John Van Every, owner of CrossFit Longevity in Santa Cruz, Calif., is bringing CrossFit to athletes 50 years old and older. After Van Every began training his father, both were quickly sold on the idea of bringing CrossFit to others in this demographic.
“We started thinking that offering CrossFit to his age group would be something that would be very beneficial,” John says.
In Part 1, Van Every talks about the success of his affiliate and athletes as well as the obstacles he’s encountered. He says getting new clients in the door is a challenge because many in the age group don’t stay connected through social media.
“Generally, I’ve had to shift the way that I market towards this age demographic, and it’s been a challenge, and we’re still working on that. So really, word of mouth has worked the best so far,” he says.
His athletes are proud of the improvement they have made, and none have left the program.
“I’ve noticed that I am much stronger. Before I came in here, I was having problems getting up off the floor,” says 66-year-old Gloria Thomas. “But I’m much stronger now, so I can do that by myself.”
In Part 2, John and his father, Dr. John Van Every, share their familiarity with Coach Greg Glassman, having met CrossFit’s founder and CEO during the formative years of his coaching.
Part 1 12min 50sec
Part 2 3min 33sec
Additional reading: Training Silvers by Joey Powell, published May 28, 2010.
“Right now, like, I love my life. I do. I am so fortunate and so grateful for everything I have,” says Tanya Wagner.
In this video filmed in January, seven-and-a-half months into her pregnancy, Wagner was still CrossFitting. The 2009 Games champion still has kipping pull-ups and works on keeping her upper-body strength.
“Handstand push-ups and muscle-ups were such a hard thing for me not pregnant, so … that’s something I want to keep up with, and so I’ve been trying to at least do strict pressing,” she says.
When choosing movements safe to perform during pregnancy, Wagner says an expectant mom should listen to her own body. Coming from an elite CrossFit background, Tanya and her husband Josh share a fitness perspective that differs from their obstetrician; however, everyone has the safety of the mother and child at heart, and Wagner wants the very best for her unborn child.
“I want my son to be able to know who he is … and not have to feel like he always had to be a certain way because of me and Josh wanting him to be somebody or because the world wanted him to be a certain way,” Wagner says.
“To let them just kind of have their own wings and fly, I think that’s going to be something I’m going to struggle with, and I’m really going to try my hardest,” Wagner says.
Update: Tanya gave birth to baby boy AJ Rustin on March 18, 2011.
Please note: These files are very large. They are long and even the SD versions are higher quality than the normal Journal videos. They are not meant to be watched streamed. Please download the entire file to your hard drive before watching it (right-click and choose Save Link As...).
Additional reading: Working Out for Two by Lauren Joseph, published Aug. 13, 2010.
A few months ago, Nebraska football seemed to be heading into the Big Ten with relatively few hiccups and as a potential immediate contender.
But news this weekend has put that good fortune in jeopardy.
According to multiple reports, quarterback Cody Green has asked and been granted his transfer. Of course, no one will verify these reports on the record, but if true, it could be a tough quarterbacking year for the Huskers.
Even more surprising is where Green might end up. Steve Sipple of the Lincoln Journal Star has a throwaway line at the bottom of his Saturday column that Green could be headed to Boise State.
Meanwhile, here's hoping Green finds success at his new home, wherever that may be (Boise State may be a possibility, I'm told).
Green, a native of Dayton, Texas, was courted by schools such as Texas, Baylor and Texas A&M out of high school and those would seemingly be among his first choices because they're close to home and they're still in the Big 12. However, with Boise State starting quarterback Kellen Moore having just one year of eligibility remaining and Green having to sit out his redshirt season per NCAA transfer rules, the move does have some potential.
Another possible destination could be Louisville where former Nebraska offensive coordinator Shawn Watson is now the quarterbacks coach. However, Tyler Gabbert, a transfer from Missouri, is considering the Cardinals for the same reason.
While Green wasn't the starter, he was a steady player who spelled Taylor Martinez whose stats (and maybe confidence) took a bit of a hit after suffering an injured ankle last year.
During his two years in Lincoln, Green completed 66 of 122 passes for 657 yards and five touchdowns. And while he was a favorite among media and some fans, he couldn't get past Martinez to earn the starting role.
But make no mistake, Green has shown the ability to be a starter and there are a lot of schools that would love to have him on their roster.
As for Nebraska, it still has Martinez, but there is no experience behind him. Redshirt freshman Brion Carnes would be the backup after running the scout team last year. He did have a nice showing in the spring game, but no one knows what to expect in a real game situation. With Martinez's past injury issues, that's a major concern for the Huskers depth.
You are likely to be baffled by this, or simply not believe it: Penn State passed on legendary basketball coach Larry Brown because they wanted someone with 'a more recent college coaching background.'
Assessing 2011's most intriguing players, in no particular order. Today:Clemson sophomore receiver DeAndre Hopkins.
