One of the core tenets of the CrossFit Level 1 Seminar is virtuosity. For those of you that don’t know, virtuosity is defined as doing the common uncommonly well. It is a staple of performance in the gymnastics world. It is why you RARELY, if ever, see a gymnast score a perfect 10 on a routine. There are other criteria to reach a perfect 10 but the last thing is displaying virtuosity. Basically, the judges want to see you make it look SO EASY that it appears as though you aren’t even trying.
I often hear a lot of y’all refer to my movement that way, specifically when I’m on the pull-up bar. I also hear a lot of y’all refer that way to Eric’s movement when he’s using a barbell. “Oh that’s so easy for you.” Or Haley when she’s doing a stretch or anything requiring mobility. Tanya when she’s using the jump rope or doing an overhead squat. And Roz when she’s using the barbell and jump rope as well.
How do you think any of us got there?
Do you think I WALKED into the first CrossFit gym I ever attended and just started doing bar muscle ups no problem?
I was a football and basketball player. I had ZERO idea of how to do any gymnastics. I had never walked on my hands or even attempted anything more than a strict pull-up on a pull-up bar. I didn’t even know what kipping pull-ups or butterfly pull-ups were. I had to LEARN how to do those things. They did NOT come natural for me.
When I first saw someone do butterfly pull-ups live and in person for the first time, I immediately began practicing them the next day. I would take a box and place it under a pull-up bar. I would set a clock for 15 minutes and I would practice the motion with just 1 foot on the box every minute for 10 reps. Once I felt like my brain understood the movement I removed the box. Then I would do 3 reps where my chin WOULD NOT get over the bar every minute on the minute. I was simply making sure that my brain knew how to do the movement now sans the box. Then I started doing 3 reps where my chin got higher and higher and higher until finally I could do 3 reps without stopping where my chin would clear the bar each time. Once I could do 3 reps every minute on the minute for 10 sets, I added 2 more reps. Now, I was doing 5 reps every minute on the minute. 5 then became 7 and 7 became 10.
This was YEARS of working diligently every day until I would perfect a movement. And once I felt like I had mastered something, I would go back and work on the building blocks aka the basics of the movement and refine those every day until they were closer to perfect.
You believe that I walked into the gym able to do this because all you see is the finished product. The same goes true for Eric, Tanya, Roz, and Haley. You believe they woke up like this because all you see is what they are now. The truth of the matter is this is 10,000 hours of working on something over and over and over until it appears so easy that we aren’t even trying.
No one skips steps. Everyone has to put the work in. Let’s do this.
To learn more about the fundamentals and getting started with your next steps, set up a time to come by the gym.