IGX

Sofa King wrote:In other news; Am I the only one who thinks one of them Hitler movie clips with all the subtitles would be perfect right about now?
The situation just begs for it.

Shafpocalypse Now wrote:Have you fuckers seen the hit count on this thread go up. It's exploding. Just right now there are like 45 non IGxers looking in.

@F insider wrote:he [couch] manipulated her [Lisa] into divorce and ongoing boning by convincing her that eddie had ptsd and was a danger to her - this after eddie and greg had a falling out and he wanted to get rid of eddie.

notice that cf.com was down for a bit yesterday? thwt was lauren freaking out after hearing reports of greg and lisa making out in public in seattle while there doing a cf 101.

Mikko woke up with cold sweats at 2 am on Sunday morning. "It was like sleeping in a pool... the night was a bit strange for me."

afredus wrote:What is wrong with Annie Sakamoto's pull? It looks pretty good to me, and it's definitely one of the best examples from @fit. In other news - Rant is back.

"The Moynihan Institute

The Institute is in the process of reopening. Stayed tuned.

11/20/09."

upsideyahead wrote:Crossfitology
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-BnqtIF7kY[/youtube]

Weighing in on the Black Box

I’ve not been interested in making any sort of public statement regarding the Black Box Summit and subsequent fallout. Historically I’ve been eager to engage in debate, but I’ve learned that such debate, particularly on the internet with individuals who have none of the necessary information or knowledge, is a futile endeavor and a waste of the time of which I’m in extremely short supply.

Robb Wolf and others have managed to cover the events in question quite well; unfortunately, the internet provides an amazing forum for debate of epic proportions, and unsurprisingly, some conspiracy theories have arisen that have compelled me to make a few things clear. I’m going to do my best to address everything I can think of here, and then leave it alone. If I feel a need to make any updates, I will do so in similar fashion rather than get entangled in forums, website comments, facebook silliness, or the like.

I had no intentions of provoking anyone or anything at the Black Box Summit. Quite honestly, I find it remarkable that anyone would credit me with the aspirations and ability to devise such a nefarious plan. Despite having no positive interactions with CrossFit’s Director of Training, Dave Castro, previously—the last one being the rudest and most insulting email I’ve ever received, in response to a Performance Menu article of mine, and to which I chose not to respond in order to prevent further inflammation of the issue—I had no desire to cause any trouble. I was a guest at this summit, had no part in organizing it or hosting it, and accordingly, was compelled to try my best to keep things running smoothly, knowing when I heard that Castro and Tony Budding would be attending that there was potential for problems.

I was asked by the summit organizers to present on the topic of teaching the Olympic lifts to CrossFitters. In one section of my presentation, I chose a few of the most common topics of confusion with regard to lift technique—these choices were based on what I see every day in my own gym, others’ gyms, and during my and others’ seminars. Many of the individuals I work with in these places are current or former CrossFitters. These topics, of course, included the overhead position of the snatch and jerk and the shrug at the top of the snatch and clean.

I threw together a Power Point presentation to keep me on track and provide photo and video examples of what I was discussing—I don’t like lecturing, and when it comes to discussions of lift technique, expressing ideas and pointing out particulars is very difficult without visual aids of some type. Since I was told I couldn’t do a practical section as I had originally been told I could, I relied on the next best option. I used photos from my book when possible. However, there exist no photos in my book of a clean being performed with a shrug at the top; these photos don’t exist in the 10,000+ photos on my hard drive either, because none of my athletes do this. This is where Google came in handy.

Finding a photo of a clean with a shrug at the top was difficult, because I needed an appropriate angle, and a lift that demonstrated reasonably good technique in every way except with regard to the point in question. It was a logical move—to me, at least—to search for “crossfit clean extension”, knowing that CrossFit teaches a shrug at the top of the clean. This search brings up surprisingly few photos that meet the criteria, but on the second page of results, there is a perfect image of Annie Sakamoto executing precisely the movement I needed to discuss.

