By the time this blog posts I will be halfway through helping Josh Everett and his staff lead a Crossfit Olympic Lifting Certification in Houston this weekend. As I was preparing to help this weekend one of the biggest things I had to prepare for was the switch in terminology. I use specific lingo and vocabulary in teaching at my gym that differs slightly with how the CF Olympic Certs are taught. For instance, what I call the “power position” is called the “high hang position” and what I call the “hang position” the Level 1 curriculum calls the “launch position.”
nHowever, what I realized in doing a bit of study yesterday was that 100% of what I will be teaching this weekend differs ONLY in terminology. What’s more, I’m betting this is true of most coaches across the country. Sure there are some subtle differences in technique taught by different coaches but what I have seen this week is more similarity than difference.
I posted the blog earlier this week about the Russian/Polish Perspective on Knees Back and was given a giant compliment when Don McCauley who said he liked the article and shared it. Ironically, I got some texts and comments on how Don and I were buddy-buddy. It made me laugh because, much like Coach Burgener and I, Don and I are mostly just different in terminology not in practice. Sure he calls it a catapult. I call it a shrug under. We are both trying to achieve the same thing and just use different words to make it happen.
This truth is more widespread than most want to admit. Weightlifting coaches are FAR more similar and in agreement than we are in difference. My advice is look at positions and the movement that the terminology creates before you pit coaches against each other. Often the only difference is terminology.