?Typecasting. Hopkins wasn't tabbed as the "instant impact" guy in a recruiting class that originally included a more hyped receiver from just down Hwy. 76 ?�recruiting services weren't even certain what position Hopkins would play in college ? but he wasn't supposed to be arriving in such desperate times: Even at Clemson, a program that seems whose own fan base seems to regard it as a perennial underachiever for going on two decades, there's a special place for the disappointment of the 2010 offense. Armed with a second-year starter at quarterback, two soon-to-be draft picks and six other returning starters, the Tigers limped in at 10th out of 12 teams in the low-octane ACC in total and scoring offense, leading the charge to Clemson's first losing record since 1998.
After a midseason injury to leading rusher Andre Ellington, the search for signs of life turned to Hopkins, a lanky (6-foot-2, 194 pounds) two-sport athlete whose height, agility and hops were far more valuable to the struggling offense than a competent, veteran secondary. By season's end, he'd emerged as arguably the only bright spot in the attack, and as the key building block in the transition to a hurry-up spread scheme under new offensive coordinator Chad Morris.
?Best-Case. Hopkins wasn't invisible over the first half of the season ?�he had at least one catch in six of the team's eight games in September and October, and was ACC Rookie of the Week after bringing in seven for 46 yards against North Carolina ? but he was quiet: His only pre-Halloween touchdown came on a nine-yard gimme in the midst of a 58-21 rout over Presbyterian, and the longest of his 18 receptions covered 23 yards. There were glimpses of potential, however, and if there was a single moment when Hopkins began to emerge as more than a set of dreadlocks in the crowd, it came when he brought in a wild one-handed catch along the sideline in the first quarter of an eventual win over Georgia Tech on Oct. 23:
Almost from that point on, the kid was the go-to target, finishing as the Tigers' leading receiver in four of the last five games and for the season as a whole with big afternoons against N.C. State (5 catches for 80 yards), Florida State (8 for 106), South Carolina (7 for 124) and South Florida (8 for 94). Hopkins had at least one catch covering 30 yards in all of those games, most notably a 45-yard touchdown from Kyle Parker on the first possession against the Gamecocks that served as Clemson's only score of the game.
Hopkins' other two scores down the stretch, on the receiving end of a two-yard lob against Wake Forest and a 12-yard post against N.C. State, reinforced his potential as a red zone threat against man coverage:
Extrapolated over a full 13-game season, Hopkins' rates over the last five games would have been good enough to lead the ACC last year in receptions, tie for the lead in receptions covering at least 25 yards, finish a close second in total receiving yards and a close third in touchdowns ? in other words, to make him a likely all-conference pick in a conference where the actual all-conference picks, Miami's Leonard Hankerson and Maryland's Torrey Smith, both went in the first three rounds of last month's NFL Draft.
?Worst-Case. In the first place, Hopkins hasn't put together a full season at an all-conference level: His consistency and, to a lesser extent, durability (he missed a 31-7 October win over Maryland with a vague "upper body muscular injury") are still very much in question. In the second, the Tigers are starting a relatively green quarterback in redshirt sophomore Tajh Boyd, who has played a little but never started a college game, operating in a new system that's more likely to emphasize spreading the ball around. (Say, to incoming five-star Sammy Watkins, for example.)
More importantly, Hopkins' emergence as the focal point of the passing game didn't do anything for the offense as a whole: The Tigers were 2-3 over the last five and managed just 322 yards per game, below their season average. In three of Hopkins biggest games, against N.C. State, Florida State and South Carolina, Clemson was held to 14, 13 and 7 points, respectively. If he is a star in the making, it's still uncertain that it matters beyond his own stat line.
?Fun Fact. Hopkins' much-anticipated appearance on the basketball roster in January didn't go over quite as spectacularly as his debut in pads. A three-time all-state selection who averaged 20 points and 8 assists per game as a senior at D.W. Daniel High, he barely saw the floor in the spring, appearing in seven games for a grand total of 10 minutes with one assist, one rebound, one steal, one block, two personal fouls, two turnovers and zero points on 0-for-2 shooting.
Hopkins isn't currently listed on the 2011-12 roster (though that could simply be because his scholarship is for football), and unless the hoop is in his soul, his career the court may be limited to a freshman experiment.
?What to expect in the fall. The most serious challenges for touches in the new, up-tempo offense could come from the hyped incoming recruiting class, which features two touted receivers (Sammy Watkins and Sharone Peake) who were ranked among Rivals' top 100 overall prospects in the entire 2011 class, and a third (Martavis Bryant) who was ranked in the top 100 last year before being diverted to prep school. There's also five-star running back Mike Bellamy, an all-purpose blip in the C.J. Spiller mold, and Andre Ellington, who was in the midst of a fine sophomore season last fall before it was cut short in October. Along with four other guys who averaged at least two touches per game last year on offense ? all of them sophomores and juniors and this fall ? there's no shortage of candidates for the ball on any given play.
But however brief, Hopkins has the most promising track record of the returnees, by far, and the best chance of sustaining his November quota of five-to-eight catches per game. If he gets there alongside a breakthrough season by one or two of the newcomers, the offense is automatically better for the foreseeable future.
