Skinny BB, to be edited Monday. After spending an hour writing up a fantastic backblast, I tried to get cute and pressed the "textual smiley" button without first saving my write up. Lost everything. Another lesson for the PAX, though!
BB write up, take 2: 25-Mar-2019
On a chilly morning at The Estate, 15 PAX to the best of my memory did and discussed the following:
0700: Gathered. For the purposes of Q School, Turncoat acted as our "Larry Bird", which you'll find in F3 Lexicon as the PAX who pushes himself to finish first at all the exercises. (Sometimes, even, at the expense of good form and / or reps!)
And Black Eyed Pea was playing the part of a first post FNG.
WARM-O-RAMA:
- Mosey up the hill a bit, including high knees and butt kickers.
- We quickly discussed the need to (usually) include a proper warm up. We acknowledged that not every sub region first does a dynamic (moving) warm up. For example, Denver often begins at 05:30 with side straddle hops out of the gate.
- Circle up. Disclaimer given, and the importance of a thorough disclaimer explained.
- Calling out an exercise was explained. "The next exercise is…the side straddle hop. Starting position move…in cadence…exercise". x 10 In cadence (IC)
- Explained that counting in cadence is more than simply a means to get the PAX to a number of repititions. In fact, the counts should match a movement from the Q. This was better explained with:
- Mericans x 8 IC: Counting is One (down), Two (up), Three (down), and PAX count "1" up the up.
- Explained that, the "Larry Bird" of the group may be able to work faster than the Q's count. He may be able to complete 5 reps for every 4, for example. Conversely, the FNG may only be able to do 3 for every 4. Point is, the proper cadence counting allows each PAX to stay on schedule.
- Demonstrated different types of Mericans including Shoulder Touch Mericans and partner "Booyah Mericans" to show how the cadence corresponds to movements there.
The "Q School Thing":
- Mosey back down the hill to the track.
- Explained to the PAX that generally you wouldn't spend 45 minutes counting cadence. Especially for one's first few Qs, you may want to construct a workout which keeps everyone busy / moving without the Q having to count the entire time. We gave a few easy examples including:
- Example 1. Partner 1: LBCs, Partner 2: Runs some distance and back. Continue to 100 team reps achieved.
- Example 2. Tabata style exercises. Everyone does squats for 45 seconds "on your own" (OYO), 10 seconds of rest. Repeato.
- Example 3. Affectionately called the "Bam Bam Tabata". Everyone does squats for 45 seconds OYO. No rest though! Instead we did 15 seconds of mountain climbers. Repeato.
- At this point we reminded the PAX that the best teaching cannot occur in a quick 30 minute Q School. We urged the PAX to get out and see some of the very talented and experienced Qs in our region. There are too many awesome ones to list, but YHC did specifically mention: Bam Bam, Ramrod, and Uncle Rico for variety and / or challenging workouts.
- Example 4. "7s". Everyone does 1 Merican OYO. Run 100 yards on the track. Do 6 Burpees OYO. Run 100 yards back. Repeato but with 2 / 5. Etc. (But we stopped after 2 Mericans)
- Throughout, we kept an eye on our FNG. Discussed the possible need to "audible" if an FNG is struggling, for example if the workout includes "hill repeats" over and over and over…it may behoove the Q to audible to something different; especially on a hot day.
Mosey to the benches. At this point some of the newer PAX called exercises in cadence. Corrections were made where needed. PAX who called cadence:
- Baller
- Cherry Bomb
- Cousin Eddie
- Heisman
- Little Finger
- Marker
I think we called on everyone above. Cobains if not…didn't mean to leave anyone out. Exercises included: Dips, Incline Mericans, Decline Merican, and LBCs.
We were roughly 30 minutes in at this point, and we wanted to leave 30 minutes for discussion and questions.
Q School Discussion: (I may be listing it slightly out of order, Cobains)
- We separated the PAX by years of experience within F3. One table had PAX in their first year, a second table had PAX with 1-3 years experience, and the third table had PAX with > 3 years. See further below for why we did this.
- We discussesd the 5 Core Principles of F3.
- We discussed F3 History, and Lake Norman (LKN) history.
- We discussed COMZ, and COMZ etiquette in the context of workout types:
- There are 5 different "types" of workouts in the LKN region. They are: Boot Camp, Stretch-Flex-Core, Kettle Bell, Running, and Run with Pain Stations.
