9/6 Technique Tuesday

It's Technique Tuesday and today we are working on grit, determination, toughness, and willingness to work on our weaknesses. These are qualities that can help us in CrossFit and in life. It takes practice to develop your grit and it takes courage to admit you have a weakness. We can all take a lesson from Robert "The Ghost" Guerrero for whom today's workout was created. 

On May 4, 2013, Robert "The Ghost" Guerrero faced off against boxing welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather. After 12 rounds, the decision was unanimous: Mayweather retained his title.

Guerrero began picking apart the defeat.

"There's more stuff I could have done in the gym," he says.

The 31-year-old had known Dave Castro, CrossFit Inc.'s Director of the CrossFit Games/Director of Training, since turning professional 13 years earlier, and Castro had been trying to get the fighter to try CrossFit. Skeptical, Guerrero was finally agreeable. At the start of 2014, he began training with Brian Chontosh, a Level 1 Seminar Staff member and a retired U.S. Marine Corps officer who had been awarded the Navy Cross for heroic actions during the 2003 Iraq invasion.

"The warrior aspect of him and the fact that he was a leader of men and he was a leader of men in combat, for me, that made sense to pair him with Guerrero," Castro explains.

What Chontosh saw in Guerrero was surprising.

Guerrero suffered from a weak core, had no awareness of when his body was in flexion or extension, and performed "atrocious" squats.

"I'm surprised that he's not, like, walking around with a cane," Chontosh says.

Chontosh knew he had a lot of work to do, but in a matter of four months—and with some inspiration from Chris Spealler—Guerrero upped his game and became a new athlete.

"He's fast. He's strong. He has the awareness and the wherewithal of his body—the kinesthetic awareness—to actually apply the strength where he wants to with the speed that he has. He's dangerous. He's deadly right now," Chontosh says.

Chontosh create The Ghost to replicate the time and intensity of a 6 round fight. Today you get to train your inner warrior. Compare today's results to the last time we did The Ghost on Feb. 21, 2015. 

Today's Workout 
The Ghost
6 rounds, 1 min per station, of:
Row  for calories
Burpee
Double Under
Rest 1 min

​Today's workout is about mental toughness, power, speed and recoverability. DO NOT PACE this workout. It's intended to be an all out effort at each station. 
Compare to Feb 21, 2015