For all the narrative and clever videos of Boz looking for fit garage gym CrossFitters, I gotta say, this was the least accessible year for Garage Gym CrossFitters (looking at floor layouts and minimum distances and the size of our garage gyms). I even sent an email to request ideas regarding being able to complete 23.1 within the rules and no one responded to me. Very disappointing. This would've been my 9th, but I had to sit it out (in my case, my wallball target is outside, and I only have a 16x16 pad and the delta between my pullup bar and the wall ball target and edges wouldn't allow for locating the rower and bar far enough away unless I put it in the grass, and it wasn't worth a sprained ankle, damaged grass and/or equipment).
I 100% agree. This would have been my 10th year and I also opted not to participate based on the layout requirements. Video submissions have been tricky in previous years at points, but this year, with the expedition of 23.3 maybe, was rough. I commented on Varied Not Random video previously after 23.2 came out and was hoping this topic might get brought up.
Loved this one. Great insight to hear after the completion of the Open…definitely put some of my performance frustrations into perspective. The Open was excellent and so fun! Thanks Boz! And thanks for taking the time to do this podcast when you are so busy
Hey guys. I enjoy the channel and your insightful discussions on CF topics. However it would be great if during your reviews of things like the open programming you give yourselves the task of providing critical review - ie what went well and what didn’t go well and what have you learned from that. Maybe you could invite others to contribute their views - some analytical types like Brian Friend, high profile coaches like Max El Haj, analytical athletes like lBrent Fikowsli and squeaky wheels like Andrew Hiller. Actually thinking about it, it would be great if CrossFit did this as an open process and had a podcast on it.
loved 23.1/14.4, contender for best workout of all time for sure. 22.2 i think was good, tall guy here and i think the range of motion we have to move ourselves should have to be the same across the field, but over all still pretty solid test 22.2B the thruster was cool, and the first 15 min left you breathing hard but not totally wrecked so able to get pretty heavy on it, however i think the standards were not good. to me keeping the feet from moving seems like an obvious improvement but maybe that was to hard to judge and they had thought about it. 22.3 in my mind this is where the entire open sorta stopped working for me, we had tested high skill classic CrossFit, longer endurance with a low limiter, and pure strength. i did not think that the final workout should be another test of high skill gymnastics and ability to preform a heavy barbell lift made a lot of sense here. It seems to me like they got caught up with testing so many different movements, and stopped thinking about testing stimulus. it just seemed so clear to me that a 5-8 min absolute barn burner would have fit so much better then a sandwich of 2 high skill mixed modality workouts around a cardio and strength test. just my rambling thoughts from a ten year CrossFit vet who loves the sport and wants it to succeed
I really enjoyed the open. One minor criticism from my perspective. I understand changing a standard such as the new standard for the shspu but i don’t like it as a surprise to the general population through the open. I think that if you introduce newer standards throughout the year utilizing CrossFit’s website it would give you a good pool of different standards to choose from that people should have been developing throughout the year. I just think it should be more of a test over the materials we have been given not a pop quiz.
First off I want to give a huge shout out to Boz on this year's Open. I think the programming was great, and it was nice to see some diversity in the tests. I was disappointed that I couldn't register and post my scores because I just don't have the space to meet the 8' separation requirements for some of the tests based on my current garage gym layout. I have a plan to change my layout for next year, but this brings me to a question that may be controversial: When is the standard not the standard? I ask based on some commentary I've heard around an issue during 23.1 with a judge/coach turning on or resetting an athlete's monitor on the rower. To be clear, this isn't about the athlete or the judge/coach, or whether or not a penalty was assessed. This is about having a clearly defined standard that an athlete may not receive assistance with their equipment, then hearing some very well-respected voices in the community openly say that what occurred was a "nothing burger". This ties back to my challenge with the 8' separation and electing to abide by the standard and not register since I knew I couldn't meet that requirement. The argument has been made that the athlete didn't gain an advantage and therefore, we shouldn't worry about whether or not the standard was violated, but I'll offer this viewpoint; if the athlete gained even one second by not having to turn on/reset their own monitor, and another athlete can cover more than 8' in less than one second, would it still be a nothing burger if that other athlete did not abide by the 8' separation requirement? Again, this is not about any individual athlete or judge or commentator's opinion, it's about the varying degree of importance that seems to be being openly communicated/promoted on one standard over another. Having spent 26 years serving in the military, and a large portion of that time in the special operations community, the mantra "brilliance in the basics" has stuck with me, and been a great north star for understanding and adhering to prescribed standards whether professionally or in my fitness journey. Like I said, I know this may be controversial and I am certainly not intending it be, so I apologize in advance if I've kicked the hornet's nest.
