THE TEN GENERAL PHYSICAL SKILLS

Bryan Clay, reigning Olympic Champion in the Decathalon. An interesting piece of information on his Wikipedia page:

"Clay won the gold medal at the 2008 Olympics in the decathlon. His victory margin of 240 points in the 2008 Beijing Olympics was the largest since 1972. The Olympic decathlon champion is referred to as the "World's Greatest Athlete" and prior to the Olympics, Clay was tested by SPARQ to establish his SPARQ Rating across a number of different sports. The test is meant to measure sport-specific athleticism and in the football test Clay recorded a score of 130.40, the highest ever recorded. By comparison, Reggie Bush scored a 93.38 on the popular test."

CrossFit believes that their are ten general physical skills that need to be considered when defining fitness. An elite CrossFit athlete is proficient in all ten skills:

1. Cardiovascular/Respiritory Endurance- The ability of body systems to gather , process and deliver oxygen.
2. Stamina- The ability of body systems to process, deliver, store, and utilize energy.
3. Strength- The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply force.
4. Flexibility- The ability to maximize the range of motion at a given joint.
5. Power- The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to deliver maximum force in minimum time.
6. Speed- The ability to minimize the time cycle of a repeated movement .
7. Coordination- The ability to combine several distinct movement patterns into a singular distinct movement.
8. Agility- The ability to minimize transition time from one movement pattern to another.
9. Balance- The ability to control the placement of the body's center of gravity in relation to its support base.
10. Accuracy- The ability to control movement at a given direction or at a given intensity.
    

The ten general physical skills list that CrossFit follows were determined by Jim Crawley and Bruce Evans, founders of Dynamax (those med balls that we like to use) and two legit track and field coaches. You may not agree with the list, but take a good look at it. I think it definitely defines the skill set of elite CrossFitters.

A  deficiency in any one of the ten general skills will hinder your ability to achieve elite fitness. Interestingly enough, focusing solely on any one of the ten skills can also blunt your fitness. The goal of CrossFit is to increase your work capacity across broad time and modal domains.  How strong do you need to be? Strong enough to increase your work capacity across broad time and modal domains. How flexible? Flexible enough to increase your work capacity across broad time and modal domains. How in control of your balance, agility or accuracy? Controlled enough to increase your work capacity across broad time and modal domains..... Get where I am going here?

Now, this doesn't mean you can't take on some practice or training that focuses on any one skill. Need to work on the balance to get better at handstands? Go for it! Just don't devote all your time to one skill at the sacrifice of the others.

Which of the ten general skills is your weakness (or weaknesses if its more than one)? How can you work on improving? Does any one believe there should be any other skill(s) added to the list? I have always preached that mental fortitude is a must to get through those especially brutal workouts, but mental fortitude is a mindset, not a skill set. (Just thought I would throw that out there for those of you who were thinking about it.) I am always curious to hear your opinions. Post your thoughts to comments.

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REST DAY~~~~SKILLS DAY   9/28/2009

Rest....OR....make up a workout you missed....OR....

Hmmmmm.....maybe its a good day to tackle that weakness?!?!

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Chris Stroud sent me this video clip. Pretty cool. I'll never own an iPhone, but I admit, the software continues to blow me away. This is a great application:

FoodScanner Demo from Andy Smith on Vimeo.

Comments

[Marty]

Have a question for the trainers or whoever is smart...

Just watched a video on crossfit.com, where these guys drank a gallon a milk a day...These said their strength increased immensely, but it also appeared they were just heavy weight training as well...Any opinions on this theory...Only side effect, bad GAS!!

[James]

Hey Marty,

You can do a search on GOMAD (Gallon of Milk a Day). Here's one explanation:

http://stronglifts.com/gomad-milk-squats-gallon-gain-weight/

[Jason]

My biggest weaknesses are the top three, but, of those three I think my lack of strength impacts the other two greatly.

I'm working on the strength aspect by squatting more. Currently, I'm doing the Hatch Squat program I got from Jolie (thanks again). Awesome programming, I'm on week three, day one.

Marty, you need to focus on flexibility dude, your strength is fine, and yes the milk thing does work, I've done it myself. Forcing myself to drink when I wasn't hungry was the hard part.

[Steve]

Cool IPhone app ...

but...

If most of the food you are eating has a barcode attached, you probably aren't eating all that well..

[Will]

I don't know Steve, I just bought a bag of apples, blueberries, nuts and fish all with barcodes. You're probably right, however I think it can be done.

[Kevin C.]

Jason can you send me the Hatch Squat program...I'd like to take a look at that.

My leg strength sucks...

email: corcoran.kevin@comcast.net

thanks,
Kevin

[Kevin Hughes]

Hey Freddy,

Kevin from CrossFit FTF in Fresno! Great post!!! Wanted to let you know that if you know of anyone interested in the Olympic Weightlifting Cert through CrossFit, We are hosting it on January 23rd and 24th at FTF!!!! We have room for about 20 people!!! Let me know if you know of anyone!

Thanks man! Have a good one!

[Jeff]

that Iphone scanner is twice as much work as simply typing in what you ate. ridiculous

[Imran]

Steve
"If most of the food you are eating has a barcode attached, you probably aren't eating all that well.."

Don't be so sure (grass-fed and all) ....

http://3.media.tumblr.com/3t8Cq7ni7pkzhh73Rnb3imRQo1_500.jpg