Featured Athlete: Foxy

Name: Jeff Fox "Foxy"

Age: 28

Hometown: Savannah, GA 912.

Occupation: Sales at Gap Inc (Old Navy).

Previous sport: Olympic weightlifting.

Favorite WOD/movement/skill: Compound movements like thrusters or power cleans.

Weaknesses: Anything with running, or my cardio level, generally.

Strengths: Teachability.  Determination.

Goals: To be able to take anything CrossFit SAV can throw at me and smile afterward, and to have a better, fit body.

Favorite CrossFit moment: Finishing my first wod as prescribed.

Inspiring moment: Having 3 CF vets cheer me on while I finished the workout, giving me a little extra push to finish strong.

Least favorite CF moment: The recovery process after the first week or so's workouts. lol.

Closing thoughts: There was a time where I was being challenged in ways I've never experienced and I was mentally psyching myself out. Thanks to the coaches and general attitude of the members I was able to turn the corner and give it a solid go! Now I look forward to growing with the gym from the ground up.

Coach Ryan's perspective: The inspiring moment that Foxy, aka The Hype Man is referring to in this interview happened last Friday in a class with several seasoned CrossFitters after a workout that involved barbell thrusters. Still being new to CrossFit, Foxy scaled the workout to a weight he knew to be challenging but doable, and set his mind to finishing the workout at a pace that wouldn't induce vomiting. He didn't lift the heaviest weight, nor was he the fastest, but as the whole gym cheered him on he finished his last rep with form every bit as impeccable as the very first rep. In fact his form was so solid and noteworthy that it became the topic of conversation amongst the seasoned CrossFitters in the class.

To us, this is the personification of our first rule at Crossfit SAV: Form First. This progression is seen in many CrossFit environments as mechanics>consistency>

intensity, or more simply put, do it right, do it well, do it fast. No matter if the movement is a compound barbell movement like a thruster, or something as simple as a push up, you have to learn to DO IT RIGHT once, absolutely perfectly with no lapse in form before you move on. Once that form is established, you must learn how to DO IT WELL over and over again without allowing form to degrade. After all that has been achieved, you can start to add the intensity piece and DO IT FAST.

Foxy, like the vast majority of us, comes from a background with some activity but nothing close to the intensity required to complete the simplest of CrossFit workouts. What makes Jeff stand out is that he understands there is a difference between training and testing. He doesn't place more importance on winning than learning or training just because the clock is running. He knows that while high intensity is a cornerstone of the CrossFit methodology, poor form at high intensity is not the step before good form at high intensity. As a result, he has learned to do everything right, soon he'll be doing it all well, and when he learns to do it fast he will be an absolute beast. In the meantime, if you want to know how to do a perfect thruster or how to overcome the urge to quit CrossFit altogether and find a path of less resistance, ask our hype man Jeff Fox. He'll be the one with the beard lifting all the weights.

and here it is:

WOD for Wednesday May 11
Randy:
75 Power Snatch (75/55)