It has been a wild ride opening my new gym in the highlands. Between that and school I haven't had a lot of extra time for training or sleeping or breathing for that matter. Last week was spring break which meant that I got to grab a few hours for myself, how did I use those hours?? I visited other CrossFit gyms of course! I wanted to get out of town for a day or two and since I have been too busy this season to put any new dents in my Burton I decided to head up to the mountains. I have been meaning to visit Avon's only CF gym, CrossFit Venture, home of "The burpee Queen" Natalie McLain.
It is tough dropping into other gyms in the middle of the open since you have no clue what will be asked of you in the coming weeks. The idea of dropping in to a gym that doesn't post their workouts ahead of time is even more dangerous. I saw that Venture offered an Olympic lifting class and was excited about the idea of not being drug through the mud on a long hero workout the day before the announcement of Open workout 13.4.
When I walked in I saw Sam on the floor stretching out by himself. I immediately felt like a shmuck. I had registered for the class online and even sent an email saying that I was coming but the thought of making the guy go through a class without any of the gyms actual members was not cool. He told me that one more person was signed up which made me feel better.
Sam explained that we would be working on snatch so he had us grab a PVC pipe and took us through the Burgener warm-up. With an empty bar he recorded us using an iPad, showing exactly where we were coming up short. He had us set up a couple of boxes and did a very useful drill with us to help us get under the bar faster. Now this is usually where I break down the class and talk about results but I am going to stray from my typical format on this one. Bare with me for a moment but I need to say this, Sam Matthews is a fucking amazing coach! I'm not sure if I have ever taken more away from any hour at any CrossFit gym as I did with my time with that guy. The guy has a great eye for human movement and delivers cues in a very easy to understand way. His excitement and passion for what he does is evident.
Very very infrequently will I stray from the programming that I have written for my gym, however, I felt like the information that I received from my time at CF Venture was so valuable I didn't want to wait to implement it. When I got back to Denver the next day's training was simply "Snatch" Every one of the classes at my gym spent a complete hour working on the skills that I took from Sam. We had several athletes break long standing personal records as a result. What I took away from my time at Venture was valuable both as an athlete and a coach.
This class really shouldn't be missed. Even if your goal isn't to compete at Olympic lifting or at CrossFit taking this class will absolutely help you understand the movements better. Bottom line, if you live anywhere near Avon, hell if you live in Denver, and you miss a chance to train with Sam at Venture you are wrong.
Shirts.....
They don't stock them! Venture uses a site called "WODCRUSHER" to distribute their shwag. I guess they are too busy being awesome coaches to worry about weather they should go with American Apparel or Next Level. The shirts that they have on that site are super sick. I went with the "coffee" color. So you can click the link above and buy any other color than that!
The Score....
A super easy to find location, awesome coaching and the ability to order a shirt online grabs CrossFit Venture a score of...... Top three finish at Regionals!
