#100: Coaching Competitive Athletes

Legion Strength & Conditioning Podcast

It’s CrossFit Games week, and in this special 100th episode, Jon gives away all of his secrets in preparing CrossFit Omnia Black and teenage athlete Abigail Moore for the CrossFit Games this year.

CrossFit Omnia qualified for the Games as a “true affiliate team.” The team is made up of athletes who live in the Denver area, and some of them have full-time jobs outside of the gym.

Abigail Moore has been training with Jon for the last several months. She has a background in weightlifting and swimming, and Jon has worked a lot on her gymnastics skills in the run-up to the games.

In this episode, we chat about how Jon manages the dynamics of working with a team and what training looks like at different stages of the season.

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Show Notes:

• [01:45] “Affiliate teams” vs “super teams”
• [03:00] How much team training is actually going on?
• [05:45] The breakdown of an individual training session
• [08:30] How much guidance and coaching do athletes receive from Jon?
• [12:30] What are the individual sessions like for the team?
• [14:15] How does training develop throughout the season?
• [21:00] Navigating injuries within the team
• [25:00] Training for the novel events at the CrossFit Games — plus, Jon’s secret notepad
• [31:45] How are team workouts like swims, bike rides, and ruck runs planned out?
• [37:30] What are the differences between the training a teen athlete compared to an individual athlete
• [44:00] How much variability is there in the training for a teen athlete?
• [48:20] The volume of training teen athletes can handle
• [49:50] Training the basics for games preparation