"Strength and skill development work side by side. If you increase one, it makes the movement ... easier."
Carl Paoli, one of the most well known CrossFit coaches in the international community, traveled to Australia and New Zealand to lead gymnastics seminars in October.
“The trip Down Under has been just about teaching people the elements of gymnastics and freestyle movement,” he says. “Physical education is the ultimate goal right now.”
Specifically, Paoli focused on body position and specific movements that appear in CrossFit.
“The focus was things like push-ups, leading to handstand push-ups, leading to free-standing handstand push-ups, leading to handstand walks — basically all of the progressions that you can move people through from a beginner level to an advanced level,” MaD CrossFit co-owner, Matt Dyson, says.
From the squat perspective, for example, Paoli led attendees through progressions with the end goal being to perform a pistol. From the pull-up perspective, “It was about building you up to be able to do muscle-ups,” Dyson says.
“I think an important thing everyone took out of it was the understanding of how strength and skill development work side by side. If you increase one, it makes the movement … easier.”
“Way Better Than I Expected”
Paoli, meanwhile, says he was impressed with what he saw.
“Oh, it’s been way better than I expected,” he says. “I had no clue what I was coming in for. The people have been so happy and excited, and the support is massive.”
Paoli, coach to first-time repeat Games champion, Annie Thorisdottir, also made mention of the CrossFit scene in Australia and New Zealand. The 30-year-old says the sport is much bigger in both countries than he thought it would be.
“I would actually say that the (CrossFit) scene here in Australia and in New Zealand is more intense than it is in America,” he says.
“The people who follow it are way more into it, and they have a completely different feel for it. There is an excitement, there is happiness and there is joy that I just wasn't expecting, which is really, really cool.”
And in terms of rivaling the CrossFit scene in the U.S, Paoli says Australia and New Zealand are right up there.
“To be honest with you, I don’t know if it’s smaller than North America. In the cities that I’ve been able to visit so far, I’ve seen a huge following,” Paoli says.
Compared with America, a few thousand affiliates, New Zealand has less than 50. Many of those have opened in the last year.
“You’re getting a lot of people here who are opening CrossFit affiliates without actually belonging to an affiliate before, and when that happens, it takes some time for it to find its way,” Dyson says. “But it’s growing, and it’s growing fast.”