If you’re wondering why I opted not to instead use the photo of Eva Twardokens above the one of Annie, my response is first, What difference would that make in this argument, and second, because it is not a photo of a clean, but of the first drill of the Burgener Warm-up. Additionally, you’ll notice the first photo that comes up with this search is of a CrossFit staff trainer I don’t know performing a medicine ball clean. I decided after seeing this to address that, as my opinion on the med ball clean has caused a bit of a stir, and I wanted an opportunity to explain precisely why I believe what I believe. (My response to being accused of hating CrossFit and the like is to explain in great detail exactly why I object to the things I object to—none of my objections are without genuine reason, and they have nothing to do with emotion or politics. If you’re curious about the reasons regarding the med ball clean and a few other hot topics, read this article).

Finding the photo of Annie (who is a friend, incidentally), I felt no need to search further. The thought that using a photo of Annie (or anyone in particular) would ever be considered a provocation never crossed my mind. As it turns out, my thoughts were focused on putting together a useful and effective presentation, and doing my best to not look like the dumbest presenter on the panel, not considering how any of the 50+ attendees might possibly be offended by something so innocuous and intended to help them improve their athletic abilities.

Moreover, I wasn’t assembling the material for this presentation for many uninterrupted hours in a quiet library—I was scrambling to work on it in any brief and disrupted moments I could find while running a gym, training clients, running a monthly journal, programming for half a dozen individuals or teams, etc. I didn’t exactly have a surplus of time or the luxury of considering every possible contingency or reaction, particularly involving individuals possessed of a degree of irrationality and unpredictability I’ve yet to see anywhere else.

Following the discussion of the shrug (during which I recall making the point that I love Annie and in no way was intending to single her out or insult her; she just happened to be in the perfect photo for my purposes), I presented a slide that put the medicine ball clean photo alongside a photo of a well-executed barbell clean in the same phase, the finish of the second pull. (By the way, this med ball clean was not of Nicole Carroll as some have said—it was another staff trainer I’ve never met, and who I likewise had no intention of insulting personally. I could have had a photo taken of me performing a med ball clean instead, but then someone would have made the argument that I was misrepresenting the way it’s actually taught—better to use the official demo, I reckoned.)

At this point, I was very far behind schedule, having only an hour and a half to present on a volume of information I could have easily filled an entire weekend with. Knowing I was behind—having been notified a number of times—I chose to skip over what I at that moment decided would be too touchy of a subject with CF HQ representatives in attendance, not having any desire to cause trouble. (Hearing Dave Castro’s rude comments at the finish of Robb’s nutrition lecture and seeing Castro chew out Robb subsequently helped influence this decision—it was clear Castro was already very agitated and not at all interested in listening to reasoned arguments.)

As it turns out, skipping it seems to have actually been more of a problem. Upon saying, “I won’t get into this now; just consider those positions,” I heard, “Get into it!” from the back of the room. I was on one knee to advance slides on the laptop, the room was unlit, my eyesight is poor, and I wasn’t looking at the crowd at the time. I believed the comment to have been made by Michael Rutherford, so I replied in fashion appropriate to our personal interaction, “Maybe later, Sweetie.”

Understandably, this comment apparently upset Castro, enough, in fact, for him to offer another outburst of, “Fuck you, you fat fuck,” at which point I started to figure out it had been him to make the original comment, as I couldn’t imagine any other person present to behave in such a manner. I had already resumed speaking while considering this, and in the middle of a lecture, I opted to continue rather than have a discussion with Dave in front of a crowd of people who paid a lot of money to be provided quality information, not for a seat at a taping of Ricky Lake.

Some might argue an apology to Castro was in order, and I would agree entirely were the circumstances prior to and following the incident somewhat different. However, the time and place were inappropriate for it, as my job was to present information to the attendees, not assuage Castro. I likely would have sucked it up, despite knowing what Castro thinks of me personally and expresses to all who will listen, and apologized at my lecture’s completion had I been given an opportunity. Instead, I was presented with a very different situation.

What followed has already been described by Robb Wolf and others. I made an attempt to actually have a discussion with Castro, but he preferred to simply repeat the few things he wanted to say rather than engaging in a dialogue. He told me to “Do everyone a favor and un-affilate. You obviously hate CrossFit. Stop leaching off the community.”

This is extremely interesting on a number of levels, and unfortunately I’ve decided not to discuss the irony in more detail, because it necessarily involves individuals whom I don’t wish to drag into this and information that I don’t feel it’s my place to disclose. Suffice to say, I love CrossFit and I love the community, which is why I have remained involved for almost six years, despite receiving similar treatment the entire time while happily being used (without compensation) for coaching at certifications and various other duties, and continued attempts to shut down my business and discredit me.