1. Many Kentucky fans chuckled at the news that Louisville was interested in embattled ex-Wake Forest big man Tony Woods last year, but they're no longer laughing now that it's the Wildcats who are debating adding a kid who plead guilty to assaulting a woman. The Lexington Herald Leader's John Clay poses the question whether it should be a program of Kentucky's stature that gives Woods a second chance.
2. It has taken Kansas fans years to forgive Roy Williams for jilting the Jayhawks in favor of North Carolina, but it appears time has finally healed those wounds. Despite carrying a North Carolina golf bag and wearing white and Tar Heel-blue shoes, Williams received cheers from the Jayhawks faithful whenever he hit a good shot while competing against Bill Self at a Sunday pro-am in Mayetta, Kan.
3.Northern Iowa athletic director Troy Dannen only needed one word to sum up his emotions after Texas A&M chose Murray State coach Billy Kennedy over the Panthers' Ben Jacobson. ""Relief," Dannen told the Des Moines Register. "Truthfully, he is the best coach in the Valley. You've got a great person, great mentor for the student-athletes and a great representative of the university. Those aren't the type of people you want to lose."
4. Maybe the worst news of the college basketball offseason became official last week when CBS parted ways with Gus Johnson, ensuring that the voice of March Madness has called his last NCAA tournament game for a while. Ben Koo of Awful Announcing provides an excellent explanation of why CBS would choose not to resign one of its most popular play-by-play voices.
5. From Cal's Bak Bak to ex-Wisconsin forward Duany Duany, to former Oklahoma big man Longar Longar, college basketball has a surprisingly rich history of double-named players. The latest will be 6-foot-6 Canadian forward Shayok Shayok, who signed with Bradley on Friday.
The only question in determining today's clip of the day was simply which Taj Gibson dunk was it going to be. On wow factor alone, the ex-USC big man's one-handed follow slam gets the nod over his posterization of Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade.
"People think Tony is some sort of monster. It's frustrating to everyone around him because we know that's not the case." -- Tony Woods' girlfriend Courtney Barber, the woman with whom the ex-Wake Forest big man got into an altercation last year that resulted in him being kicked off the team. (Yahoo! Sports)
“People just don’t have any idea what these lawyers, garbage men, teachers are capable of doing. Superhuman feats, that’s what they’re doing, and they get support to do it, and they get this loving, supportive community to stand behind them,” says TJ Belger, co-owner of TJ’s Gym in Northern California. TJ’s Gym recently hosted the Norcal 40s CrossFit Competition for athletes in the 40-49 age group.
Belger says that the response was so positive that athletes entered from across the country. Even athletes 50 and older begged to compete. TJ and his wife Allison chose the 40-49 age group because in the 2010 CrossFit Games, 50 years old was the masters-division cut-off.
“Under 40, you’re still kind of maybe in the running for competing, and I just felt like this was a specific decade that was sort of left out of CrossFit competitions thus far,” Allison says. She hopes other regions will start making this an annual event, too.
“CrossFit, I think, brings up the competitive drives in everybody. You can’t be a CrossFitter and not have some component of competitive nature in you,” Allison says.
7min 28sec
Additional reading: CrossFit After 40 by Dr. Allison Belger, published Jan. 30, 2010.
Could a split between the haves and have-nots of college football be in the works?
That's what CBSSports.com columnist Tony Barnhart wrote in his column Thursday and it's hard to disagree with his logic.
Let's be honest, there's already a stigma between the big six conferences and the nonautomatic qualifying schools. No matter how well some of the non-AQs do on the field, they simply aren't regarded in the same light as the powers that be. A lot of that has to do with money, but it also has to do with perception. There's already a mental divide between the big and small schools and no matter how much the smaller conferences protest and fight for equality, that mental perception will always be there.
Barnhart makes two great points in his article:
? Both Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany and SEC commissioner Mike Slive have both endorsed a potential rule change that would allow their conferences to pay an incidental living expenses stipend to its student-athletes. Most of the big conferences, thanks to television deals and ticket sales, can afford to do this. The remaining five conferences -- the WAC, Sun Belt, Mountain West, Conference USA and MAC -- don't have nearly the revenue to compete with whatever stipend figure the bigger conferences are contemplating.
? The BCS is probably on its way out, leaving teams to fend for themselves monetarily. The best way to do that is to band together and make a profitable product for television. The teams in the major conferences can pull of that type of branding without the non-AQ leagues.
CNN Money published a story last December citing the monetary discrepancies between the top six conferences and the five non-AQ leagues for 2010. The story states that the big six revenue was up 11 percent and that each of those major teams earned an average of $15.8 million per year. The non-AQ schools from the other conferences split $26 million and eight of those schools lost money.
Texas led the way with $94 million in revenue while Alabama and Georgia followed. TCU and Boise State were among the big winners among the non-AQ leagues, but TCU's $20 million placed it 47th on the revenue list and that $20 million just allowed the school to break even.
