rat snake texastip

Link to Competition Guide: http://bit.ly/tankcompguide
TTT Coaches Brannen Dorman and Kyle Ruth share their first thoughts on 18.2 immediately after watching the Pro's go after it during the announcement Thursday night.

Max El-Hag and Brannen Dorman's thoughts on 18.1 immediately following the announcement/workout Thursday night.

Link to Competition Guide: http://bit.ly/tankcompguide

Max shares his thoughts on 18.1 after watching our on-site athletes (including Noah Ohlsen, Travis Mayer & Will Moorad) hit 18.1 this morning.

Music: "Art is Hard" by Cursive

Noah, Travis Mayer, and their Coach Max commentate over Noah's 18.5 performance, followed by some tips from Max.

The second of my three talks at the TTT Open Camp was a continuation of my Oz themed discussions. Instead of shying away from the role of the wizard, I embrace my status and morph myself in the story from the regular man behind the curtain into the Wizard that many people seek for answers.

Those answers were found in many places, but I specifically go into a portion of my athletic and coaching career, mostly discussing how failures over the duration of my life have led me to a place that many people around me perceive as 'successful.'

While successful is a new, and sometimes uncomfortable title for me to embrace, I thought it could be valuable to share what some of the obstacles in the road actually looked like to arrive at this destination.

I share it as an inspiration for others that are struggling to find their greatness, and perhaps as a warning to show just how treacherous the road may actually be.

Max, Brannen & Kyle share some things to consider when it comes to assessing your 2018 Open performance and how to approach training moving forward depending on how you did.

The story of Noah Ohlsen & Travis Mayer's 2017 CrossFit Games.

Max answers the following 4 questions (time-stamped and listed below) taken from our Instagram and answers them against a 4-minute clock. Then at the end he'll answer as many questions as possible in 4 minutes rapid fire style.


00:59 - What’s your protocols when designing a layout with someone needs to work on a limitation/priority in their training. IE - someone that needs to work on their pulling endurance with c2b pull-ups, where do you start? How do you monitor repetitions in week, month, training cycle? What’s to little, or to much?

06:04 - How do you deal with an athlete who grossly misunderstands and/or overestimates their abilities or projected ceiling?

11:42 - Most of the TTT philosophy is science-driven, so do you recommend warm up/recovery strategies based on scientific literature, too? A lot of prehab and recovery tools out there just make people "feel better" with no proven physiological data (example: foam rolling before a workout)

16:21 - Ex- Soccer Player. Naturally good Aerobic base. Takes to skills/gymnastics/Olympic lifting pretty well but his clear weaknesses are strength/power (no real background in this type of training and is a naturally enduring athlete rather than a powerful one). If you had to come up with a timeline to build him a strong foundation in this sport where he is competing in RX wods confidently (he is willing to play the long term game and do whatever is programmed) how long does that take in this current day?

*RAPID FIRE QUESTIONS*

21:36 - Hey @trainingthinktank, it's clear that analytics is becoming a staple in major professional sports today. How do you see advanced analytics/data science being used in crossfit today and where would you like to see more analytics being used in the future?

22:53 - Do you think “Islands in the Stream” is overrated, underrated or properly rated?

23:08 - If you could pick one exercise to do for the rest of your life what would it be and why?

23:36 - What’s your process of taking a good athlete and turning them into a great one? At what level are you willing to work with athletes to mold them into regionals and games athletes?

24:21 - Accessory work, assuming we do a strength piece, metcon, gymnastic piece, aerobic/mono piece most days, when how and why would we incorporate accessory stuff? Should we take out some other pieces to accommodate it? Or add to a current written program for it? Especially if there’s a weakness that needs to be focused on. Assuming the program covers it all for the generalist, but not exactly for those weak in one specific area.

26:17 - What do you consider a “real” good crossfit athlete

26:33 - Do u have experience with athletes who struggle with breathing through the nose during workouts due to a constant runny nose?

27:50 - Is it true that @life_0f_peimade you cry when you got physiological testing done ? Follow up question: is it true that Justin Timberlake wrote the 2002 pop hit 'cry me a river' in commemoration of said event ?

28:27 - Would you use MAF(maximum aerobic function) in order to develop an athlete's aerobic base? If so would you use MAF on both cyclical and mixed modal training? Can you please elaborate on the benefits (or not) of low intensity training for elite athletes? Thanks a lot

29:16 - Have y’all ever thought of doing a general program for the masses?

29:22 - Is a hot dog a sandwich?

29:29 - Would you rather fight 100 duck sized @tmayer18 or 1 horse sized @tmayer18 ?

Noah Ohlsen and Travis Mayer answer your questions from Instagram while commentating over a group workout from July 2, 2018 here at Training Think Tank HQ.

Music - Mogwai "Mexican Grand Prix"

Noah Ohlsen and his coach Max El-Hag watch back Noah/Travis's 18.1 performances.

Part 1: https://youtu.be/UbyfyIo9Heo

Apologies in advance for the slightly hot microphone volume this week!

Max answers the following 4 questions (time-stamped and listed below) taken from our Instagram and answers them against a 4-minute clock. Then at the end he'll answer as many questions as possible in 4 minutes rapid fire style.

00:44 - How are you as a leader Max maintaining the vibe and chemistry of the team as they all work together?? What steps are you taking to manage each of their own psych for the betterment of the team while still allowing them to express some of the individuality??

06:26 - what are the major training differences when you’re coaching a client for long term health and wellness vs performance? Mainly, what are movements that you have people do and movements you want people to stay away from, generally.

12:13 - Hey TTT, is there still a mix of individual programming and group programming or do all athletes work through the same programmed workouts? Thanks!!

17:12 - 1. How many times throughout the year, and how far in between, do you test your athletes performance markers? (i.e. anaerobic speed reserve, VO2 max, lactate threshold, etc). What is the timeframe expected (weeks, months, years) for your top level athletes to make significant improvements in these categories?

Heading into the 2018 Atlantic Regionals we had high hopes of sending our on-site team TTT Animus (coached by Adam Rogers) and individual athletes Travis Mayer & Noah Ohlsen to the 2018 CrossFit Games. Noah stood at the top of the podium after the weekend was over, but our team and Travis both missed qualifying by one placement. Max and Adam reflect on the season so far.

"Love without sacrifice is theft" - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Music: "Money on Straight" by The Killers

TTT Coaches Adam Rogers & Mike McGoldrick join Max in a discussion about developing an eye for coaching the snatch.