2/1 Thursday - Don't Be a Sucker, Practice Virtuosity

Jen getting after it on the air assault bike. 
Today's mental toughness focus is on virtuosity. Virtuosity is doing the common uncommonly well.
When Greg Glassman created CrossFit he challenged us to:

1. Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch.
2. Master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. 
3. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast.​

Coach Glassman also challenged us to obtain virtousity in our movements. Just recently he gave a talk to Level 1 CrossFit Coaches and told them to help their clients master the basics, and once we've done that, to go back and master them anew. Yes, go back and master them anew. Obtain virtuosity by doing the common uncommonly well.
Mastering the basics takes mental toughness. It's easy to be allured by something new, something novel, or something "harder." But, chasing the next level without mastering the current one is a fool's move. In fact, Coach Glassman addressed this very topic in a letter to CrossFit trainers. He wrote:
"The urge to quickly move away from the basics and toward advanced movements arises out of the natural desire to entertain your client and impress him with your skills and knowledge. But make no mistake: it is a sucker’s move. Teaching a snatch where there is not yet an overhead squat, teaching an overhead squat where there is not yet an air squat, is a colossal mistake. This rush to advancement increases the chance of injury, delays advancement and progress, and blunts the client’s rate of return on his efforts. In short, it retards his fitness."
I want your fitness to improve. If you seek to master the basics it will. Seek virtuosity in everything you do and it will. Tell me in the comments on which movement you're working to become a virtuoso. 

Click Here for The WOD

Olympic Weightlifting Clinic with Coaches Heidi and Leslie this Sunday 9 - noon.