It seemed apparent to me based on Castro’s tone, facial expression, choice of words, along with the fact that he grabbed my neck in attempt to control me (which I grudgingly chose to accept for the sake of minimizing the chance of a physical altercation in the middle of a crowded seminar), that he was attempting to provoke me into a fight. Fortunately I had just enough sense to stick to words long enough for Michael Rutherford, Robb Wolf and Dutch Lowy to intervene and physically separate us (more than once, in fact, after Dave continued to follow me).

As I said, the rest of this particular incident has been described elsewhere, and I understand there were some videos taken by attendees of at least parts of the drama. Two cameras were rolling during the entire presentation, and I was mic’ed, but the footage is owned by someone else, and I don’t expect it to see the light of day. In any case, all this wild speculation about what exactly happened is rather silly when the entire incident can be shown on video.
Let’s to move on to other topics.

A few hours ago, it was shared with me that there is at least one individual out there in the ether with a theory that this entire thing was a publicity stunt orchestrated by Robb Wolf and me. That we were “kicked out of CrossFit before; came back to good graces to get more popular; while doing so were thinking of how to spin off CrossFit and make more money.”

This is a fascinating perspective for a number of reasons. First, Robb and I were never kicked out of CrossFit—we resigned our affiliations a few years ago following a series of disturbing interactions with the Glassmans and Tony Budding, which just seemed to confirm the worries that had been building for some time that the organization was becoming something we no longer wanted to be a part of due to the administration’s stunningly poor treatment of many good people and general volatility, dishonesty and intransigence. This is a long and complicated story that may very well end up becoming public, but for now, I will leave it at that.

Robb and I returned to CrossFit affiliation because we both continued to use the CrossFit methodology in our training practices, and wanted to give credit where credit was due, particularly after hearing rumors that had been started about Robb and me being involved with Mark Twight and Dan John in some grand plot to destroy CrossFit. Interesting idea considering my only interaction at that point and to this day with Twight was a group email regarding something like oxygen consumption rates at altitude, and my only interaction with Dan John was being at the same CrossFit seminar and same bar once. Affiliating again seemed the right thing to do, as I said to give due credit, and because we both felt a strong connection to the CrossFit community at large, despite any disagreements we had with management. We were bright enough to understand that CrossFit, Inc. does not represent the community as a whole, and that it was abounding with great people eager to help each other, learn more, and continue to improve the methodology through the “open-source, community-driven” model described by Greg Glassman.

The Performance Menu is always a favorite topic for people who like this particular theory regarding Robb and Me. The PM is claimed to be an effort to compete with the CrossFit Journal, and to generally undermine CrossFit and profit from its success. Of course, those who make such claims have no knowledge of the PM’s history or of the pertinent interactions between CF HQ and the two of us.

The Performance Menu was started with the explicit permission and blessing of Greg and Lauren Glassman—search the CF.com archives and you’ll find a post on it, describing the journal as something like “Robb Wolf’s powerful contribution to the CrossFit community.” It’s convenient to try to turn it into something else now, but the facts remain unchanged.

Moreover, Greg Glassman speaks continually on the need to allow market forces to expose quality and dictate success. With such a belief, it’s difficult to understand why he would then find another digital journal so unacceptable. CrossFit, Inc. assures affiliate owners that they have no need to worry when new affiliates pop up 500 yards down the street, using the argument that the “market will reward excellence.”

I estimate that at least 90% of PM subscribers also subscribe to the CrossFit Journal. This is very telling of the two publications’ relationship: It is not competitive, but complementary. The PM is also one of the best modes for me to support and interact with the community. We offer a free year subscription as well as all back issues (58 at the time of this writing) to all CrossFit affiliate owners. Every month, we publish a free recipe and free article, as well as abundant free website content. As you can see, our greed is insatiable.

There is not one article in the Performance Menu that has attempted to disparage CrossFit or those involved with it. On the contrary, the majority of the articles exist explicitly and seemingly obviously to aid CrossFit trainers, athletes and affiliate owners in improving their and their clients’ performance and business success. A perfect example is the free publication of Nicki Violetti’s On-Ramp curriculum.