I think that all of us, on some basic level, knew that an eventual separation between the AQ and non-AQ teams was possible and even likely especially after the Mountain West's best teams were either picked up by bigger conferences or decided to go independent. It was like picking out the best while leaving the rest in the minor leagues. It's unfortunate that a team such as Boise State might end up being left behind, but like any divorce, there are always casualties.
Barnhart proposes that the six major conferences and the independents -- Army, Navy, Notre Dame and BYU -- would form a 70-team group called the College Football Association. The non-AQ teams would have to ban together with the I-AA schools (or FCS) to stay afloat.
I think the most damning quotes in Barnhart's article come from Appalachian State athletic director Charlie Cobb, whose school has been going through a feasibility study since 2009. The school is trying to determine whether it's financially stable enough to move from I-AA to I-A. When Appalachian State announced that it was doing a feasibility study, it raised questions about where the school might be looking to jump. It's in Conference USA territory, but the Big East was also a blip on the radar. Cobb said he feels like his school is on par with those from the non-AQ leagues.
"When we look at the WAC, the MAC, the Sun Belt and the others we compare very favorably to what they are doing," Cobb told CBSSports.com. "So we decided that if things change dramatically we need to be prepared.
"What the Big Ten said last week got everybody's attention. What it really showed is that the gap in college football is not between Division I-A and I-AA. It's between the BCS schools and everybody else Division I-A."
While attention will be on the big six conferences, which have no doubt already talked about this type of change in the college landscape, a watchful eye also has to be kept on the Mountain West. This is the conference that raised the fuss with the BCS for inclusion and also prompted the federal government's involvement. Could that ultimately backfire on the Mountain West? If the BCS ceases to exist that might leave the Mountain West -- arguably the best among the non-AQ leagues -- on the outside looking in.
It's a good thing new Maryland coach Mark Turgeon began recruiting as soon as he was hired because the Terps may have a few more vacant scholarships than they expected.
According to various reports, all three of Maryland's incoming freshmen recruits have asked to be released from their letter of intent in the wake of Gary Williams' abrupt resignation last week. New Jersey point guard Sterling Gibbs and Baltimore shooting guard Nick Faust have said they will still consider the Terrapins, but certainly it's more common for recruits in this position to go elsewhere rather than sign with their original school.
"We just felt that it was in our best interest to just explore our options," Gibbs told the Baltimore Sun. "Maryland is still my top priority. But I just want to make sure that it was the best fit for me."
Faust, Rivals.com's No. 48 recruit, is Maryland's most highly touted recruit in years and his outside shooting would fill an immediate void. Gibbs, the brother of Pittsburgh star Ashton Gibbs, is also a potential impact recruit. And German forward Martin Breunig would likely receive immediate playing time if he stayed because Maryland is so short-handed down low in the wake of Jordan Williams' early departure.
Maryland would be down to eight scholarship players next season if none of the recruits return, but Turgeon is doing his best to retain as many as possible. He's spoken to each of them already.
"He's a great guy, great coach," Faust told the Baltimore Sun. "I told him that I just wanted to do this to make sure I go to the best place for me. … I know he respected that. He gave me the option of being able to weigh my options. I respect him for that also."
At a time when colleges so often get accused of looking the other way when one of their star athletes gets in trouble, Robert Morris certainly won't be accused of showing guard Karon Abraham too much leniency.
The first incident came in November when Abraham was charged with underage drinking and driving under the influence after crashing a borrowed car into a parked vehicle hours after a victory over Duquesne. The 19-year-old had just begun an alcohol rehab program after the season when he was cited for underage drinking again, this time as a passenger in a vehicle that was pulled over on April 23.
"It's unfortunate that these measures had to be taken, however we feel it is as much our job to prepare Karon for success in life as it is to prepare him for success on the basketball court," Robert Morris coach Andrew Toole said. "We hold our student-athletes within our program and at Robert Morris University to very high standards, and if those standards aren't met there are consequences."
The decision by Robert Morris certainly shows every player will be held to the same high standards because there's no doubt the Colonials will miss Abraham's 13.9 points per game and 43 percent three-point shooting.
Robert Morris appeared to be a favorite to win the NEC championship again next season since it would have returned four of five starters from an 18-win team had Abraham not been suspended. Now the Colonials will have to duplicate some of their conference tournament success from last season when they made a surprise run to the title game and nearly upset top-seeded Long Island even though Abraham was injured.
Abraham will not be permitted to even practice with the team next season, though he will be allowed to attend games. It's a harsh punishment but it's one he better learn from because a third offense will likely mean expulsion.
Join CrossFit Kettlebell trainer Jeff Martone as he adds more kettlebell movements to the CrossFit toolbox. In Part 3, he shares one of his specialties: the Turkish get-up.
“This is another exercise that’s phenomenal for your shoulder, and it’s a total body exercise,” Martone says. He believes the movement translates well to getting up defensively, especially for law-enforcement officers.
The first stage of the Turkish get-up is sitting up from a supine position with the kettlebell locked out overhead. Martone breaks it down slowly. If your leg shoots up as you are driving your back off the ground, it is a fault.
