At the 2013 Crossfit Games Kendrick Farris gave “Isabel” a go.
Isabell is one of CrossFit’s benchmark workouts.
For Time: Snatch 61kg (135 pounds) for 30 reps. Took him 3:21 on his first go.
For comparison: It takes top CrossFitters around 1 minute with ‘anything goes’ form.
Ok, now back to worlds prep Kendrick.
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Farris’ form and technique is so much better than even an elite Crossfitter so there really is no comparison. Sorry, had to be said.
Josh Everett’s and Dave Lipson’s 1-minute timings are awesome, super human, but their form is horrible and their pulls look more like a Muscle Snatch than a Snatch the last 15 reps… I think if Farris was told to perform a Muscle Snatch he would have been much faster. What say you?
While I agree that his form is better, I don’t believe he could have gone any faster. Kendrick isn’t a stranger to the concepts of Crossfit, he know that he could have muscle snatched it. From the video, it appears that he was too fatigued to go faster.
Josh and Dave are not elite CrossFit athletes. Here is Rich doing Isabelle at the end of a very long weekend of 2012 CFG: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6A6Ip6FCgY from about 11:30-12:19 in the video. His technique is good from rep 1 to rep 30.
Also, here he is snatching 210lbs after doing 30x75lbs, 30x135lbs, and 30x165lbs. His technique is fantastic even without looking at it through the veil of doing 90 snatches beforehand.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boRe82OwxU4
Its certainly impressive but it’s still only 90kg or so. If you want to make comparisons you have to recognize that it’s still less than half of the world record (187kg/412lbs!) for someone of the same weight, and 70-80kg short of a competitive snatch in the closest weight category. Puts the difference in perspective
But we aren’t making comparisons between an elite CrossFit athlete’s Olympic total vs an elite weightlifter’s total. The original post drew comparisons between Farris’ Isabelle and some fast CF athletes. Then the comment I replied to was discussing the technique of those fast CF athletes (which was poor, obviously).
There is no way anyone can compare any CF athlete with a weightlifter, just like we wouldn’t compare an NFL player to a weightlifter, if the focus is as narrow as what their Olympic total would be. What we can compare are the tools used to train and the VERY SMALL overlap of competitive lifts.
That’s why I love this website. It has a lot of varied content. I enjoy the sport of CrossFit, but I enjoy watching GREAT weightlifting more. Maybe this is because that sports has had over a century to evolve in to its current iteration. CrossFit is still nascent, but I do believe it has the potential to evolve and grow in to something just as great.
Side note, there are crappy CFers and weightlifters that, because of their genetics and raw talent, can make it to very high levels and be thrust on to a national stage with poor mechanics. I saw some very suspect technique at US Nationals this past weekend just like I saw poor technique from some CFers at the Games.
Not sure. In weightlifting you simply don’t work with so many repetitions. Thus, at least at a first try, the weightlifter will suck. It might not take much time for weightlifter to get there, but it’s just out of focus of their training.
Crossfit should really use strict standards when using the terms ‘snatch’ and ‘clean and jerk’. If you call it ‘from ground to over head’, fine. But a snatch is a defined movement.
However, the form of the top crossfitters at the C&J ladder was often good. Froning’s form holds up also when he gets tired. I think that’s also what makes the difference. Others try to power through. He often starts more relaxed and paces himself very well.
Asking an elite weightlifter to do this kind of x-fit workouts is the same as asking Michelangelo (of Sistine Chapel fame) to paint a beige wall with a paint roller for time…
But it’s all about the money.
I wonder if we should have the snatch and c&j renamed in order to get more media exposure…let’s see…the snatch could be called “Pamela” and the c&j could make for a nice “Sharon”.