Hey guys, awesome episode!! I really loved the insight into the programming. I thought overall this years open really hit a broad swath of fitness, but my one quibble is that both the thruster and 23.3’s strict HSPU were both very overhead-intensive movements. As someone whose biggest weakness is overhead pressing strength, it hurt to get dinged twice for the same hole in my fitness game. Would have loved to see something like a heavy 5 rep front squat from the ground for 23.2B, which would have I think made the open tests a little more well rounded. Just my two cents, thanks for all you do!!
I just comment for the algorithm. You did great. I love your explanation to shuttle runs, in fact i didn‘t even had to hear it, running is so important and def missing in the open up until now. I also love the explanation for the similar time domains, was a concerne of mine, but it makes absolutely sense. Only complaint is 23.2a, I filmed myself and messed up, so I ended up dooing it again, in the same hour, messed the video up again. My score is invalid, but I would have had a relativ good score for myself. While doing it twice in one hour. Then I watched a video of Andrew Hiller, and he‘s right, you can basically walk the shuttle runs and still have a good score, then overall it‘s not really taxing. Love the inclusion of running, but maybe it doesn’t do the trick…
Heartbroken to find out I can't be on Pat's apocalypse team. WK2 buried me out of Indy & 35-39 QF. Technique and skills are doing ok.. need to work on pure conditioning and raw strength. Thanks for talking this so soon after the Open.
Hey Boz and Pat, great show! I always look forward to listening or watching on Tuesdays. So thank you for continuing to film these. This is my second year participating in the Open and I enjoyed it overall. Here are my two cents from a Crossfit fan and lightweight pseudo-RX athlete. 1. I loved 23.1. Great opener. I did not do 14.4 so this was my first time doing this. I loved the ladder although for people that don't have TTB, perhaps doing 50 wall balls would have been better and then 40 TTB. I'm good at TTB so I preferred it as is. But, i know a lot of people struggled through the TTB. 2. 23.2 wasn't my favorite although I did well on part A. From a community standpoint it was kind of boring to watch. I appreciate the difficulty of running and doing the burpee pullups but it was a slow grind and got redundant. Instead of the max thruster in Part B, I would have liked to see the thrusters worked in to Part A, or do some type of max reps in 2-3 minutes in Part B. I also thought the max thruster skewed standings a little so perhaps that could have been scored differently. 3. 23.3 wasn't my favorite although I appreciate the difficulty and what Boz was trying to do. I need to work on snatches so that was the tough portion for me. I felt like it was a tons of shoulders in a short amount of time but I take it that was the point. I didn't necessarily feel cheated but it's very rare that we have that much intensity in 6 minutes so it was new for me. Ideally I would have liked to see a 8-10 minute workout but that's just me. For being the last week, it felt a little anti-climactic. Overall good year. I do really like the barbell being featured every week. Would like to know if there is anything Boz would do differently in the programming now that all results are in.
Congrats & kudos for your 100th. BRAVO 👏👏👏! Test Vs. Training: I did 23.3 Scaled as a test on Saturday - This way, to the 120lbs heavy male me, it's a skill and muscular endurance workout. Then, I did 23.3 Rx'd as a training on Monday - This way, to me, it's a skill and strength workout... Now, QUESTION: why the 23.2B thruster (Same movement pattern as the wall ball shots) and 23.3, two strength tests IMHO (And maybe the "feeling heavier than you think" clean in 23.1 is also a strength test)? Is 2023, the year of strength? If so, bring back "Strongman's Fear", please 🤩!
