You guys probably know how much I enjoyed blogging about the Open last year — it was truly epic! Each weekend was full of so much anticipation and excitement. I felt like I was breaking down barriers and setting new records with each new workout and the whole thing started with a bang when I got double unders during 14.1!
This year the Open is a little different. I guess it could have something to do with the fact that I’ve done it before but I think my feelings are also tied to the new scaled option.
At first I was excited to hear scaling was allowed. It sucked only getting 10 reps on 14.2 last year because I couldn’t do chest-to-bar pull-ups. This year I really enjoyed the repeat of that workout (15.2) because I could scale and do regular pull-ups instead of chest-to-bar pull-ups.
However, this past weekend, I started to feel like the scaled division was too scaled.
In everyday CrossFit you only scale the movements you have to. You never eliminate an entire movement, opting to do nothing in its place.
If you did that, how would you ever expect to get the movement? We should always be willing to practice some variation of it, right?
I assumed 15.3 would have a scaled movement in place of muscle-ups but instead, they were eliminated entirely. What’s worse, so were double unders! I think it’s kind of ridiculous to assume those that can’t do a muscle-up can’t do double unders either. I mean, come on!
Jennifer over at Wine to Weight Lifting wrote about this in her post, Is the Scaled Division Too Scaled? I agree with her sentiments! Of course I still enjoy the Open — I’m still going to push myself, even if the weights are lighter and the movements are different, but I think we need to find the sweet spot between scaled and Rx, at least for the purposes of the Open.
15.3 (Scaled)
Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 14 minutes of:
50 wall-ball shots
200 single-unders
Men use 20-lb. ball to 9 feet, Women use 10-lb. ball to 9 feet
My goal for 15.3 was to get through three rounds and even though I didn’t, I still felt like I pushed myself. I almost finished the third set of wall balls, finishing with a total of 547 reps.
I had the most trouble with my first set of single unders because I kept sub-consciously gearing up to switch to doubles and tripping under my feet.
For me, the best part of the weekend was really watching Aaron and others at my box who are able to do the workout Rx — I swear they make muscle-ups look so easy!
The Rx competitors I watched in heats 3 and 4 (including Aaron) were so intense! It was amazing to see these guys really push themselves — I mean REALLY push themselves — and go faster and longer than I know they imagined they would. It was invigorating to watch!
I also loved pushing the guys to keep going, especially when I could see they were mentally breaking down! I lost my voice screaming things like, “YOU BETTER PICK UP THAT WALL BALL!” Haha.
All and all it was a fun weekend and I think the Open will always be a fun time.
Are you participating in the Open?
What’s your opinion on the Scaled Division?
How did you do on 15.3?
I totally agree! I was soooo mad about the scaled version because I finally got my double under and I was looking forward to doing them in the open. GRRRRRR! Here’s to 15.4!!