I have on numerous occasions offered to write articles for the CrossFit Journal, just as I have made other attempts over the years to contribute more directly to CrossFit (other than volunteer coaching, traveling, cleaning, etc.). The one time I was asked to, by Greg Glassman himself, I wrote this epic article, submitted it, and heard nothing, despite several attempts at reaching him regarding it. Interestingly enough, a month or so later, an article of an identical premise was published in the CFJ by different authors.

I chose to sponsor the CrossFit Games this year, despite being told it would be $500 for a booth, and ending up having to pay $3000 for a tiny logo on the Games website, which drew in total maybe 30 links to our site at best since going up months before the games. Both that year and the previous year, we attempted to donate prizes for the winners, and both times were completely ignored. A couple weeks ago, I contacted CFHQ and asked them to send me the information to sponsor the games again—despite having seen very clearly its complete lack of benefit for us—and heard nothing until returning home from the Summit. What I received was an email, CCed to Dave Castro, that simply stated, “No.”

With regard to making more money off of CrossFit, this makes little sense. This same accusation could be leveled at any CrossFit affiliate owner—all charge money for their services, like any professional does; moreover, most have no experience or education prior to or other than CrossFit, making this even more of a clear reliance on CrossFit for income (I have been a credentialed trainer for almost 12 years and hold multiple non-CF certifications—without CF, I’m still a professional trainer/coach, and still have a training business). And to make this seem like some criminal act is one of the silliest things I’ve ever heard. Why do people buy McDonald’s franchises?

We are engaged in fitness training, and we believe the CrossFit model—or at least our interpretation and implementation of it—to be the most effective for this purpose. The CrossFit program at Catalyst Athletics accounts for a small fraction of our revenue, which is overwhelmingly derived from weightlifting team and private training, seminars, the Performance Menu, and book and DVD sales.

The idea that this income stream would change to any significant degree with the elimination of our affiliation with CrossFit is ludicrous (in fact, I have actually seen cases in which our affiliation with CF PREVENTED income). In the last 5 years, I can generously attribute to links on CrossFit.com maybe a couple hundred visitors to our site. The overwhelming majority of our website traffic comes from regular visitors and links from other CrossFit affiliate websites, posted links on the CrossFit forum, non-CrossFit affiliate websites and forums, word of mouth and the like. CrossFitters seek information; they use the internet; they talk to each other. This is how our reputation and business has grown, not through some parasitical relationship to CrossFit, Inc. that magically funnels money into our bank account.

Yes, many CrossFitters buy my book. But it has never been endorsed, promoted, or even mentioned by CrossFit—it has become popular through word of mouth. Remove our affiliation and the same CrossFitters who seek out a book to help them learn to better perform and teach the Olympic lifts will get the same recommendation from other readers.

This is not to say our association with CrossFit doesn’t contribute to our success; of course it does. But that association is with the community, not CrossFit, Inc. The community seeks out quality information, and we do our best to supply it. I have never been endorsed by CrossFit HQ, and in fact have been the subject of many nasty rumors originating within HQ attempting to discredit me (such as being in business with Twight, using steroids, and being hated by certain key individuals for reasons that were conveniently never included—every one of which can be quickly and easily proven false).

I have also heard claims from various CrossFit HQ staff, and from Castro himself at the summit, that I hate CrossFit and am just waiting for it to fail so I can move in and profit from its demise. This is another absurd notion, but an effective emotional tool to manipulate people who don’t know me and who are loyal to CrossFit, Inc., understandably believing them to be genuinely interested only in helping people (add that to the previous list of rumors). As I’ve said many times before, I love CrossFit; I hate the people and practices that harm its effectiveness and its reputation. The failure of CrossFit, Inc. would presumably only affect me and my business negatively by scattering the currently concentrated audience who talk constantly to each other and build our reputation and sending them off to find the next great thing. How I would or could be planning to turn CrossFit’s failure into my own success, I have not been able to imagine.

Castro has made the point that I “make fun of CrossFit”, and this demonstrates that I hate CrossFit (he offered to prove it to me by showing me my articles… guess I should read those). I do make fun of CrossFit. I also make fun of myself. Castro is not the first person to call me a fat fuck—I call myself fat all the time, because I am a fat fuck relative to what I was prior to moving up two weight classes.