“The reason that foot comes up is because it’s really just a disconnect in your core—you’re not keeping it tight,” he says. “We can fix it by doing a simple breathing exercise, just matching the breath with the movement … just actively exhaling on the way up, which keeps our abs tight.”
The next stage is getting off the ground and back down in another series of steps. Martone emphasizes proper shoulder positioning throughout the movement. He cautions against relaxing on the way down.
“That combination of your back slapping and that elbow bend—that kettlebell’s coming screaming for one spot: to crush your head,” he says.
7min 58sec
Additional reading: How to Speak Martone by Larry Gallagher, published Oct.28, 2008.
How do intangibles like passion and belief in self fit into a community driven by data? Web Smith explains.
Determination, faith and the value of conquering the “fear of failure” may fall outside the CrossFit pursuit of data-driven performance, but it’s apparent these factors existed for Matt Chan and Chris Spealler in the 2010 CrossFit Games.
Just as the variables of CrossFit competition are unknown, so too are the depths of an athlete’s heart, mind and faith. The intensity of their focus, faith and resolve may very well rival the actual intensity of their remarkable power output, and perhaps these intangible factors are at least partly responsible for the performances of these athletes. We cannot prove this, so we tend to avoid discussing the validity of these concepts.
Dusty Hyland and Jeff Tucker offer some advice to CrossFitters aspiring to learn new gymastics movements.
The CrossFit Journal will be presenting a series of articles where Jeff Tucker teaches several gymnastics movements and explains the strength pre-requisites for those movements.
In this introduction, Dusty Hyland and Tucker talk about why it’s important to build up slowly when learning new gymnastics movements that can place new stress on the body.
So I'm doing the Memorial Day thing and as such am almost completely out of pocket. I'm typing on a phone and therefore can't do various things I otherwise would do. Like link. Sorry in advance.
Preliminaries out of the way: wow. Ding, dong. /brucecampbellvoice. Tressel's dead, Ohio State won't have a new coach until November, when the Buckeye season will end no matter their record, and there's an SI story coming out in the next day or so that will apparently explain the sudden shift from "I hope he doesn't fire me" to dead man. In all likelihood that will contain details that put USC level sanctions on the table. In the interregnum in Columbus, shiny friendly not about to get cratered Brady Hoke will be in ur base stealing ur recruits. Full analysis tomorrow when I've got a computer and the SI story. Someone find a good place to get a Dispatch style count up clock in the meantime.
“What we’re looking for is speed endurance,” says CrossFit Football coach Raphael Ruiz coach as he discusses the NFL Combine’s shuttle run. “They’re looking for your motor.”
In this two-part series, the cameras provide a peek into a CrossFit Football seminar, where you can learn how to add shuttle runs into your coaching and training toolbox.
In Part 1, Ruiz begins with the pro long shuttle. This 60-yard shuttle utilizes “hard cuts” or changes in direction.
“You’re running in one direction, you’ve created inertia, and then we want to stop it and create inertia in the opposite direction,” he says.
According to Ruiz, the three-cone L drill, also known as the “pro agility drill,” is much more complex to coach and perform. After a five-yard hard cut, athletes break to the right in a speed cut in which they “change directions and accelerate at the same time,” according to Ruiz. Foot placement is key, and Ruiz teaches the techniques needed to navigate the drill.
In Part 2, Ruiz teaches the short shuttle, also known as the “5-10-5.” With the assistance of CrossFit Football’s John Welbourn, he coaches athletes through the drill. According to Ruiz, you can be creative in training with shuttle runs.
“You can go resisted or assisted—whatever one you want to do—and you can be as creative as you possibly want to be,” Ruiz says. “You’re going to test the same way, but use this as a standard agility developer, so you can do anything from shuffle to sprint, backpedal to sprint, sprint to sprint—any combination that will allow you to do it.”
Red Bull does not seem to be Dana Holgorsen?s only vice. When police removed the West Virginia head coach in waiting from a casino after 3:00 AM on May 18. It wasn?t his first alcohol-related incident.
Resistance training and kids is a contentious issue. Maurizio Guarrata and Dan Edelman offer some perspective from athletic training in Europe.
Youth resistance training has generated a lot of controversy over the years. Through the 1980s, the common wisdom held that youth resistance training was ineffective. In addition, a myth that weight training stunts children’s growth, typically seen as stemming from Kato and Ishiko’s study, persists even today.
However, over time, better-designed studies indicated that, indeed, strength can be increased in children and that resistance programs were not only safe but integral to children’s general fitness and sports performance. The wealth of empirical evidence specifying the positive impact of resistance training for kids has led many key authorities to come out in support of youth resistance training.
Safety is a critical dimension, no doubt, especially with respect to technique, but, again, practice and statistics show that when done with adequate supervision, resistance training with children and teens is relatively injury- and accident-free when compared to sports, while strength gains are genuine and help decrease the incidence of sports-related injuries.
“We want to program for work capacity,” says HQ trainer Chris Spealler. “And that’s going to happen through this form of general physical preparedness.”
Spealler, who’s also an elite CrossFit athlete, shares his programming secrets with the group at a recent Coaches Prep Course.