Hey guys! Thanks so much. What are the chances CrossFit will put out a book of standards and movements? Maybe with 300 movements and the standards for each? As an affiliate owner this would be so helpful for my coaches
Thanks for a great Open! Definitely was challenged and took away some great learnings. I am curious why the strict HSPU standard was not upheld for the 55+ masters age groups. I am in W50-54 and feel ithe strict standard was a great test (although not a strength of mine), and a move in the right direction. I would have thought the older age groups could have kept the strict standard and scaled with risers. I would think that group would also benefit from NOT dropping fast on their head and cervical spine. LOL. Curious why older masters were programmed kipping HSPU?
Love getting an inside look into this decision making, thanks for sharing! One piece of feedback though, if I may: I follow all the logic until we got to the snatch weights in 23.3. I thought they seemed outrageously high and then I was disappointed to have it confirmed that they were based on the abilities of the Games level athletes... the entire season is for the Games athletes and the rest of us mere mortals get 3 weeks to play. I think it kind of hurts to hear that this year's Open was built for the elite, not for the general population. Just one person's opinion: keep the Open, OPEN and test the best the rest of the season. I don't think we need RMU, SHSPU, & elite weight snatches ALL in a single Open... I think it left a lot of people feeling bad about themselves
I wasn't registered for The Open, but I still love doing all of the workouts. I thought all of the workouts were great this year! Those shuttle runs were a little mean, though.
As an international box owner. When the heck are you going to put metric on the main score card???. The whole world uses metric and there are now more metric boxes than imperial users. As good as the program was. It's Seriously hard to organise and translate EVERY weight in time for the weekend (NZ is 12 hours ahead) Seriously considering not promoting it ever again.
Amazing Open Coach Bozman. Pat, you're the man.
Thanks for another fun open! I can’t imagine how much work it is and I appreciate you and everyone involved. Can’t wait for 2024!
For all the narrative and clever videos of Boz looking for fit garage gym CrossFitters, I gotta say, this was the least accessible year for Garage Gym CrossFitters (looking at floor layouts and minimum distances and the size of our garage gyms). I even sent an email to request ideas regarding being able to complete 23.1 within the rules and no one responded to me. Very disappointing. This would've been my 9th, but I had to sit it out (in my case, my wallball target is outside, and I only have a 16x16 pad and the delta between my pullup bar and the wall ball target and edges wouldn't allow for locating the rower and bar far enough away unless I put it in the grass, and it wasn't worth a sprained ankle, damaged grass and/or equipment).
I 100% agree. This would have been my 10th year and I also opted not to participate based on the layout requirements. Video submissions have been tricky in previous years at points, but this year, with the expedition of 23.3 maybe, was rough. I commented on Varied Not Random video previously after 23.2 came out and was hoping this topic might get brought up.
Congratulations on the 100th episode guys! Thank you for all you have done over the years for this community. Keep crushing it.
Loved this one. Great insight to hear after the completion of the Open…definitely put some of my performance frustrations into perspective. The Open was excellent and so fun! Thanks Boz! And thanks for taking the time to do this podcast when you are so busy
A great test that allowed one and all to sound out their progress. Thank you for all you and the CrossFit team and community do.
Hey guys. I enjoy the channel and your insightful discussions on CF topics. However it would be great if during your reviews of things like the open programming you give yourselves the task of providing critical review - ie what went well and what didn’t go well and what have you learned from that.
Maybe you could invite others to contribute their views - some analytical types like Brian Friend, high profile coaches like Max El Haj, analytical athletes like lBrent Fikowsli and squeaky wheels like Andrew Hiller.
Actually thinking about it, it would be great if CrossFit did this as an open process and had a podcast on it.
I had so much fun doing the open. I thank you for all your hard work.
Thanks for a great Open!! Many, many people commented on how they thought the programming was excellent this year. Well done!
loved 23.1/14.4, contender for best workout of all time for sure.
22.2 i think was good, tall guy here and i think the range of motion we have to move ourselves should have to be the same across the field, but over all still pretty solid test
22.2B the thruster was cool, and the first 15 min left you breathing hard but not totally wrecked so able to get pretty heavy on it, however i think the standards were not good. to me keeping the feet from moving seems like an obvious improvement but maybe that was to hard to judge and they had thought about it.
