Practicing a CF Relic

Three rounds for time of:
50 Double-unders
40 Sit-ups
30 Medicine ball cleans, 20 pound ball
20 Pull-ups
10 Handstand push-ups

From crossfit.com–
WOD Demo with CrossFit Hampton Roads – video [wmv] [mov] [HD mov]

The Med Ball Clean has a somewhat contraversial history in the CF community.  Some say that it was invented due to a lack of ablility to coach the Olympic lifts, and some say it encourages bad habits that will later need to be un-taught when learning to lift barbells.  I say who cares.  We are all about doing as much work as we can, as many different ways as we can.  I do however want to make sure you are getting the most out of the movement and creating habits that will help your barbell cleans rather than make them worse.

The Setup-
Make sure you start in a sumo-deadlift position with feet straddling the ball and your hips relatively high.  BACK STRAIGHT!  The laces on the ball should be facing straight forward and your hands squeeze directly on the sides of the ball.  Weight in the heels.

Execution-
Slowly start the lift and accelerate into a jump as the ball passes knee height.  Be sure to fully open the hip at the top of the movement.  At that instant you will begin the shrug which will begin your movement back under the ball.  Remember, you do not shrug the ball up, you shrug yourself down against the weight of the ball.  As you jump off the floor, your feet should move out slightly and in a perfect squat stance with weight distributed to the heels.

The shrug is initiated with straight elbows.  As you feel yourself starting to move back under the ball, release your hands from the sides of the ball and turn them all the way around to re-grip the ball.  The ball should not rotate at all as your hands change position.  Laces out Ray Finkel.  Also notice the ball height does not move higher than the postion it reaches at full hip extension.  Pull yourself to the ball, not the ball to yourself.

Receive the ball in a front squat position and descend into a below parallel squat position.  Now stand all the way up holding the ball at chin level.  BOOM!

Common faults include:
Rounded back
Early shrug or early arm pull
Failure to reach full hip extension
Failure to reach full squat depth
Dropping ball before standing all the way up
Rotation on the ball ie. med ball curls
Bad footwork landing too wide in the squat
Weight on toes

If you get all that right, you will be looking just like the slide show here except with smaller arms.  Failure to open the hips fully, reach full squat depth, or stand all the way up before lowering the ball will all result in a  "No Rep."