“The more variance you have, the better off you are,” Spealler says.
But that doesn’t mean that we should follow the “hopper model” for programming. Random programming has its pitfalls.
“The reality is there’s probably going to be more similarities between those things than if we really had a well-thought-out plan of variance,” he says.
Spealler also cautions the trainers about programming for the Reebok CrossFit Games. While he says it’s important to fill holes in your fitness, you shouldn’t base all your programming on the events of the CrossFit Games.
Spealler says that his programming for his gym and for himself is more organic and never planned far in advance.
“What haven’t I done? What do I feel like I need to do? That’s where I go,” he says.
Chicken nuggets are one of the most popular kids foods. What kid doesn’t like breaded chicken that’s fried and then dipped in a favorite sauce?
These nuggets are easy, and your kids can help shape the nuggets themselves. If your kids don’t like onions, just omit them. You can also add other vegetables such as red peppers or carrots in the mix and you’ve got rainbow chicken nuggets!
There's never been any shortage of obscure, one-sided feuds in sports that continue to baffle outsiders ? except for the "one-sided" part, this pretty much describes the whole of international soccer ?�but nowhere do they come more baffling or more one-sided than the grudge Tennessee fans carry to this day against ex-Michigan cornerback Charles Woodson, the unworthy interloper who "stole" Peyton Manning's Heisman Trophy more than 13 years ago. The wound has only festered with time: As Vol villains go, Woodson remains even more despised by Tennessee fans than their old Florida nemesis, Danny Wuerffel, whose head-to-head ownership of Manning in the Gator routs of 1995 and 1996 planted the seed of Manning's fate as the consummate runner-up in the first place.
But Woodson is only one half of the equation. The other half, of course, is the media that ? in collective Vol memory, anyway ?�relentlessly stumped for a sexier candidate to add some spice to a one-man race featuring a boring, clean-cut Southern quarterback. In college football in 1997, "the media" meant "ESPN." Opinion-making on ESPN meant College GameDay, and GameDay meant Chris Fowler ? the guy who personally emceed Woodson's triumph in New York that December.
In the weeks leading up to the Heisman announcement, when we talked about it on GameDay, I would just point out that if you read the tea leaves, it was not going to be a slam dunk for Peyton Manning, which you were hearing a lot ahead of time. People assumed Peyton Manning had the Heisman won. All I said was that this wasn't a done deal. I wasn't trying to hype Charles Woodson or the show for that matter.�The show was going to rate what it rated. I was just doing my job. But there were people at Tennessee who were frustrated and took it very personally. ESPN didn't have the SEC games at that point, didn't have as much of a relationship with the conference as we do now. We were seen as "the Big Ten Conference" by some people in that part of the world, and we were perceived to have an agenda...
...Immediately, the story wasn't that Charles Woodson won the Heisman; the story was that Peyton Manning�didn't win it. And I was the guy that�was seen giving it to Woodson. I got a lot of negative feedback. The phone was rining off the hook that night. Then I got a lot of letters, and a lot of other hateful stuff directed at me personally.�I was across a chain-link fence at the Orange Bowl from Tennessee fans a month later, and it was really, really edgy; very difficult and uncomfortable. And it stayed that way for a while. We didn't go back to Knoxville with GameDay for a few years, and when�we did, we paid attention to security.
By the way, I had voted for Peyton Manning to win the Heisman Trophy.
See? It was nothing personal, you guys.Just a man with very well-manicured hair trying to keep things in perspective.
And even if Fowler is conveniently skipping the part where he described the reaction of Tennessee fans to Woodson's win as a "trailer-park frenzy" on a national radio show, he's also being diplomatic by not stating the obvious: Peyton Manning didn't win the Heisman Trophy because he tanked the biggest game of the season for the third year in a row. Woodson's defining moment was a spectacular play against a highly-ranked, hated rival that helped propel his team on to a national championship; Manning's was an ugly pick-six against a highly-ranked, hated rival that helped cost his team a national championship. Cold case closed.
Creative CrossFitters create new workouts every day. Ryan Ford continues the search for signature workouts from around the world.
“I could totally do a pull-up on that branch.”
Greg Glassman changed the way CrossFitters view the world. Tree branches became pull-up bars, picnic tables turned into plyo boxes and swing sets seemed like great places to hang a set of rings. And that rock over there? You should probably overhead squat it.
Indeed, all the world is a CrossFit gym with the right pair of eyes and a little creativity.
This article is the fourth in a series where we’ll publish some of the best workouts from locales around the world, giving residents and travelers a chance to test their fitness outside the box. If you have a set of landmarks, natural features or outdoor “equipment” suited for a great WOD, please view the submission guidelines on the last page of this article—then send us your workout!
Salo said the 2010 CrossFit Games were “an eye-opening experience” that had a great effect on his training. According to Salo, he’s actually glad he didn’t come closer to the podium because it gave him the motivation to focus on his weaknesses and get better. He’s currently concentrating his efforts on improving his gymnastics abilities.
