The Open! 14.1

The Workout

10 minutes AMRAP
30 Double Unders
15 Power Snatches 75/55

You read that correctly. Why, why, for the love of god WHY Double Unders.

A lot of people can't do DUs. At all.

A lot more can do them, with a great deal of difficulty.

A few can do them well. For these people 14.1 is a trivial set of 30 DUs, followed by Power Snatches, followed by more trivial DUs etc. It's essentially Rest, Lift, Rest, Lift.

For everyone else it's quite different.

I don't do Double Unders. But I didn't have much choice. I could have skipped 14.1, but that wouldn't have been very supportive of my little Open Support Group. I could have showed up and done the workout with singles, and recorded a 0. Actually that's what my coach suggested. But when I got to the gym, I got the vibe my judge was expecting an honest effort. And if he was nice enough to volunteer his time I figured blowing off the workout right in front of him wasn't terribly respectful. So, I gave it a try.

single, single, single, single, single, DOUBLE!
single, single, single, single, single, single, DOUBLE!
single, single, single, single, DOUBLE miss.
s s s D! s s s D! s s s D! s s s D! s s s D! (BREAKTHROUGH!)
s s s D miss.
s s s D miss. (never mind about that Breakthrough)

And so on, for about 3 minutes. Or about 10 times as long as someone good at DUs.

And remember, a person good at DUs requires just a little hop. Me, I have to go feet to waist, knees to clavicle ... it's basically a Box Jump. So due to my lack of DUs, my first round is 200 singles + 30 box jumps.

Why?

Now you might be thinking that of course people who are good, are faster than people who are less good, and that's kind of what "good" is. That's certainly true. An elite can do Fran in two minutes or less; for me, it's an afternoon. But Fran requires thrusters and pullups, and those require fitness.

Double Unders don't require fitness. Double Unders are a skill.

Not unlike ... Cup Stacking!



Actually that comparison isn't fair.

• Cup Stacking is incredible, and I would love to be good at Cup Stacking, because it would be a lot of fun and would impress everyone. Double Unders aren't incredible, are maybe slightly fun at best, and only impress the other Crossfitters on your FB who haven't blocked you yet.
  
• Programming an Open Workout with Cup Stacking would inflict the non-proficient with only a time penalty. NOT an energy penalty as well.
  

In other words, Cup Stacking would have been a clear improvement. Oy. What a silly workout. But what do we expect for $2,000,000+.

Anyway, I just did struggle through 2 full rounds, and got my 90th rep at the buzzer. Major kudos to Double Under Danny and the other athletes for their support (would have quit several times without it), and to my judge for giving me credit for a lot of missed DUs (not 100% sure but I'm not about to open an inquiry).

14.1 Score: 90.
Opinion on DUs: Unchanged.
Enthusiasm for 14.2: Significant.

The Open! 14.0

I got talked into the Open. It's only $20. I'm bitter about our Crossfit Overlords raking in $20 x however-many-people-sign-up (100,000+ last year I believe), all for coming up with 5 workouts and a signup page. But some friends are doing it, it seems like it'll be a fun thing to talk about for a month or so, so for 20 bucks why not. If you haven't registered, you might want to consider it. At the very least, for 5 weeks you will have a conversational pretext with other attractive Crossfitters with whom you might otherwise not be permitted to speak. We'll worry about the other 47 weeks of the year later.

I'm in pretty terrible shape, I have bronchitis (maybe), so expectations are low. But it might be fun to try the workouts again in 6 months and see what happens.

To The Open!

What Air Squats Have Taught Me

That I am Miserable, a long time before I am actually Tired.

Why I Don't Do Double Unders

(Disclaimer: If I had been good at double unders, I would not have written this)

Like Muscle Ups and HSPUs¹, Double unders are something you do because they are Crossfit. Notoriously hard, notoriously frustrating, yet no one questions them. Seriously. Google "Why I don't do double unders". You get links on how to do double unders². No one questions them.

So I'm questioning them.

It all started when ...

... Coach Pepe programmed a Fight Gone Bad style WOD. 5 movements x 1 min each, 1 rest, for 3 rounds. 1 of the movements was Double Unders.

"Double Unders for 1 Minute!" sayeth Coach Pepe.
No problem ... I'll just do the singles scale-down. 

"And no scale downs! Double Unders or Nothing!"
Er, what?

I tried. I missed. I got mad. Tried again, got 1, then missed. Mad again. Tried one, missed, mad. This lasted for a minute. I spent that entire minute pretty mad. That is acceptable. I also got no exercise. That is less acceptable.

Instead of 5 minutes work on 1 rest (5:1), I was now doing 4 minutes work on 2 rest (2:1). That is a different workout. I would argue that is a worse workout. All because of a stubborn insistence on a specific movement by Coach Pepe.

Double Unders had no place in that WOD.

But That Was Just That WOD, Right?

Well .... is it? Are DUs even safe? Other than getting marked up by speed ropes, it is hard to find anyone with anything bad to say about DUs, as far as safety goes. And if you are talking about people who are already proficient at double unders, they are probably about as safe as anything.

But what about me? Want to know how I do a double under? I do a few singles, 1 ... 2... 3... and then I JUMP as HIGH as I can, ideally with my feet above my waist and knees on clavicles, while I whip the rope as fast as I possibly can. Then I crash down back to Earth, and if by some miracle I don't land on the rope, I soar back in the air, and I do it all over again. Luckily I can only string a few of these together in a row, because by that point I'm wildly off balance. And that's to say nothing about the impact. Unlike a box jump where you can step down or at least cushion the landing, on a double under you are rebounding as fast as possible. That has to be bad for everything.

But it Has to be Worth it, Right?

I honestly I do not see how. Here is something I found online reassuring you about how double unders get easier.

"At first, you'll feel like you're jumping through the roof. But that'll change."
Good call ... so it'll change?

"Soon, your jump won't be much higher than when normally jumping rope."
Really?

"And you'll get efficient spinning the rope, so spinning at double under speed will be effortless"
Is that so?

"Before too long you'll feel as though ..."
 ... I'm doing single unders?

What if I just do single unders now?

Anyway ...

So the end goal here, is to get so efficient at this difficult movement, that it becomes just as easy as a movement I do now. And yes, you can say that at about everything. But getting better at other things is much less stupid. If I start strict pressing 160 as easily as I press 80, then I've gotten stronger. If I can do 20x36" boxjumps as easily as I could do 20x24", I've gotten better. But if I can do 50 double unders as easily as 50 singles ... who cares? 

If YOU care, then that's fantastic.

But if you don't, then why are you doing them?


¹ Handstand Push-ups
²And hopefully this post as well.