Just spent the afternoon watching the Sin City Invitationals 2013 (Day 1) at Crossfit Fire City.
Some personal reflections:
1. It was my first time attending a sports event that included weight-lifting! Exciting! In my opinion, it was a pretty well-organized event, considering their constraints in terms of space and also time (3 months). Everything looked great, schedule was good and everything ran on time. Nobody looked frazzled, which is always a good sign when you are running an event. Special mention on the event tees! The colors and design looked fantastic! Kudos to Samuel Lim (owner and head coach), Melanie Lim (Business Development Manager) of Crossfit Fire City, and their team. Everyone seemed to be having fun participating, helping out and running the event, and also watching. Great job!
2. Even as a pretty noob lifter, my thoughts were full of: “Wow. Some of the participants have really bad form and technique.” As a friend said: If they have better technique, some of them might actually be able to lift heavier. Then again, I think some of them had bad form because they were attempting weights that were really heavy (for some, too heavy, or heavier than what they can handle). So many times I found myself wincing, watching them. Eeps.
3. I am aware that it’s a lot about speed and max weights at competition level, of course, but when you see how form is being compromised, it’s just scary. I know some of the participants today tested their PR squat, shoulder press and deadlift weights today, during the big lifts session. Some succeeded, and some failed. Some failed dangerously. One girl failed at her squat and dropped the bar forwards instead of backwards. For that split second I thought she would break her neck.
4. I saw girls deadlifting 80-130kg easily for their 1 max rep (even if some of them have bad form). I’m struggling with 70kg for 5 reps. Jia says it’s because my grip is a problem; and I agree. It’s quite demoralizing, though. If anything, after today, I resolve to improve my grip strength – that’s the only way I can improve my deadlifts. 70kg doesn’t feel that heavy to me; I can go heavier. But what makes me fail my lifts sometimes is my grip, and I can’t go heavier if I can’t grip it long enough to lift, lock out, and put the bar down again.
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It was a fun day out at Crossfit Fire City. Glad Valeri was there with me most of the way; had fun hanging out with her and having lunch at The Bravery!