Wednesday Wins! Ethan W.!
WEDNESDAY WINS! ETHAN W!
Today we celebrate Ethan W., an exceptional athlete and all-around great guy. Since he walked in the doors of the Cove he’s gotten stronger, faster and has become a staple of the Cove community. This place is simply better with him in it.
Ethan started doing CrossFit in March of 2016 on his own. He discovered it as he was watching workout videos and YouTube kept recommending CrossFit videos for him. He was fascinated by them (and some guy named Rich Froning) and started doing the workouts he saw online and on CrossFit.com on his own.
A competitive golfer, he’s got great body awareness and learned by “watching and doing”. Just as he did while working on his golf swing, he would take videos of himself and then teach himself where he was supposed to be and how he should move.
He eventually started doing his CrossFit workouts at a commercial gym, but quickly found that environment wasn’t very encouraging of the type of workouts he was doing. Plus, he found it hard to motivate himself to work as hard as he should. He realized he needed to find a box to see what more he could do.
When Ethan went to his first CrossFit gym he couldn’t believe it. “I didn’t understand that there would be classes and people would be working out together. It wasn’t the workouts that changed everything…but rather the fact that other people were doing it with you.”. It became a whole new experience for him. He didn’t realize that there were people “like him” who loved this CrossFit thing like he did — and the community of people doing it together has made all the difference.
Since coming to the Cove, Ethan has improved dramatically at CrossFit but said “I didn’t quite realize the carry over it would have to other things. In the past I worked relentlessly on my golf game pretty much everyday. Now I play on the weekends and practice maybe a quarter of what I used to. And I’m a much better golfer as a result.”
He takes a lot of lessons of Golf into CrossFit. “I learned how important it is to control your heart rate and intensity — and to having a plan. When you start a workout, I know when to hold back and when to go for it.” And the feeling of accomplishment he gets from CrossFit is something he misses with golf. “No matter how I do when I play golf, I always feel like the course beat me and I lost. But no matter what happens in CrossFit, I leave the gym feeling like I won.”
Competitive golf was easy for him, but surprisingly he was nervous to hit a competition in CrossFit. He signed up for the Open on the last possible night and was so scared to do it (and didn’t think he should). But after those five weeks he could look back and say he not only loved the experience, but he loved doing it with the people at the Cove. Some of us see Ethan as this indestructible guy at the gym doing amazing things, but he’s just like the rest of us.
Outside of the Open, Ethan really didn’t even know that local competitions even really existed, let alone that he should do one. His first area CrossFit comp only happened because he was approached by a fellow athlete (Misa) who somehow convinced him to do it. And he’s so grateful she asked – and so thankful that he did it.
He had so much fun with the experience. He found that the very thing that he loved about being in the box (that is, surrounding yourself with great and like-minded people) was what made the competition so great. “Pushing myself along with all of those other people around me was unbelievable.” He ended up doing things he never thought possible, including doing 12 muscle ups in a row during one of the workouts. And we all know they ultimately WON this competition! He is still nervous about competition but has caught the bug and is doing the Charm City Throwdown in the Fall with Coach Josh.
Just to prove he’s not bulletproof, he did injure himself when he dropped from a muscle up and sprained his ankle. He was worried he wasn’t going to be able to workout for a while but he ended up learning a great lesson from a Ben Bergeron CrossFit podcast. It was all about becoming stronger through adversity. Although he couldn’t put pressure on that ankle, he took it as a time to work on other things and focus one what he could do to improve himself rather than what he couldn’t. He saw the strength moves like “strict press” that were his goats and found ways to work on them.
He’s focused and disciplined. He studies and practices. And he makes lemonade from lemons. Ironically, as one of the youngest members of the gym, there are so many lessons we can learn from him. Thanks for being the example to all of us Ethan!
SKILL WOD
10 Single Arm DB Row (10 per arm, 20 total)
8 Good Mornings (weight up to the athlete)
4 Rounds
WOD
___ Doubles
15 Power Cleans
3 Rounds
Fitness: 150 Singles (95/65)
Performance: 75 Doubles (115/75)
Open: 100 Doubles (135/95)
Coach’s Tip: The strength work should give us some good single arm work and prep the hamstrings for some pulling. The met con should be quick and dirty. The double/single portion should not take more than 2 minutes, so choose the volume that allows you to stay within that time frame. The 15 power cleans should be at a load that athletes can string together big sets. Sub 8 would be a great goal for this workout. Everyone should be done sub 12!
When Coach Chris says “press”, we press!
