CrossFit Olympic Weightlifting w/ Coach Mike Burgener – Ottawa
October 12, 2009
This past weekend I attended the CrossFit Olympic Weightlifting Certification with Coach Mike Burgener. The cert was hosted by CrossFit Ottawa, and held at the local Notre Dame High School. Unfortunately the weekend got off to a rough start as one of the instructors, former Olympian Fred Lowe, was denied entry into Canada. The sport of Olympic Weightlifting in this country still suffers from a lack of exposure and the thought that someone would come to Canada just to instruct it for the weekend seemed rather foreign to the border officers. Our own Pierre Auge stepped up to fill the void for the smaller breakout sessions, joining Matt DeMinico, Debbie Hudson, and Melissa Cvjeticanin.
The weekend was full of great instruction on technique and progressions for training the elusive snatch and clean & jerk. I picked up plenty of great coaching cues and “drills to develop the skills” that I believe will help me teach the lifts to a greater variety of groups and individuals.
Myself, Coach Mike Burgener, and Janine Daigle (CrossFit Bathurst) at the CrossFit Olympic Weightlifting Cert in Ottawa
Coach B joked that he was going to take me back to California with him, along with a few others. He was impressed with my size, as short people with my lever lengths do have an advantage in this sport! Then there was Janine, who was given a lot of “tough love”, all in good fun though.
We also had Hani Kanama of Toronto Weightlifting on hand to show off some of his equipment, most notably the weightlifting shoes that he’s developed. The majority of the lifters in our club are using them now. Many of the weekend’s participants quickly discovered how much of a difference a good pair of weightlifting shoes with a solid raised heel makes regarding overall stability and positioning.
A few personalities emerged over the weekend, kettlebell trainer “The Iron Angel”, who exhibited some great flexibility, and David, who made the trip from Iqaluit, Nunavut. At 64 years young, he is just one year older than Coach B. David was then affectionately referred to as “Dad” by Coach B, and showed that you’re never too old to learn new tricks and have fun.
Overall, Coach B. is an engaging instructor and commands an attentive audience. There’s nothing like having strong “motivational consequences” to ensure everyone’s paying attention. YAY BURPEES!*
*You’ll have to go and find out yourself what this means!
CrossFit Level 1 Certification – Toronto
September 1, 2009
This past weekend I was in Toronto for the CrossFit Level 1 Certification seminar. For those unfamiliar with CrossFit, it is a “broad, general, and inclusive core strength and conditioning program based on constantly varied functional movement performed at high intensity”. The goal of the program is the pursuit of general fitness. I won’t go into too much detail here, but let’s just say it’s what the “I just want to get in shape and be healthy” crowd should be doing rather than 3 sets of 10 on the weight machines + 30 min on the treadmill at your “target” heart rate.
The certification seminar was two full days of instruction, lectures, demonstrations, and workouts at the Moss Park Armoury downtown. The armoury is a great facility with plenty of space inside, although the pullup bar is a little higher and thicker than I prefer!
Group photos from crossfit.com
Since I first heard of CrossFit in late 2007, I’ve pretty much devoured and immersed myself in the program and all the great resources available on CrossFit.com, as well as everything I’ve learned from training at CrossFit Fredericton and CrossFit Ottawa. At this point I was very familiar with the material, methodology, and movements presented, so I was much more focused on individual coaching and presentation styles, basically how to make myself a better coach. Taking this approach, I was able to get a lot more out of this seminar than if I sat back and simply said, “I already know this stuff”. I was able to come back with a lot of skills that will help me as a coach, as well as some help on my piss poor rowing technique.
Jon Gilson, Again Faster, cleaned up my rowing
Overall, the presentations were professional, engaging, and with enough comic relief to ease those “Fran jitters”. I met a lot of great people over the weekend and it’s always great to hear success stories from those that are passionate about fitness. I met one guy who said he started at ~300lbs and he’s lost 75+ so far!
This guy obviously put in the hard work and dedication inside and outside the gym. THAT folks, IMHO, is doing CrossFit as Rx’d.
