#pempelforcemoments 2019:  I’ve been doing CrossFit for over two and a half years now, and, while I’ve made incredible progress across the board, I’ve been (frustratingly) chasing two skills for that whole time: handstand kick-ups and strict pull-ups....

 

KICK-UPS

The handstand itself was fine for me, I had the strength and didn’t mind being upside down- it was getting there that was the problem. Something in my head just wouldn’t let me flip myself over. I dreaded handstand sessions and would only do them when my right-hand gal Sam was there to help me get up. Every coach worked with me one-on-one at different times, each coming up with novel approaches to try and get it. Nope. None worked. I felt like it was just something I’d never be able to do. 

Slowly, steadily, with a lot of encouragement (and a couple of tears), I inched closer to the wall. It took literal YEARS of anger and frustration, of watching everyone else do it so easily, of hearing a lot of advice from others (some wanted, some not), of staying behind after class to try and do a couple of kick-ups and not getting far. 

Every time I felt like I wasn’t going to ever get it, the two constants at CrossFit 40477, supportive coaches and brilliant friends, reminded me just how far I’d come. 

It’s still clear as day in my mind, being in gymnastics class, and Sam and Coach Ben both saying to me: this is the day. I didn’t get it in class. It felt like I was going backwards. After we finished, Sam convinced me to stay behind and just do a couple more. She had way more confidence in me than I did. And, incredibly, miraculously, somehow, my feet hit that wall! I think our squeals were heard from Bilk. 

Next stop: strict handstand push-ups ?

PULL-UPS

Strict pull-ups have alluded me for a while. I felt like I made a lot of progress toward them in 2018, building strength and pretty quickly getting closer to that first one. Then: nothing. I plateaued big time. I was missing that one, small, first pull, and it stayed missing for nearly 12 months. Sam and I worked hard in open gym, following screenshots of the gymnastics programming to keep making progress, albeit little. In regular classes, I did banded strict pull-ups whenever I could, but I usually needed a green and a red to get me through. 

In a WOD in late November, we had a choice: rope climbs or strict pull-ups. Knowing I was desperate to inch closer to pull-ups, Coach Sophie let me do them banded. Watching me do the first set with a red band, she immediately told me to try without it. I was VERY sceptical, which was evident on my face, but, trusting my coach, I gave it a go. I think the change to utter shock on my face once it was over that bar said it all!

While both of these achievements from 2019 fill me personally with pride, they made me remember a few other, much more important things:

  1. My coaches know my abilities better than I do, and can tell when to push me and when not to. They know me. 
  2. It’s ridiculously easy to focus on the one thing I can’t do and forget about the seventeen million things I CAN do now that I couldn’t before. Lucky for me I’ve got some incredible CrossFit besties who can list them off for me in the moments I need them the most.
  3. Some things take time. Most things take different people different amounts of time. All I can do is keep getting in there and having a go.