(this is weightlifter’s sarcasm, let anyone think I’m being serious about this renaming)
Reverse the positions – if you had an xfitter compete in a WL comp you would get a similarly lopsided result. Sure the top guys like Rich can put up solid numbers in snatch/c&j, but if you put Rich against Apti or Lu Yong or anyone else comparable you’ll see the WL’ers can snatch more than he can c&j, pressouts or not
those guys in the crossfit video linked aren’t even close to legit snatching most of the reps
For them it is just “Ground to Overhead” with snatch grip.
aka Muscle Snatch or Continuous Clean to Press
To be fair, snatch or clean and jerk is easier to communicate than ground to overhead in one movement (a snatch) or two movements (a c&j). Their rules are different for these lifts and I honestly don’t quite understand why people get so upset about it. They are lifting according to their set of rules for their type of competition.
They are two different sports. You can’t expect a crossfitter to be as good as a specialized athlete just like you can’t expect a weightlifter to have the work capacity of a diverse athlete.
I don’t know why weightlifters always hate on crossfit. How can you expect a crossfitter to be as good as you in weightlifting. It’s so technical and takes years of training to become somewhat decent at Olympic lifting.
Crossfitters put a lot of effort into the Olympic lifts but can’t devote enough time into it to meet your standards.
Criticizing them is like a pro Russian or pro Chinese making fun of you because your technique sucks compared to them.
We should all just be happy that weightlifting is becoming more popular
Exactly I don’t get the hate either. Luckily here on ATG we can have reasonable discussions and enjoy both sports.
his time would have been the same with 100kg…
each rep was solid… it takes real lifters a while to break their cadence of having to do each rep really well.
If he trained himself to use terrible, yard sale (your shit is everywhere) technique he’d have a great time
I wish that crossfit would not call those a ‘snatch’ but rather bar from ground to overhead. Crossfit wont help weightlifting with that technique or those workouts. The max power versions though like they have done in the games are much better. Leave the high rep ones out of the games have a few power events, few speed, few agility, and few endurance like they did for these games.
It’s a completely different energy system on the opposite end of the spectrum. Kendrick is a precision tool designed, honed, and dedicated to one sacred purpose: a total that gets you on an Olympic podium. This stuff here is just for fun and funding, and should be viewed as an amusing side show. Personally, high volume percision movements is a terrible idea, but I totally “get” what Kendrick is doing and why he’s doing it. Frankly, CF is kicking USAW’s butt so bad that this is basically a forced friendship for serious weightlifters.
Actually there is an interview with him in the wodcast podcast (a crossfit podcast). It’s definately intersting to listen to. One thing he likes about crossfit games is their presentation. Oly lifting meets done by the USAW are (according to him) very boring, especially for the newby. Crossfit does there without a doubt a good job to get you excited. I mean they make people cheer for athletes doing a stationary row for 90 minutes!
Weightlifting has been put in the focus again by crossfit. Sean Waxman (Oly Lifting Coach) said that before crossfit there where only a few lifting platforms in the whole country whereas now you can find one in any box. And actually all the details about the right form are not nearly as important as knowing that there is something like olympic lifting. Waxman also said that now more and more crossfit athletes that train under real oly coaches in order to improve their form.
And it doesn’t take that long. Sure, to get world class you have to train at least a decade, but to learn the lifts it doesn’t take much more than six months. Then one has a good feeling for how it suppossed to feel. It’s not rocket science after all.
The problem in crossfit is probably that everything is timed. This leads to huge egos and really bad technique. However, when the coach and/or the athlete are smart enough they will train rather than just work out. It might take some a while to realize that their form is blocking their progress. But it seems looking at these games that the improvement of the field is enormous.
Waxman said something else that was interesting. Of course the atheletes right now are too old to ever compete in the olmpic games but their children might. So maybe in a few years the US can bring up a good team and by winning something create even more attention.
In a nutshell, there are many things I dislike about crossfit, but the attention they draw to the olympic lifts is definately a very positive thing.
I watched an interview with Farris probably with the barbell shrugged dudes where he mentioned he’d do this for shits and giggles.
yep, that’s the best part, in that inteview he was like “yeah, I know I can do it in like 1:15…”
NOPE…. fail.