22.3 in my mind this is where the entire open sorta stopped working for me, we had tested high skill classic CrossFit, longer endurance with a low limiter, and pure strength. i did not think that the final workout should be another test of high skill gymnastics and ability to preform a heavy barbell lift made a lot of sense here. It seems to me like they got caught up with testing so many different movements, and stopped thinking about testing stimulus.
it just seemed so clear to me that a 5-8 min absolute barn burner would have fit so much better then a sandwich of 2 high skill mixed modality workouts around a cardio and strength test.
just my rambling thoughts from a ten year CrossFit vet who loves the sport and wants it to succeed
Spot on
Loved the programming, the standards were clear. Thanks for doing what you do fellas.
Loved this years open!
Great job, Boz! 6-minutes was plenty! AND, it left a lot of fire in the belly to get further…in good time! Lol. My ego got pummeled 👊🏼
So you asked what guests we would like on the show. As a fellow Brit I would love to hear Sam Briggs
I really enjoyed the open. One minor criticism from my perspective. I understand changing a standard such as the new standard for the shspu but i don’t like it as a surprise to the general population through the open. I think that if you introduce newer standards throughout the year utilizing CrossFit’s website it would give you a good pool of different standards to choose from that people should have been developing throughout the year. I just think it should be more of a test over the materials we have been given not a pop quiz.
I wish the hspu, clean workout was put in!! Overall, I loved how all the workouts had all 3 modalities tested! Great job Boz!
First off I want to give a huge shout out to Boz on this year's Open. I think the programming was great, and it was nice to see some diversity in the tests. I was disappointed that I couldn't register and post my scores because I just don't have the space to meet the 8' separation requirements for some of the tests based on my current garage gym layout. I have a plan to change my layout for next year, but this brings me to a question that may be controversial: When is the standard not the standard? I ask based on some commentary I've heard around an issue during 23.1 with a judge/coach turning on or resetting an athlete's monitor on the rower. To be clear, this isn't about the athlete or the judge/coach, or whether or not a penalty was assessed. This is about having a clearly defined standard that an athlete may not receive assistance with their equipment, then hearing some very well-respected voices in the community openly say that what occurred was a "nothing burger". This ties back to my challenge with the 8' separation and electing to abide by the standard and not register since I knew I couldn't meet that requirement. The argument has been made that the athlete didn't gain an advantage and therefore, we shouldn't worry about whether or not the standard was violated, but I'll offer this viewpoint; if the athlete gained even one second by not having to turn on/reset their own monitor, and another athlete can cover more than 8' in less than one second, would it still be a nothing burger if that other athlete did not abide by the 8' separation requirement? Again, this is not about any individual athlete or judge or commentator's opinion, it's about the varying degree of importance that seems to be being openly communicated/promoted on one standard over another. Having spent 26 years serving in the military, and a large portion of that time in the special operations community, the mantra "brilliance in the basics" has stuck with me, and been a great north star for understanding and adhering to prescribed standards whether professionally or in my fitness journey. Like I said, I know this may be controversial and I am certainly not intending it be, so I apologize in advance if I've kicked the hornet's nest.
Hey guys, awesome episode!! I really loved the insight into the programming. I thought overall this years open really hit a broad swath of fitness, but my one quibble is that both the thruster and 23.3’s strict HSPU were both very overhead-intensive movements. As someone whose biggest weakness is overhead pressing strength, it hurt to get dinged twice for the same hole in my fitness game. Would have loved to see something like a heavy 5 rep front squat from the ground for 23.2B, which would have I think made the open tests a little more well rounded.
Just my two cents, thanks for all you do!!
I’ll see you guys there next year from now 🙃🙏
I just comment for the algorithm. You did great. I love your explanation to shuttle runs, in fact i didn‘t even had to hear it, running is so important and def missing in the open up until now. I also love the explanation for the similar time domains, was a concerne of mine, but it makes absolutely sense. Only complaint is 23.2a, I filmed myself and messed up, so I ended up dooing it again, in the same hour, messed the video up again. My score is invalid, but I would have had a relativ good score for myself. While doing it twice in one hour. Then I watched a video of Andrew Hiller, and he‘s right, you can basically walk the shuttle runs and still have a good score, then overall it‘s not really taxing. Love the inclusion of running, but maybe it doesn’t do the trick…
Heartbroken to find out I can't be on Pat's apocalypse team. WK2 buried me out of Indy & 35-39 QF. Technique and skills are doing ok.. need to work on pure conditioning and raw strength. Thanks for talking this so soon after the Open.