“I have increased my strength levels, and my met-cons are getting better, so I’m doing something right,” Salo says. “Skill training is the thing we have now added to my training.”
While Salo says he follows some met-cons on the main site, he mostly programs his own training. By contrast, Bergeron says she’s trying to follow the main-site programming as much as possible but adds supplemental work to her regimen. Both competitors are trying to improve their gymnastics skills, especially handstand walking.
“It’s just a fun thing to train,” Bergeron says. “So if I’m in the gym and I don’t know what to do and I’m just trying to kill time, I start walking on my hands. It’s just fun.”
Ohio DE Tom Strobel (6'5", 245 lbs) took a trip up to Ann Arbor this past weekend. Strobel has had his interest in MIchigan steadily rise the more and more visits he's taken. Here's a look at his film and what he had to say about the most recent trip.
TOM: Who came up to Ann Arbor with you this time, and what did you get to see?
STROBEL: I've been up there before for the spring game, but I went with both my parents this time. We got a small tour of campus and facilities. We talked to all the coaches.
TOM: I'm assuming that this visit gave you a better chance to actually get to know the coaches?
STROBEL: For sure, we got to sit down and talk with them. They talked about football and family mostly. We didn't really go over scheme or film. We really just talked about football here and there, it was honestly more about the person they want to come to Michigan. It was all about character. They said they want to get someone that fits as soon as possible. I told them I wasn't supposed to make a decision any time soon. I'm not sure exactly when I'll decide, sometime in the near future.
TOM: Since your parents were there what was the overall impression of the coaches for both you and your parents?
STROBEL: The coaches are very kind, respectful, and very personal too. They didn't really talk about football it was more about my mom and dad. They asked me about how I feel about academics, which I appreciated. It's nice not to talk football all the time. They just explained to us that they want to have that Michigan man.
TOM: Have you narrowed your list down yet, or started to?
STROBEL: I'm starting to narrow schools down now. Michigan's in the top with schools like Ohio State, Stanford, and Notre Dame. Academics are big for me.
TOM: Have you been out to see all of those schools yet?
STROBEL: The only places I haven't been are Stanford and Nebraska. I'm interested in Nebraska also.
TOM: What's the criteria to evaluate these schools? How will you narrow it down?
STROBEL: I look for the pros and cons in each school. I'll look at the facilities and the strength and conditioning coaches. I'll be spending most of my time with them so that's important. I want to get in depth with the core of the program, rather than all the bells and whistles. I want to see the food too, I want to see what kind of food I'll be eating. I also want to see what type of coaches they are at each school.
TOM: I have to ask, since you're from Ohio did you grow up an Ohio State fan?
STROBEL: I think everyone in Ohio is an Ohio State fan. I grew up a little Buckeye, but that doesn't necessarily mean it will affect my decision. I'm looking at this without the fan side in it.
TOM: Did you know anything about Michigan before your visits, other than they're the Buckeyes' rival?
STROBEL: I just knew that it was Michigan. To be honest I didn't expect much going there, but then when I got there it was just an eye opener. These visits are what got them in the top group.
TOM: What about any of the coaches? I know they're new to Michigan, but did you know anything about them?
STROBEL: I knew that Mattison had been at Baltimore, but it shows that he's going to be there and he's not going anywhere if he came from the pros. I don't want to be switching coaches constantly, so it makes a difference for a coach to be there the whole time.
TOM: How do you think your recruitment is going to play out? Do you have a timeline yet?
STROBEL: I'm not sure how it's going to pan out yet. I want to get out to Stanford and some other places. I'd like to get my official visits in, but we'll see.
Almost a year after the NCAA dropped one of the largest bombs in its history on USC, the fallout is official: Citing "multiple sources inside and outside the university," USCFootball.com reports today that the NCAA has informed the university that all sanctions have been upheld in full. (The L.A. Times has also confirmed.) The official release is expected to come on Thursday.
USC's appeal targeted two aspects of the sanctions: The second half of a two-year postseason ban (the Trojans "voluntarily" served the first half of the ban last season) and, more importantly, massive scholarship reductions that take away 30 scholarships over the next three years, limiting USC to just 15 signees per year instead of the standard twenty-five. That part, they certainly have not served ?�not including eight early enrollees who count against last year's (unreduced) scholarship numbers, the Trojans are expected to welcome 22 new players to campus by the fall as part of the 2011 recruiting class.
At this point, what happens to the seven "extra" players who now exceed the 15-man limit is still anyone's guess. Personally, mine is that nothing will happen: The NCAA will most likely allow the entire 2011 class to enroll as planned and begin the three-year enforcement window with the 2012 class, which is already halfway there with eight early commitments. As Association spokesman Stacey Osburn told the Orange County Register in January, "generally speaking, when a school is appealing a penalty, that penalty is staid until a decision by the Infractions Appeals Committee is rendered." That decision has been rendered; the penalty is now in effect.
