The Open 2017 has come to an End and our weekends over the month of March have been nothing but electric for everyone involved, including family and friends. As always no one else cheers louder for you as our FibreFam box members. Great appreciation to all who helped out, being a minion and judging when some needed it.
We have had a mixed bag of emotions throughout the Open and at the end of it we come out stronger than before.
As a box we had 36 competitors participate and 12 first timers. The table below shows improvements of our athletes over 2016 and 2017.
Results are based on rankings in Western Australia. Top effort to all who broke into the top 100s of your divisions. Kade (30) and Jake (63), ladies Wendy (103) and Dani (104)! Some of you ladies are closing in on the top 10 in WA, Adele (14), Debbie (16) and Kym (16)! Boo Yah! Hats off to Glen who topped the Scaled Division in WA and Clint Sherwood with 6th place.
This year saw the inclusion of dumbbells in the Open. 17.1 saw some dumbbells and the burpee box jump over which really got your lungs on fire.
17.2 saw the Bar Muscle Up repeated and as always a spectacle to see in a comp. Was exciting to see the aerials that can be done on the bar from the blokes, but we saw only 1 lady from the box getting her once in a year BMU for a repeat this year, Jess Voon. Get into our specialist classes to get yourselves skilled up for these movements. They will be a regular inclusion in the Open Comps.
17.3 saw some Snatches and Chest to bars. Classic couplet with a little metcon at the start to qualify you to the heavy reps. The world loved this one and so did we. Again, you needed to have a bit of an engine and some cycling endurance to get to the heavy. Some Snatched their Peebees for reps, some successful full snatches and a weekend full of this beautiful complex on display.
When comparing last year’s performances to this year, all athletes have shown improvements in overall Western Australia rankings which fantastic to see. This was clearly the case in the 17.4 workout where we had a 13min AMRAP of 55 Deads/WallBalls/Row Cals/Handstand Push Ups. This repeat wod saw all who did it last year show a marked increase in capacity and also gymnastic ability. The Rx Ladies got through more handstands push ups this time round which was fantastic to see and also a strong performance by Jake getting close to almost finishing 1 round of the workout.
17.5 say the Thruster coupled up with Double Unders to test your capacity and ability to control finer movements when you are under fatigue. Can you hold it together for the whole 10 rounds? Is your mental toughness up to scratch? The message was clear from Castro when the Timecap was 40minutes. You need to finish this workout. And if you did not have Double Unders, you have plenty of time to practice. Lucky it was not so much of a problem for us as a box, special mention to Daniel Nin who used all of the TimeCap and almost got to the end of this wod. Super work by Kade getting this workout done in 9:58mins! Lightning!
Looking back at the Open, there is a predominant bias towards engine. Every workout from 17.1 to 17.5 needed every athlete to have an exceptional work capacity. If you lacked in this department, you will have seen some of these workouts actually take you to a dark dark cave and pull you down the rankings. Top hint in preparing for the upcoming 2018 Open.
So what do we do now that we have the Friday Night Lights hangover? Well, if we had a good go at the workouts and allowed our bodies mainly our legs to recover, it is time to test our strengths and bench mark wods and lifts. After that, with the Open gains or any comp gains, it is good jump on a strength program to slingshot your lifts to bag another PeeBee. On the other hand, get yourself prepped for 3v3 comp and some more of the local comps coming up. Tune your body up and keep going. Use these comps as a way to challenge yourself, boost yourself and also to see what you can do.
The preparation begins now for next year 2018. Time to outline your weaknesses and then focus on making them a strength. You can progress slowly together with box programming or you can spend more time to eradicate those weaknesses immediately with more Open Gym times when available. Do the simple mundane movements called accessories. They are what gets you moving better, more efficiently. Be consistent. Consistency pays off in the end. Intermittent training will dampen your progress. Go to your coach and make sure that they have some boxwork for you.
Nothing forges stronger friendships that mutually suffering through a workout together. Well Done FibreFam, let’s keep on going. We are not done yet.
Stronger than yesterday, for tomorrow and life. Stronger as FibreFam.