My poking fun at CrossFit is entirely good-natured, and this was apparently understood by those in attendance at the seminar, as my jokes were invariably followed by quite a bit of laughter. If I had wanted to offend CrossFitters or Dave Castro personally, I assure you I could have come up with some guaranteed methods. In fact, I have intentionally withheld quite a bit of information for the sake of not further inflaming and offending.

I was a CrossFitter myself for a few years. In fact, I was a CrossFit staff coach at Dave Castro’s first CrossFit certification, as was Robb Wolf. I did most if not all the things about which I joke at one point or another. I can laugh at myself, and most CrossFitters can do the same because they realize that the truth is, no matter how goofy certain things can be made to appear, what they do is great, they train hard, and they are committed to self-improvement. I make all of the same jokes with my own CrossFit clients; they in turn make jokes about weightlifters. This is healthy, normal interpersonal communication and fun. In the end, we all help each other learn and improve; why not have fun doing it?

I joke because I like humor. I do a lot of writing and speaking, and without humor, I bore myself. I speak and write about serious topics, and punctuate with humor, because I want to make my material not only useful, but accessible and enjoyable. Jokes about CrossFit and CrossFitters strike me as wholly appropriate when speaking and writing to CrossFitters… What else would I joke about? Farming?

Had I never been a CrossFitter, not been a trainer and affiliate for almost six years, and did I not presently run a CrossFit program, I might understand some people taking offense at my jokes. I make them sting, I swear a lot, and I’m extremely sarcastic. But it seems quite obvious to me that when one is talking directly to someone, jokes being made are not intended to offend. And further, that one speaking to a room full of people who paid a lot of money to hear him and others speak would not be silly enough to insult those people. Of course, I have a minimal degree of social skill and experience with personal interaction. I suppose I shouldn’t expect such recognition of subtlety from everyone.

Russell Berger, a CrossFit Journal writer, who claims he attended the Black Box Summit as a guest of Dave Castro and Tony Budding’s (interesting considering neither was in a position to invite guests), has written a “review” of the summit, forwarded to me by someone who actually has a facebook account. It is, as we all predicted when noticing him there, seeing him furiously scribbling notes, asking questions fed to him by Castro and Budding, and asking follow-up questions very clearly fishing for responses that could be used as evidence of CrossFit-bashing, an inaccurate, inflammatory description of the event disguised as a review. (You might remember Berger as the author of the CFJ article smearing Mark Twight and Gym Jones. It appears this is his job within CFHQ.

Of particular inaccuracy are his descriptions of my lecture, attempting to paint me as a raging asshole who was personally attacking and insulting just about everyone and everything imaginable. This is particularly infuriating, considering the caution I took to ensure it was clear I was not, in fact, insulting or attacking anyone. Reading and hearing comprehension are apparently not as well developed as one would hope.

Fortunately, the entire thing exists on video, so with some pressure on the owners of that video, I hope it makes it into public view so you can all see exactly what was said and how. I’m confident this will clear up any possible misunderstandings or reluctance to entirely believe my or Robb’s take on the event.

I am a CrossFit affiliate and plan on remaining one for the foreseeable future for very simple reasons: A large part of my audience is involved with CrossFit; I owe a great deal to CrossFit for providing me many opportunities and for allowing me to meet many wonderful people; and I use CrossFit training methodology in my gym. CrossFit deserves credit, and they have decided that the appropriate and legal form of credit is affiliation, and I submit gladly to this.

Further, and more importantly, I love CrossFit and I love the CrossFit community; I have no desire to divorce myself from it and them, despite any disagreements I may have now or in the future with the administration and staff. I see the true potential of CrossFit, and I’m going to continue doing what is within my abilities to improve it rather than simply accept less than optimal standards and practices along with unacceptable behavior and treatment of staff, affiliates and others for the sake of remaining politically and socially safe.

I very much appreciate all the support I’ve received by email, phone and comments on various websites. I’m extremely grateful to know that what we do is helpful, and I hope to be able to continue providing more and more information and resources in the future. This is exactly what makes having dealt with the ongoing friction and stress of my involvement with CrossFit worthwhile.

Another Viewpoint on the Black Box Summit by Russell BergerShare
Today at 04:38
The Black Box summit was a three day seminar hosted by CrossFit Central, a successful affiliate run by Jeremy Thiel, and his sister Carey Kepler. The event was marketed as being “For Affiliates by Affiliates”, and cost of admission was a thousand dollars. The seminar included a panel of speakers, including Robb Wolf, Nicki Voletti, Dutch Lowy, James Fitzgerald (OPT), Mike Rutherford, Amie Anaya, and Greg Everrett.

