"Annie Are You Ok?"
Move through all 6 stations as a team. One person per station, don't move to the next station until each team member is finished with their station.
21-15-9 Rep Rounds of:
- Wall Ball -20 lb. M/15 lb. W
- Row (for calories)
- Dumbbell Cleans -35 lb. M/25 lb. W
- Box Jump -24"
- Kettlebell Swings -1.5 pood M/1 pood W
- Burpees
This is Josh.
Nearly five years ago now, Josh walked up the stairs to the 'old' Catalyst on Queen Street. He was a football player who wanted to get better, and possessed the one key quality that stops MOST teenagers from seeking help from professionals: humility.
Born without an ego, Josh began to dominate on the football fields…until an injury sidelined him. He couldn't lift heavy, so he started focusing on another aspect of his training: METCON. He started showing up at the Park at 6am. Then he started showing up for CrossFit events.
When he almost won Murph, and collapsed on the gym floor unmoving for several minutes, his mom asked me, "Is he okay? I'm asking because I trust that you'll know if he's really okay. He doesn't look okay to me." I reassured her, but I knew the truth: a kid who will push himself beyond collapse is NOT okay, and never will be.
Then he won Fight Gone Bad. And then, a few months later, when we snapped up a gang to compete at CrossFit Sectionals 2010, Josh came with us. He rowed faster than 65 other men…all of whom were taller. Then, on event #2 – an overhead squat / burpee couplet – he showed what WORK meant, winning the very fast event by over a minute, even though two reps were called back late and he had to set up his OHS all over again. He took third in the province, and when we got home, he wanted to leave his 'trophy' at the Park because, "Everybody won it, Coop, not just me."
That was his last CrossFit competition. He'd already been training with Adrian for a few months (their work ethic is their shared bond,) and was already a black belt in Hap Ki Do. The day after returning from Sectionals, he went to his first MMA practice with Adrian – and the Fryia boys. While the rest of us licked our wounds and browsed Facebook pictures, Josh shunned the afterglow and rolled for hours. Then he ran all the way home to tell his dad all about it. He was that excited to learn new things.
Last summer, when Josh, Adrian and Devin were moving that old Catalyst on Queen up to the new Catalyst space at the Park, I remarked to Josh's dad that, "I think I might be killing your kid."
"We raised him to work," Ted replied. "Push him." And then his mom showed up with a fish dinner for all of us.
He's never needed pushing. You could spin him in any direction, remove the blindfold, and say, "Go!" and he'd become Champion of that path. Today, he gets to show what he already knows in his first MMA fight. He also gets to learn – as was his facebook status for a long time:
"Bullfight critics, ranked in rows
Crowd the enormous plaza full.
But only one is there who knows,
And he’s the man who fights the bull"
Find out, Josh.
Adrian Vilaca – Coach V, or various other names – defends his 6-0 record tonight, on the same card as Josh. Go, SCMMA!