Have you ever noticed that when CrossFit comes up in conversation people have either never heard of it, or they have, and they have a strong opinion about it? There is little or no middle ground. In the weightlifting community, these strong opinions can sometimes be pretty negative, but here’s the ugly truth: CrossFit is now a valid ‘discipline’ in strength and conditioning. Through corporate sponsorship and impressive marketing, it is becoming a respected sport with an established international competitive framework. If you are a weightlifting coach, you’ll need to accept (if only for your own sanity), that at some point you will be working with CrossFitters.

For many weightlifting coaches, the growth of CrossFit has lead to an influx of new athletes wanting to develop their snatch and clean and jerk. Unless you are lucky enough to be solely coaching high level competitive weightlifters and that alone pays your mortgage, chances are that some of your paying clients will be first and foremost CrossFitters. A lot of you will say, “yeah, okay, the more the merrier,” and this is great, but you’ll also be thinking to yourself, “when they come to my gym/class they’re gonna be doing things my way.” That’s all well and good, and in many ways it has validity. But is it a helpful attitude? Because they are paying clients, you will be obliged to listen to what they want to get from you in exchange for their hard earned cash. It’s important to listen to them, too. While it is absolutely true that the Olympic lifts are used throughout the world, during CrossFit workouts, the way they are used and the intended outcome is arguably very different from their primary purpose.

Olympic Weightlifting is ultimately about making a handful of successful snatches, cleans and Jerks; what amounts to a few seconds of absolutely maximal effort. It is the ultimate specialization sport. CrossFit, on the other hand, is about variety; athletes often don’t know until hours before what movements will be included in a competition or workout and therefore specialization is impossible. The competitive environment is all about endurance and managing effort.

CrossFit has different standards by which lifts are judged, too. By far, the biggest issue for a weightlifting coach watching CrossFitters is the ‘relaxed’ attitude to form and accurate repetition. Doing snatch after snatch for 10 minutes without rest forces the athlete into relying on the leniency of the judge in order to get the reps racked up. Add to this the predominance of the ‘power’ lifts and you can begin to see how different the technical and physical needs of CrossFitters are when compared with weightlifters.

In my opinion, you cannot just apply ‘traditional’ weight lifting coaching principles to training clients whose primary discipline is competitive CrossFit. So it’s fair to ask: what do CrossFit athletes want then if they don’t want my usual teaching tools and techniques? Well, at heart their priorities are likely to be efficiency of movement, moderate strength, and accuracy of movement within certain parameters.

Efficiency of movement fits in really well with what weightlifting coaches know and do, but stops short of the extent of the usual teaching. CrossFitters are strangely impatient creatures that do not believe in resting between sets. They also don’t like to have to worry about spending a lot of time setting up for a lift when against the clock. Things like the dynamic start and what they call ‘full depth of squat’ (and what we all call a squat) aren’t necessarily useful to them. This is in part because CrossFit is usually performed with what might otherwise be considered moderate weight. Many CrossFitters don’t need full depth of squat because they do not need to clean more than they can power clean. Simple. Furthermore you may encounter what I have termed the ‘clean only paradigm,’ which is when a CrossFitter cannot jerk even half what they can clean. Why? Because they almost never need to clean and jerk in a work out.

With this in mind, I tend to scale back my own coaching arsenal in order to help get the basics right without worrying about absolute refinement. One of the best coaching pointers I had from my mentor is to ‘triage the lift.’ The principle behind this is one of addressing the most pressing fault or issue first with a given lifter and worrying about the rest at a later date (if required). Nine times out if 10 (with CrossFitters) this pressing fault is with hip drive, or a lack thereof. Teaching proper hip drive is a sure fire way of revolutionizing the technique of your average CrossFitter and it’s a neat way to establish good form through proper set up and posture (as is naturally required in the ‘power’ position). When you add to this the revelatory feeling of a properly ‘popped’ barbell, you have a client who is almost immediately on the way to lifting with reasonable technique and better, safer form. Am I looking for textbook movement? No. I am looking for the safe and efficient management of effort (in this case the use of leg muscles rather than arm muscles).

Is that enough? In my experience a few basic pointers here and there is all a lot of CrossFitters really want. They want to feel like they’re making progress but don’t want to be aware of how much discipline it will take to become a really good lifter! Remember, they are not practicing full lifts every day like weightlifters and generally not doing accessory work like pulls either, so they aren’t in a position to apply in-depth tweaks and changes. Would I like to get more in-depth? Yes, like most coaches I get excited when I see potential and I’m always dying to develop it in others.

In terms of out and out strength, I do not believe that a CrossFit athlete can hope to sustain the levels of strength and power that a specialist can. It’s difficult to maintain a balance of endurance work and pure strength training without one having a negative effect on the other. But again, this may not be important to a CrossFitter. They only need to move a prescribed weight for a number of reps and sets; why waste time and effort moving more? In this respect absolute adhesion to perfect standards of form are less important because the potential amount of damage from a poor lift diminishes somewhat with weight. While I never allow anybody to lift with a rounded back I also know that for many CrossFitters they will be working with 30 or 40 kilos in a WOD, which is a weight many can move fairly safely even when tired. The theory goes: 40 kilos is unlikely to overbalance a 90 kilo male. By this I mean the athlete might get a sore back by letting the bar get away from them but they are unlikely to break bones through missed lifts at such low weights.

Training accuracy of movement (and the accompanying spatial/body awareness) is key in developing new weightlifters. However, as I said earlier, CrossFitters are impatient creatures and they also strongly believe in the philosophy of ‘grip it and rip it.’ I’m not suggesting coaches should stop upholding their own high standards; it’s just you might need to play the long game on the accuracy front. Sometimes I find it beneficial to let something like jumping forward a small amount go un-checked in favor of keeping the athlete interested and motivated. In my own work I have found without exception that CrossFitters will get stuck at a certain weight. This sticking point will not be related to absolute strength but will be due to a technique deficit. When they plateau, the athlete will probably come to me with a more open mind and I will be able to work my magic. At this point they will either make a commitment to do the disciplined technique work, or they’ll decide the Olympic lifts aren’t their priority.

In my perfect world, everyone who came to my sessions would cast aside all responsibilities, hobbies and family ties in order to train the Olympic lifts nine times a week until ready to compete on a national or international level. But in the real world, Olympic weightlifting will not be the absolute priority for a significant portion of my clients and so I need to meet them where they are. When they are in my class or session, they are my responsibility, and so I have to make sure that first and foremost they are safe, then that they are satisfied with the service and progressing somewhat and then, finally, I can try to help them get the lifting bug. If you are reading that thinking that suddenly coaching doesn’t seem so glamorous, then I’m sorry, but it’s the truth as I have experienced it. After all, when I’m coaching, it’s about them, not me!

The setting I coach in is a CrossFit gym first and foremost, and our dedicated Olympic weightlifting classes were, initially at least, an add-on to the workout schedule. Because of this I have a reminder of where my supply of athletes is coming from and where my priorities might sometimes have to lie. I have had to learn to be patient and listen to what CrossFitters want, and not what they need from me. In time the athletes split into those who identify as lifters (and who I develop a closer working relationship with) and those who call themselves CrossFitters. Either way, I get my job satisfaction from seeing my clients improve. Ultimately you will make your own choices about what (if any) adjustments you need to make to your coaching, but I urge you to consider making some changes if you feel it will better serve your athletes and their personal priorities.