I attended as a guest of Tony Budding and Dave Castro, and intended to review the seminar and possibly write an article for the journal on my experience. The following is a brief summary of the events that took place.

Jeremy Thiel opened the event with a dynamic and exciting presentation of the charter for the Black Box Summit—Building a stronger CrossFit community through sharing experiences and knowledge related to running a CrossFit Affiliate.

From there Thiel discussed the brand of CrossFit, and the dynamic relationship that exists between affiliate owners and CrossFit Headquarters. Thiel congratulated HQ for having no desire to regulate affiliates, and leaving it up to the community to shape their own destiny. He gave us a positive message about the need for communication and discussion, rather than the tearing-down of CrossFit he had seen in events like the Greyskull article.
He followed with a fantastic explanation of what it takes to be an affiliate. He drew a triangle on the board. At the bottom was service and humility, something he had seen demonstrated directly by Greg and Lauren Glassman. On top of that rested the twin angles of the CrossFit Affiliate- raw, killer intensity and professionalism in training. The pinnacle of the triangle is excellence. Jeremy explained that Affiliates that embodied this triangle wiould succeed on every front.

Nicki spoke next, and gave a different opinion. She encouraged Affiliates to “Fly two Flags”, or give your business one name that included the word CrossFit, and another that did not. She explained that this would act as a form of “damage control”, and give you the ability to market to clients who had had “bad experiences” at other affiliates.

I asked Nicki if she had experience with any other method for dealing with weaker affiliates in her area. Nicki explained that this hadn’t happened to them, but their concern came from CrossFit impersonators using names like “X-Fit”.

OPT approached me later, “The answer to your question”, he said “ is to take some responsibility and reach out to that weaker affiliate.” OPT explained that like any business, it is your job to make sure your brand is well-represented, and if it is not, you need to take on a leadership role, forge a good relationship with that weak affiliate, and help them improve their product.

Next, Dutch and Robb discussed the pitfalls and failures that could easily arise from not being a “Quality” Affiliate, and Robb criticized CrossFit certifications for not requiring the same knowledge of anatomy and physiology as other certifications found in the fitness industry.

At the end of day one, the CrossFit Central staff put us through a fun, short workout. Thiel and Kepler moved through their staff, motivating and coaching CrossFitters. The rest of the Summit staff retreated to their own separate strength workout, ironically right after the emphasis on quality training.

On Saturday, Robb’s nutrition lecture covered the basics of indoctrinating new clients into the Paleo diet, and mentioned a number of helpful tools like Affiliate challenges, before and after pictures, and monthly nutrition classes to use for motivating clients. He also gave a number of examples of elite athletes who performed on an “Unweighed and unmeasured Paleo diet”.

After lunch on the second day, Greg Everrett took the floor and presented a power-point presentation on teaching Olympic lifts to CrossFitters. Dutch Lowy introduced Greg as a former CrossFitter, to which Greg replied “We all make mistakes.”

His lecture opened with his thoughts on the Snatch event in the CrossFit games, which centered on the poor technique displayed in a number of the lifts. This went on for some time, until Greg made his first assertion, that the winner of the Women’s snatch event, Tamara Holmes, needed more Olympic lifting training. He showed us video of her winning lift, a 145 pound power-snatch and shared his disgust at the appearance of the lift. He then showed video of Tamara easily power-snatching 165 at a lifting meet a few weeks later. Greg didn’t mention the context of it being Event 6 of the Games, but held that all CrossFitters needed more Oly-lift training based on this example.

Next, Greg showed us a still image of Annie Sakamoto doing a barbell clean superimposed next to what looked like a competitive Olympic lifter cleaning upwards of 200 kilos. Greg used this comparison to pick apart the form Annie was displaying, and the techniques CrossFit uses to teach the lifts. He claimed, while looking at a still image, that Annie had shrugged the bar up instead of generating the force with her hips, and said that this was incorrect, pointing out the low shoulders of the competitive lifter. He then showed us how the shoulders should float up naturally as an after-effect of the violent hip-extension in the clean, finishing his point with “I guess I go back and forth on this one”

Greg then moved to the next image, Nicole Carroll cleaning a Dynamax medicine ball superimposed next to another competitive lifter mid-clean. Greg laughed mockingly and said “I’m not even going to get into that”.

