@psalms119 Holy shit nice write up I had no idea of how normal his scores were. He usually does good at regionals where moving dem weights is a factor.
@dawn16 Yeah, I know EZ a little from Pensacola and other shit. Great guy. Hard to say how he'll do. Another example, his 347 in 16.2 was #10 in the southwest and would have been #40 in the Southeast.
EZ would not have made the top 50 overall in the Southeast.
@psalms119 Damn he seems like such a nice guys. I saw him at Wodapalooza with his kids and wife. Legit dude.
That's crazy. I used to compete in the southeast region in 2012. How things have changed in that region. In 2012 I think it was one of the easiest regions. Now it's insane.
I hope he kills it at regionals. His rope climbs performance at regionals last year gave me goosebumps. Dude is a heck of an athlete.
@psalms119 I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt this year since he just moved his family across the country and seems to be working out totally on his own in his new gym. Some people can relocate, year over year, and still perform pretty well, but most of them don't have the stress of a family to bring along with them.
@brokenandconfused I'll give you rowing but OHL suck for tall guys, there's so weight is much further from you center of mass that it's much less stable overhead.
Wall balls are mixed. They might be a bit easier for tall guys but short guys can cycle the squat portion of them faster.
@brokenandconfused lunge steps are actually quite a bit easier for smaller people as their is less vertical travel. The weight was so light at the top end it wasn't hard, it was just time consuming so staying low and having smaller limbs mean you move quicker. It's no surprise that two of the shorter athletes got the top scores for this event.
@dawn16 Worldwide average male height is 5'7" or 170.9cm, American average male height is 5'10" or 177cm. If you look at the top athletes on the leaderboard, most of them fall in the average range. There are even a few 5'11 and 6'+ like Brent Fikowski. You may have experienced the Open this way, but it isn't born out by the data.
I would add that the reason some of these athletes not making it to regionals is more about the overall growth of CrossFit and the changes in the regional selection process.
@psalms119 I don't know why people keep saying that. Aside from the burpees being twice if you look at 2015 open workouts they are still the same movements and a lot of the weights are about the same from last year except this year the snatch got lighter and the deadlifts got heavier. 15.4 still a gymnastic movement to get to do heavy weight. Go back to 2014 same story.
@kohelet 2015 had zero burpees and a 1rm. In 2015, not having a high 1rm kept you out of regionals, period. That makes strength an absolute requirement in 2015 not a "nice to have".
2016 had 2x burpees and no 1rm. The only heavy wod was 16.2, but just making it to the round of 275 and hitting a couple of reps at 275 (not heavy weight at all) kept you in contention. 5 cleans at 275 was enough to stay in the game in most regions. That's not too hard for experienced athletes.
So in 2016, strength was a "nice to have" not a requirement and burpees showed up twice, which is insane for a test intended to be "broad".
Even a superficial examination shows a bias toward the Shire
@psalms119 I forgot about the 1rm last year but that was such a new one off thing when compared to past years. But you still needed to do crazy cardio stuff first. But I guess two heavy wods last year and twice on burpees does make your point. I'm smaller and I did better last year than this year.
@dereklirus I'm really bummed that Gretchen won't be at regionals or the games. I had the opportunity to compete against her a few years back at a local comp and she was nothing but sweet.