Hey Boz and Pat, great show! I always look forward to listening or watching on Tuesdays. So thank you for continuing to film these. This is my second year participating in the Open and I enjoyed it overall. Here are my two cents from a Crossfit fan and lightweight pseudo-RX athlete.
1. I loved 23.1. Great opener. I did not do 14.4 so this was my first time doing this. I loved the ladder although for people that don't have TTB, perhaps doing 50 wall balls would have been better and then 40 TTB. I'm good at TTB so I preferred it as is. But, i know a lot of people struggled through the TTB.
2. 23.2 wasn't my favorite although I did well on part A. From a community standpoint it was kind of boring to watch. I appreciate the difficulty of running and doing the burpee pullups but it was a slow grind and got redundant. Instead of the max thruster in Part B, I would have liked to see the thrusters worked in to Part A, or do some type of max reps in 2-3 minutes in Part B. I also thought the max thruster skewed standings a little so perhaps that could have been scored differently.
3. 23.3 wasn't my favorite although I appreciate the difficulty and what Boz was trying to do. I need to work on snatches so that was the tough portion for me. I felt like it was a tons of shoulders in a short amount of time but I take it that was the point. I didn't necessarily feel cheated but it's very rare that we have that much intensity in 6 minutes so it was new for me. Ideally I would have liked to see a 8-10 minute workout but that's just me. For being the last week, it felt a little anti-climactic.
Overall good year. I do really like the barbell being featured every week.
Would like to know if there is anything Boz would do differently in the programming now that all results are in.
Does CrossFit have a site where you can send in feedback on the workouts?
Congrats & kudos for your 100th. BRAVO 👏👏👏! Test Vs. Training: I did 23.3 Scaled as a test on Saturday - This way, to the 120lbs heavy male me, it's a skill and muscular endurance workout. Then, I did 23.3 Rx'd as a training on Monday - This way, to me, it's a skill and strength workout... Now, QUESTION: why the 23.2B thruster (Same movement pattern as the wall ball shots) and 23.3, two strength tests IMHO (And maybe the "feeling heavier than you think" clean in 23.1 is also a strength test)? Is 2023, the year of strength? If so, bring back "Strongman's Fear", please 🤩!
Hey guys! Thanks so much. What are the chances CrossFit will put out a book of standards and movements? Maybe with 300 movements and the standards for each? As an affiliate owner this would be so helpful for my coaches
Thanks for a great Open! Definitely was challenged and took away some great learnings. I am curious why the strict HSPU standard was not upheld for the 55+ masters age groups. I am in W50-54 and feel ithe strict standard was a great test (although not a strength of mine), and a move in the right direction. I would have thought the older age groups could have kept the strict standard and scaled with risers. I would think that group would also benefit from NOT dropping fast on their head and cervical spine. LOL. Curious why older masters were programmed kipping HSPU?
Love getting an inside look into this decision making, thanks for sharing! One piece of feedback though, if I may: I follow all the logic until we got to the snatch weights in 23.3. I thought they seemed outrageously high and then I was disappointed to have it confirmed that they were based on the abilities of the Games level athletes... the entire season is for the Games athletes and the rest of us mere mortals get 3 weeks to play. I think it kind of hurts to hear that this year's Open was built for the elite, not for the general population. Just one person's opinion: keep the Open, OPEN and test the best the rest of the season. I don't think we need RMU, SHSPU, & elite weight snatches ALL in a single Open... I think it left a lot of people feeling bad about themselves
I wasn't registered for The Open, but I still love doing all of the workouts. I thought all of the workouts were great this year! Those shuttle runs were a little mean, though.
👏 👏 👏
Pretty disappointed in the programming. Three very specialized tests this year.
As an international box owner. When the heck are you going to put metric on the main score card???. The whole world uses metric and there are now more metric boxes than imperial users. As good as the program was. It's Seriously hard to organise and translate EVERY weight in time for the weekend (NZ is 12 hours ahead) Seriously considering not promoting it ever again.
The open cannot be done solo. You needed someone to do weight changes or you are at a great disadvantage.