Thus ends whatever tension remained in the drama that began unfolding when Yahoo! first reported on Reggie Bush's elaborate improper benefits scheme almost five years ago. Bush's Heisman Trophy is gone (as is USC's copy), his name, face and statistics have been banished from the official record, his number has been removed from the L.A. Coliseum, 13 consecutive Trojan victories from 2004-05 have been wiped from the books and, now that the appeal is officially a lost cause, the 2004 BCS championship is almost certain to be revoked, too. Pete Carroll is gone. Mike Garrett is gone. Todd McNair is gone. The sense of invulnerability against the rest of the West Coast is long gone. Now, whatever hope still existed of avoiding the full brunt of the NCAA's verdict is gone. All that's left is to convince rising seniors with a penalty-free transfer at their disposal to play out the string with no opportunity at a Pac-12 championship or bowl game, and then to grin and bear it.
? Cap annual signing lists at 25 players, down from the 28-man cap mandated in 2009 by the so-called "Nutt Rule." ?�Expand the annual limit to cover all players who sign between Dec. 1 to Aug. 1, covering everyone who joins a team between the end of one season and the beginning of the next. (The current cap only applies to players signed between the first day prospects can sign a letter of intent in early February and the last day they can sign an LOI, May 31.) That would include early enrollees who arrive for the spring semester in January, who are currently back-counted against the previous year's limits. ?�Count all players who enroll in summer school against a school's scholarship numbers for the fall, to curb "grayshirting" of players who are already on campus at the start of the season in a last-second attempt to get under scholarship caps. ?�Give the SEC office more oversight of medical hardship exemptions that keep injured players (and "injured" players) on scholarship without counting against the NCAA's 85-man limit for the entire roster.
?Alle wegen leiden naar Idaho.Boise State's roster this fall will include not one, not two, but three natives of Amsterdam in key roles, thanks to a pipeline forged by former Boise assistant Romeo Bandison, an Amsterdam native who moved to America to play high school football and ended up being drafted by the Washington Redskins out of Oregon. Current Broncos Geraldo Hiwat, Cedric Febis and Ricky Tjong-A-Tjoe all followed the same route out of Amerstadam in search of better competition after dominating youth club leagues back home, and Hiwat and Febis will be counted on as the heirs apparent to graduated star Titus Young and Jeron Johnson at wide receiver and strong safety, respectively. [Rivals]
?For you? No. I'm only thinking of the children. Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl said Tuesday he is denying the Fiesta Bowl's request to return a $3,000 campaign contribution ? though the contribution may have been illegal ?�opting instead to donate the money to the American Red Cross for tornado relief. "In the past, when I have learned that funds have been improperly contributed to my campaign, I have donated them to charity," Kyl wrote in a letter to the bowl. "And since the Fiesta Bowl now acknowledges impropriety, that's what I will do." An aide for Sen. John McCain, who received more than $19,000 in "private" contributions later reimbursed to Fiesta Bowl employees, said the senator was following suit. [Associated Press, East Valley Tribune]
?Happy trails, part two. In other comings and goings, four Troy players were declared academically ineligible earlier this week, among them the Trojans' top two returning receivers (Jamel Johnson and Chip Reeves) and a part-time starter at cornerback (KeJuan Phillips) who topped the depth chart coming out of spring practice. A fifth Trojan, reserve defensive end R.J. Roberts, was also booted for an undisclosed violation of team rules. Hear o children the wisdom of coach Larry Blakeney: "You can lead a horse to the water, but can't force them to drink it." [Dothan Eagle]
Quickly…Nebraska quarterback Kody Spano is giving up football after an injury-plagued career that included two ACLs tears in a six-month span in 2009 and a shoulder injury earlier this year in spring practice. … Tate Forcier's latest transfer targets include USC and Auburn, as well as some more realistic destinations. … Auburn lays down new turf at Pat Dye Field. … And commissioner be damned, Houston Nutt is going to fight for his right to oversign to the bitter end.
Chris Mason offers a program designed for CrossFitters who want to improve their deadlifts without compromising overall fitness.
CrossFit and a big deadlift … .
Thus far, we have not seen too many competitive CrossFit athletes with a big pull. I firmly believe this relates to how CrossFitters normally attempt to integrate strength training with their CrossFit programming. The purpose of this article is to provide an effective alternative that will both build your deadlift and improve your overall CrossFit performance.
I suppose one’s interpretation of a “big pull” can vary quite significantly. I come from a powerlifting background, but I am not expecting CrossFitters to become the record-holding deadlifters in their respective weight classes. It’s obviously not realistic to expect a good CrossFitter to pull 800-plus lb., but I do think it’s realistic that we should see a lot more 550-plus-lb. pulls from the men and 350-plus-lb. pulls from the women.
Assessing 2011's most intriguing players, in no particular order. Today: 
Extrapolated over a full 13-game season, Hopkins' rates over the last five games would have been good enough to lead the ACC last year in receptions, tie for the lead in receptions covering at least 25 yards, finish a close second in total receiving yards and a close third in touchdowns ? in other words, to make him a likely all-conference pick in a conference where 
Which is why, in "Those Guys Have All the Fun," James Andrew Miller's new 
Almost a year after the NCAA dropped one of the 
Making the morning rounds.
