No Rep

There has been a lot of talk coming out of CrossFit Regionals, particularly with regards to some of the judging standards. Arguably the biggest issue thus far has been in the Mid-Atlantic over the kettlebell swing standard. AJ Moore, who finished 1^st, 2^nd and 2^nd in the first three WODs, was “no rep”-ed approximately 60 times in the fourth WOD (100s) and ended up finishing in 30^th (last place) for the WOD. He subsequently finished 2^nd in WOD 5 and 6^th in the final chipper WOD, leaving him in fourth place, four points shy of the final Games spot.

And here we arrive at judging. The wonderful, subjective world of judging. I judged once during the Open – during the clean, toes to bar, wall ball AMRAP. Toes to bar were easy to judge – did your toes physically hit the bar? Good. If they didn’t, no rep. The cleans were also pretty easy to judge – it might be difficult on a quicker athlete to really make sure that the hips and knees fully extend, but there wasn’t much here to be subjective on. Then came the wall ball. Gone was the medicine ball depth checker, ensuring that everyone had to get to full parallel and no one was able to use the med ball to propel themselves back upward. What entered, however, was subjectivity. It’s not like we’re talking about a squat at a powerlifting meet, where the athlete is not exactly moving a breakneck speed. We’re talking about 15 reps, done in about 20 seconds. You have less than a second to decide whether or not they were deep enough. Margin of error? Higher than the other two, for sure.

Most of the movements in the Open were easier to judge – power snatch (actually “ground to overhead anyhow), double under, deadlift, push up with hand release, jerk, burpee, muscle up, chest to bar pull ups. Squat cleans, overhead squats and thrusters have the similar depth issues I talked about above, but overall, it should have been relatively easy for a judge to give an accurate assessment of an athlete’s performance.

Enter Regionals. Really, for the first three workouts there isn’t too much that is super hard to judge. WOD 4 is where things started to go south. Namely, here:

At the top of the swing, the kettlebell must be fully inverted (bell over the handle), centered over the feet with the hips and knees fully extended and the arms straight. At the bottom, the wrists must touch the thighs and the bell must pass behind the heels. There is no requirement for flexing the knees.

Previously, the more common standard was this:

The KB must come between the legs and be raised above head at arms ext, ears clearly seen in front of the arms.

So essentially, for judging purposes, we’ve gone from needing to make sure the KB comes between the legs and goes overhead such that one can see the ears in front of the arms, to needing to make sure the bell is “fully inverted”. Consider this from the perspective of the athlete. They can’t actually see the bell above their head. When the standard was ears in front of arms, this was easy for the athlete to make sure they’re doing. With bell “fully inverted”, what can the athlete do to ensure this actually happens?

Problem. They can’t. And more to the point, someone now has to determine whether the bell is “fully inverted” in the short amount of time that it’s above the athlete’s head.

Here’s two examples from this week-end. First, Annie T in Europe. Second, AJ Moore in the Mid-Atlantic.

First, an accepted KBS. Second, one of approximately 60 “no reps”.

I’m not trying to pick on Annie, as she’s a firebreathing beast that could totally kick my ass. But what is different about these two reps? Look at AJ’s body position; how is he cheating the movement? That bell is as inverted as it’s going to get without ending up behind him. Look at Annie’s body position; her arms are extended above the head, her ears are visible (so she’s got the old standard covered), but that bell is definitely not vertical. Her judge even acknowledges as much throughout the video when he prompts her with “higher” after many of her reps. In one example, close enough was good enough. In the other, it demolished a top competitor.

I’m assuming that the goal of movement standards is to (a) ensure that everyone is held to the same expectations; and (b) to catch and outlaw the little tweaks and cheats that people innovate over time. I presume the goal was not to nitpick someone out of a spot to the Games.

If it’s a skill movement that an athlete cannot perform (like a muscle up, or a 95 pound squat snatch) then we are having a different conversation. But we’re talking about swinging a kettlebell overhead.

Every person is different and, unsurprisingly, every judge is different. It’s because of this that not only do we need to clearly outline standards, but they need to be standards that are easy enough to uphold. Let’s be realistic – there are 4-5 Regionals going on every week-end, each with a potential 60 male, 60 female and 30 teams competing. That’s a lot of required judges. A large number of your “upper echelon” CrossFitters (be it coaches, or athletes with certifications) are already competing, cutting down the potential pool of judges. This is a volunteer position, so if the Regionals are particularly far from where you live, you’re probably not paying out of pocket to go help out (good on those who can). That cuts the pool down even more. Recognizing who you are potentially left with, it would seem to be in everyone’s best interest to make everything as foolproof as possible. Are errors inevitable? Sure, look at the debates in any judged sport. But the goal needs to be eliminating as many of these questions of subjectivity as possible.

The Regionals KBS, in particular, does not achieve this goal.

My heart goes out to AJ, who by all accounts is a great guy. His quote about the entire situation got me teared up a little:

I'm not sure anything can be said to change what has been done, I've never complained at all about anything, but by seeing other videos out there of judges being more lenient than others I am kind of disgruntled. I just worked so long and hard to get to the games and sacrificed so much that I really did shed a few tears. And after realizing that someone formed this facebook page I shed some more. I am blessed to have so much support and love from so many people. I used to train for myself and get some kind of personal gratification from winning. I realize now and it came to me throughout the weekend of regionals after I was approached by so many young kids, ranging from 3 years old (I really had to hold the tears in until I was by myself when a little girl ran up and gave me a hug) to in their teens giving me high fives and hugs, from some I knew and some I didn't, that I wasn't doing it for myself, that I affected more than just a couple people and for that I thank all of the people out there for their support, but what is done is done, I gave it all I had at least.

The Facebook page mentioned is: https://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_232519443431900