From the audience, Dave Castro spoke up, telling Greg to “Get into it”.

Greg looked at Dave and said, “Maybe later sweetheart.”

To which Dave asked, “Did you just call me sweetheart you fat fuck?”

After a moment of silent tension, Greg continued his lecture and Dave remained silent and seated until he was finished. Greg again mocked the photo of Nicole, and demonstrates the ineffectiveness of having ones feet “leave the ground that far” during a medicine-ball clean. The rest of Greg’s lecture consisted of weightlifting nuances, mostly targeted towards explaining how the methods both Rippetoe and CrossFit teach were incorrect.

At the end of the presentation, Dave approached Greg, and asked him to step outside where they could discuss what had just happened. I learned from Dave a short while later that Dutch Lowy had asked him to leave. As Dave was leaving, however, Thiel asked him to stay.

At the end of our second day, we all did a team workout consisting of pull-ups, deadlifts, wall-ball shots, and 800m sprints. While The CrossFit Central Staff worked to make the event happen, and Thiel supervised, the rest of the Seminar staff again retreated to a corner of the gym where they did their own strength workout. They didn’t coach or interact with any of us.

On Sunday, after a number of interesting and even moving lectures from OPT and Carey Kepler, we began a discussion on programming. All of the speakers present, with the exception of Thiel and Kepler, had expressed the necessity of using additional strength-building and maximal effort workouts when programming.

The weekend was wrapped up with Thiel’s optimistic vision of a stronger CrossFit community, and his thanks to the many participants who had traveled to his affiliate for the weekend.

chi wrote:For you oldtimers who are confused about facebook, Lisbeth Darsh has posted Russell Bergers account of events:

Dale_Saran
Posted November 24, 2009 at 8:32 pm | Permalink

Robb-
Where is your RRG money? Indeed.
I don’t care about all of the other stuff, but I take this as a personal attack on my integrity. Your welcome for the hours I spent running down the rogue person in Chico who you wanted to stop advertising CrossFit. Shall I just invoice you for the hours or was that okay for CF HQ to do on your behalf?
I have met with the Beazley Syndicate re-insurers from London last week to ensure we have authority to conduct our claims administration as we see fit for the RRG. We are waiting for Montana’s Department of Insurance to clear us to start issuing policies. Many of the other 50 states will drop within weeks of Montana’s license being issued. CF HQ paid for all of this upfront, despite the RRG being affiliate owned, with HQ providing its own fair sure of the funding for the RRG, as well.
Robb, whatever happened with you, Dave, and Greg – hey, I wasn’t there. You all have a history that precedes me, but my question is this – how much did you make as a result of CF providing you the nutrition gigs? Are you telling me you would have had such an audience but for CF? If you’re so above CF, then why don’t you give back every red cent you ever made on your nutrition certs and walk away? Do your own thing.

What I hear is a guy who wants to reap the benefits of the CF brand, but throw rocks at it from behind some wall of being “above it all”. You know exactly how to contact me because you had no problem doing so when you needed HQ’s legal help.

Robb Wolf
Posted November 24, 2009 at 8:51 pm | Permalink

Dale-
I appreciate the update. More an attempt at humor, so sorry if that felt like a personal attack.

I made great money doing the CrossFit Nutrition Certs. I also made HQ a ton of money providing content and some of the best coaching they had in their whole organization. In the first couple of years I frequently answered upwards of 90% of the questions on the message boards and front page (easy to take a gander at and verify). Dozens of Level 1 certs I was introduced as “integral to the brand and a co-developer”. I feel I’ve added sufficient sweat-equity to the brand to justify the returns I’ve seen.

And Dale, this is a key thing to keep in mind here: I’ve NEVER been above CrossFit. I’ve helped thousands of people. On the day Dave was making an ass of himself I was researching how to help a girl who is prominent in the community…who has advanced melanoma. Yea, Dale, I’m above it all. What has happened is a running battle with HQ over standards and quality. They want NO input and repress attempts at change. So, if you can show me some example of how I’ve been above this community I served I’d love to see that. Just one example would be illustrative. Now if by profiting you mean that I have done other things besides crossfit it’s ironic that this is a problem but the Garage Gym and other entrepreneurial endeavors are not.

