CrossFit & Young Athletes

Bottom right: How's that knee angle for you......

Why young athletes should be doing CrossFit.

Before I go into detail on why CrossFit will drastically help a young athlete, let's all make sure it's understood that this athlete is training under a good coach.  Someone who understands and is experienced in athletics and also has experience using exercise to supplement specialized sport.  Basically, if you take your son/daughter to an affiliate w hopes of helping their athletic abilities and you hear words like "Murph", kipping, squat clean, squat snatch, and bear complexes being used FREQUENTLY, leave immediately. (Not that there's not a time and place for it.  That's another post.)

CrossFit teaches proper movement mechanics.

-All athletics require movement, and it's the ones who are most efficient in those movements who get that college scholly.  Otherwise, w poor movement mechanics kids are likely to be less efficient on the court/field, and much more susceptible to injury.  So learn the proper way to run! jump! press! fall! stand! lift! squat! etc!  Go to any hs weight room.  Most kids shouldn't be doing air squats, let alone finding their 1 rep max on a back squat.

CrossFit will improve strength.

-Every athlete needs strength.  Scrawny marathon runner or weightlifting fatty, it doesn't matter.  Strength benefits everyone!  This is probably one of the greatest deficits kids have when going off to college.  And it's almost always because they are misinformed on proper lifting and the benefits it brings.  Specifically I experienced this when I first got to UF.  Prior, I was terribly misinformed on the weight room, and how to use it as a supplement for my sport.  And that stinks because I worked my ass off (not literally unfortunately).  I had great pecs though!.....  Our strength coach (who's now the coach for the San Antonio Spurs) always said, "Big bench=really bad shoulders".

CrossFit helps prevent injury.

Think back to the movements.  Non contact knee injury is one of the most prevalent incidences in sport, yet I'd argue (I did my kinesio degree final paper on this) that close to 90% of those (non-contact) injuries are preventable......  It's conditioning your body to correct mechanics.  Ex:  if I squatted/jumped everyday w proper ankle/knee/hip alignment, then the chances are likely that when I land awkwardly (and you will), my body will be so conditioned to that correct setup that it could be the difference of being out for 4-6 weeks or having career ending knee surgery......  And it's EXTREMELY beneficial to learn this at a young age.

I'll be posting more on this, I just wanted to get this out because it's likely that most athletic programs would discourage CrossFit training methods, (even though they use them) and that's distasteful to me.  Especially since I've experienced quality coaching, and greatly benefitted from supplemental training for basketball.  Anyone "hating" on CrossFit supplementation for sport is simply uninformed, and has likely put zero efforts forward in correctly helping their athlete's inefficiencies.  3x8 backsquat is not a summer training program.