folks who are going to finish top 10, and do well in the Open, that they can move it continuously and it not be the determining factor of the workout) So we've got 3 of 6 workouts (thats 50%) that were not determined by how strong you are. Also, I'm certain that there were people who deadlifted LESS than others, but edged them out because of a better # of Muscle Ups or Pull-ups on the DL wod. That workout was a great test of strength AND skill. It just so happens, that people with both strength and skill finished at the top of that one. I hope that puts to rest any thoughts of it being a strength-based competition.

The snatch tested power, speed, strength, flexbility, grip strength, coordination, and balance. The olympic lifts have been proven to be a larger percentage of competition exercises in CrossFit in comparison to other movements so it seemed necessary to test everyone's skill in them. This tested the first energy system (ATP-PC).

The row watts was a power specific test without a high skill component (like the snatch), of which also tested the first energy system (ATP-PC). I felt as if this were a good addition because we don't see very much of this (all-out max effort anything) outside of 1rm lifts. 
Double unders show up A LOT, so it was fair to use this as a skill test. This was a great test of coordination and didn't favor any one person. (I've seen big guys do 150+ double unders in a row). For anyone who got over 50 this could be a test of the second energy system, Anaerobic Glycolysis, but for those who didn't it was again ATP-PC.

Along with squatting, the deadlift is one of few measures of pure brute strength. No really technical skill, just all out strength. Period. My friend Jeremy Murdock presented me with this idea and I loved it. Aside from some sore backs, you can't go wrong with a max deadlift to see who is the strongest. To keep this interesting, pairing it with one of the highest skilled movements in CrossFit (the muscle-up) and for the ladies the dreaded C2B pull-up, gave everyone a shot at this.This allowed the wod to not be specifically biased towards any one individual. The better CrossFitters finished near the top here because not only were they strong, but they could crank out reps on the M.U./C2B.

Last year we had "rowing helen" so I wanted to keep with the theme of a Girl WOD with a twist, and thats how "little running Kelly" came about. In testing fitness, running should be a necessity, so I wanted to include this somehow, and we needed a longer aerobic component. The trail run added a nice touch, and made this workout much more "endurance based" than any of the other wods. This workout tested mental strength more than the others (in my opinion) and was definitely Aerobic, testing the third energy system.

The 7 minute amrap was as classic crossfit as it gets. Thrusters, Knees to Elbows, and Burpees can be found on the mainsite dating all the way back to when CrossFit started in the late 90s. Nothing new here. This wod tested Aerobic endurance for those who were able to keep moving the entire time, and Anaerobic Glycolysis for those taking multiple rest breaks. The movements were released on November 14th, and the competition was December 8th. This gave everyone plenty of time to practice these movements, regardless of what they were paired with. I really enjoyed this workout, as it was one of the most fun to watch, and because it was possibly the most difficult. Seeing everyone crammed into the gym after the sun went down to watch the numerous heats of this workout was amazing. People really laid it all on the line for this one, and the spectators gave them hell the whole time!

I could continue typing, though anyone who is still with me at this point is probably ready for me to be done. The success of the event (according to what others have told me) was the best Christmas present I could have asked for.  I would again like to say Thank you to everyone, best of luck in the CrossFit Open, and have a Merry Christmas. See you next year.

-Korey