- We discussed some general guidelines around the workout types, and etiquette. For example, if you are planning to lead a bootcamp and plan to run > 2 miles (ish), you can mention that in the Preblast. This would allow PAX on the mend (looking at you Little Finger, Moses, Frogger, etc.!) to possibly choose a less run heavy workout. The 2 miles is arbitrary, but one can expect to cover that much ground in a bootcamp even via simply moving to different stations. PAX can expect to cover > 2 miles and perhaps up to 4-5 in a "Run with Pain Stations" format. Running workouts can often cover 6 miles or more. Kettle Bell can vary as can a Boot Camp. Expect to cover at least 0.5 miles even without moving much.
- At this point, Cousin Eddie gave some professional advice. (Physical Therapist I believe? Sound off below). He suggested that upper body injuries can result from overuse in a workout, and that the occasional run or "mosey" within a 45 minute period can possibly help prevent those.
- We then asked a few PAX a pretty simple question: How often do you think you should Q? Our "new" table had some great answers. Cherry Bomb, who coincidentally had his VQ last Monday then Q'd again on Friday; said "As often as I can". Awesome! Cousin Eddie discussed how a PAX might be a regular at a few different AOs, and how it would be good to Q every once in a while to "give back". Another awesome answer!
- We then did some quick math…there are ~36 workouts per week in Huntersville alone! And Qs are needed for all of them. We explained that the "experienced" table cannot reasonably be expected to Q all of them, because the workouts would quickly get stale. The "new" table cannot reasonably be expected to Q all of them, even if their ideas are new and fresh, because that is simply asking too much too soon. And we discussed how PAX often go through a phase during years 1-3 where they like to Q a LOT, and do so, but still it's asking too much to ask the PAX with 1-3 years to Q all of the workouts. We need the PAX at all the tables, with all levels of F3 Experience, to help fill all the workouts with Qs each week / month / year.
- We discussed variety in workouts. Twister, from the Mtn Island Lake sub-region, is a former martial arts instructor. He'll occasionally bring components of hitting bags to his workouts. Very cool.
- Turncoat discussed an upcoming challenge to the PAX. Preblast / Jerky article to come, but the gist is this: A challenge to all PAX to Q at least 12 times in 2019, and at at least 3 different AOs. This will help ensure all workouts have a Q and will help with variety in LKN.
- It will also tremendously help out Master Qs (MQs). We pointed out MQs in our midst that day: Freedom is the MQ at Night Ranger, Tantrum is the MQ at Excelsior, and coming soon; Cousin Eddie will be the MQ at Fission. PAX, please support these MQs and pick up a Q for them! We discussed how to do that and where; tools include this website calendar and reaching out to the MQ.
- Pop Quiz: If you are reading this, how many F3 workouts can you attend in 1 week in the LKN region?
- Consider this hypothetical week: Monday AM – workout at any of the very fine AOs which can be found on the website calendar. Tuesday AM – workout. Tuesday PM – workout! (The Sweatshop in Davidson is a Tuesday and Thursday night AO). Wednesday AM – workout. Wednesday PM – workout! (Night Ranger, which meets at Discovery Place kids, is a Wed PM workout). Thursday AM – workout. Thursday PM – workout at Sweatshop. Friday AM – workout. Saturday AM – workout at 0600 and 0700. That is 10 OFFICIAL workout opportunities you will find on the website. Un-officially, there is also the "River Rat 10k" on Saturday at 0500, and a Sunday run called "Off the books" which launches from Davidson. So if you were so inclined, you could lace up your sneakers with the men of F3 12 times in any given week. Snake Eyes was really intrigued by this challenge! To be honest the most YHC has ever done was 9 in a week. Can anyone top that? Let's make "12" a thing sometime later this spring / summer. Who's with us?
Moleskin:
- See section above, mostly.
- Marker's VQ will be in Denver at the East Lincoln High School (ELHS) "Mustang" AO on April 1st. Let's support him!
- Appreciate all the "F3 veterans" who came out and offered their unique take on all things LKN F3.
- Appreciate the newer guys who came out to learn a bit and offer their perspective as well. If you haven't Q'd yet, get out there and give it a try! We suggested that PAX plan for > 45 minutes and trim back if needed. And we offered our help in looking at a proposed workout to lend an opinion of how long it would roughly take.
- Overall it was a lively discussion that went in several directions and covered a lot of ground. Sound off below if I'm forgetting anything important. Cobains for the delay, technology is not YHC's strong suit, lol.
- Special thanks to Turncoat for setting this up and for reaching out to many of our newer PAX. Thanks to BEP for playing an FNG so well, and to Rooter for letting us use The Estate AO.
Enjoyed it gents! Turnpike