Goat Skills

Got Goat? 

 

Goats.  We all have them.  All athletes do.  We are not talking about the standard definition of goat, however.  In this context we are referring to the slang definition often used in the CrossFit world.

goat (gōt)
n. Slang
Someone who is blamed when things go wrong.
Examples:

1. Sarah made Michael the goat for the broken lamp.
2. The goalie was the goat in the 1-0 soccer match.

Etymology: ‘Goat’ is short for ’scapegoat’, which is a person or thing that is given all blame or responsibility for a negative event. A ‘goat’ is the opposite of a hero
Synonyms: fall guy, patsy

A goat for us is a movement or skill that we are not particularly good at, in comparison to the rest of our repertoire.  For example, we have some otherwise heavy-hitting athletes that, for whatever reason, can’t do a double-under to save their lives.  Likewise, we have athletes who can overhead squat a mountain but can not snatch a significant weight.
These movements and skills often hold us back in our workouts, thus becoming our scapegoats.  It is important to remember, though, that we are responsible for addressing our own goats.  It is far too easy at times to simply blame the movement or skill for a poor workout performance rather than accepting accountability for ourselves.  The reality is that we are the only ones that can fix our deficiencies; no one can do the work for us.
Great, so now that we have taken responsibility for our own improvement, how do we actually work on our goats?  Mid-WOD is not the time to learn to snatch.  This is something that needs to be done outside of a workout context.  The same applies to double-unders, cleans, handstands, etc.  Similarly, these are not movements that we can really start our warm-up with, either.  Nothing like 95# snatches first thing in the day when you are still cold and inflexible to potentially cause some serious grief!  No, most of the time our goat movements require us to warm-up before we can start working on them.  So, if we can not work on these skills mid-WOD nor can we typically use them in our warm-up, what is the answer?
The buy-in/cash-out model is the approach we have adopted, along with a number of other CrossFitters and CrossFit gyms.
The buy-in and cash-out are skills development periods that may have a mini-workout feel to them, depending on what is being worked on.  These allow us time to work on underdeveloped skills and movements, after properly preparing our bodies, outside of a workout.  A typical class or workout session employing this approach looks like this:

1. Warm-up
2. Buy-in
3. Workout
4. Cash-out
5. Cool-down

There are also other movements that themselves do not fit into a workout very well but are nonetheless important and useful skills to develop.  The buy-in and cash-out are great places for these, too.  Consider how to incorporate static holds in a workout.  Given the “maximizing work output” approach we take to training, static holds obviously do not fit well.  The same can be said for Turkish Get-ups.  There are much faster and more efficient ways to get that weight overhead.  The TGU is a slow, and inefficient movements when it comes to developing power.  Both skills (static holds and TGUs), however, are very useful for overall athletic development.
If you have been neglecting the buy-in and cash-out components of your training, don’t be surprised when you get left in the dust of those athletes who take full accountability for their development.  Only you can fix your goats.
Read what the folks at CrossFit California City have to say on the subject.

http://www.crossfitto.com/2009/08/15/got-goat/