Conquer the Goat

Ok….admittedly I HATE ring dips. It's just one of those things I struggle with. Whenever they show up in a WOD, my stomach churns a little. I've learned through my years in crossfit what I'm really good at and where my weak points are. Most of you probably know what you're really good at (or you'll learn it soon enough) and where you struggle. Early on, I avoided my crossfit "goats" (goats are the things in your training that you struggle with the most ) and then I'd get angry when I still couldn't do them. I remember at my very first regional competition I didn't have doubleunders. I could do a single doubleunder but I couldn't string them together….so I did them one at a time. You would think that would have lit a fire under me to get them but instead I became intimidated and avoided putting the extra time in to finally master them. Months later, I took the time and in less than a week, I had finally mastered them. I remember telling Travis "it took me a year and a half to get doubleunders!" and he responded, "no, it took you about a week."

My point in sharing this with you is that EVERYONE has a goat. It’s that one exercise that comes up and you dread it. I can assure you that even the winners of the CrossFit Games have a goat. Some of us have two, three, four or more goats. In that case, you have a whole herd of those little beasts, and you have a lot of work to do. Ask a trainer to look at your technique and provide feedback. A trainer also understands the strength/skill/flexibility required for the movement, and can offer up advice on how to attack the goat. But, you must understand that it’s not always as easy as a 5-minute conversation. Everyone’s goat has to be analyzed. It might be an easy fix, or it might be something that will take some serious work and may take several months of working before you see any improvements.

Now you have to make a commitment to conquer your goat. One’s ability to conquer a goat is a great judge of character. Sometimes when we realize it's going to take some hard work and dedication or if we don't see results right away, we get frustrated or intimidated and stop the pursuit of our goat. This past December I sat in tears after a ring dip WOD where I could barely do one at a time. Yesterday, I did sets of five. While I still consider ring dips one of my goats, they are becoming less and less of one as I have made the commitment to not let them be.

In the end, you can either continue to pat your goat on the head and hope it doesn't bite you or you can commit to conquering that lil bastard.

It's really up to you. 

-Hils

Comments

[Julie]

Hils love this post...and can attest to many goats that I have, however that's the beauty of cfit. There's always something to improve on!

[E-Rex]

Well said Hils

[Dre]

Nice Hils!

[Steve M]

Well, I don't know if you have "mastered" them. But they're ok.