Dale-
if the RRG thing was a pot-shot I honestly apologize. And I AM grateful for the help with the ass-hat in chico. When all that was going down I was at it with Greg about him saying my work was psuedo science…I was so frustrated by that the trademark deal was just infuriating. If I mischaracterized that I’m sorry.

Mark Twight
Posted November 24, 2009 at 10:08 pm | Permalink

All Con,

I knew I’d be dragged into this shit sooner or later.

Barry Cooper wrote:
“For example, in my understanding Mark Twight was going around certifying people in CrossFit, by name, without getting permission. Coach Glassman found out when Mark called him and asked for official certificates. That from Coach’s mouth, and I don’t think he’ll mind me sharing that in this context.”

Greg Glassman lied to you Barry. I could ask one or two of the operators who attended the seminar in question, which was sanctioned by Greg and Lauren, to support my statement if I cared about whether you know the truth or not. However, in lieu of wasting any more time on you, and for the sake of this public meltdown, perhaps the following email sent to me on 3/28/05 – prior to the seminar – will shed some light on that particular situation.

“Dog,

It was great talking to you last night. I wish I could inspire you the way you inspire me, but that is a ‘coach’s burden’ perhaps.”

… irrelevant text redacted

“Lauren will send you disc of CFJ’s. We spiral bind them a la Kinko’s. Whatever help you need with curriculum – reach out. On their completion we’ll mail cert’s to attendees or give to you for same.

Your friend,

Greg”

Greg likes to talk on the phone, that way there’s no record of what he says or agrees to unless one is either paranoid or sharp enough to record the conversation. I wasn’t. At the time Greg and CF were not plugged into the unit receiving the instruction, I was. Greg granted me permission to run a cert for an organization with whom he had no standing or credibility. I was, after all, a CF-certified Coach. In that capacity I taught three 10-hour days, administered a test, failed one of the four students, asked CF to print the names on the Level 1 certificates and mailed them out. End of story.

Robb, you had to know it would come to this sooner or later. You’re a better man than I for having tried to improve the project. For that I respect you.

Mark Twight

Barry Cooper
"Robb,

Quite obviously I have many detractors since I take strong positions, but I”m no hypocrite: yes, I want details. We serve no one by hiding things. If there are real, structural problems, step one is to acknowledge them. They will only get worse otherwise. I regularly expose myself to criticism, and have always viewed that as a useful practice."

Robb Wolf -
"Alright Barry, I hope you know what you are asking for. I’m going to take a few days and dig everything off stored servers and elsewhere and walk it all out from the beginning."

JohnnyBadAss wrote:It's going to get interesting...

Barry Cooper
"Robb,

Quite obviously I have many detractors since I take strong positions, but I”m no hypocrite: yes, I want details. We serve no one by hiding things. If there are real, structural problems, step one is to acknowledge them. They will only get worse otherwise. I regularly expose myself to criticism, and have always viewed that as a useful practice."

Robb Wolf -
"Alright Barry, I hope you know what you are asking for. I’m going to take a few days and dig everything off stored servers and elsewhere and walk it all out from the beginning."

Zach
Posted November 24, 2009 at 6:14 pm | Permalink
Robb,

Good to see you back in the reality-based community.

Too bad it had to go down like this.

I’ve told you before, that Tony is a serious piece of work. I’ve never experienced a person be so sociopathic in their business dealings, so quickly… most loonies can keep a lid on it for at least two or three emails, but this guy was flat out bananas.

I’ve never had the chance to personally interact with Castro, but I will never forget a conversation that I overheard between him and Glassman, when I took my Level 1…. many moons ago. It had to do with Iraqi insurgents, and comparing them to cockroaches… It was so disturbing that I thought for sure I had heard wrong. A few years of paying attention to Glassman’s whacked-out ramblings on politics and foreign affairs confirmed it, though.

I am SOOOO glad I had to give up my CrossFit gym… Being out of the cult has been really good for me, and I’m sure it will be good for you.

Welcome back to the dark side!

Gin Master wrote:Couch has been wearing Lisa Lugo like a catcher's mask for some time now. A recent public spat in an airport nearly required police intervention.