As always love your videos Mason! Some info on these three things from my experience as an athlete. 1) This was the old standard for Handstand walks until 2015. Up until 2015 many athletes used this to their advantage by diving forward. One of the best examples is Joe Scali at the 2015 Regionals as seen in this video starting at 8:54:30 kzfaq.info/get/bejne/n55-rcyAlp2Xp30.htmlsi=O-INbnk9nmuYziYw Oddly at the 2020 Games the CrossFit Sport Team went back to this inferior old standard, and unsurprisingly an athlete used it to their advantage. 2) Athletes have been using their grips on deadlifts for a while before Justin did it in 2021. In this video from the 2016 Regionals athletes were allowed to wear grips, however the judge told Mat Fraser he needed to take his off at around 2:41:50. kzfaq.info98QYV-CRtz8?si=s7OuHvUAUQTAF9F3 Even though no other athlete wearing grips was told to take their grips off. 3) The Ski-Bag test at the 2023 Games we were briefed that we had to advance to the very last section like Pat Vellner did. Justin did not advance far enough and his judge did not correct him. After the event was over athletes appealed Justin's score stating he should be given a penalty of a few seconds because walking with the bag during that transition was slower than just taking one step. This would be a similar situation to Kara Saunders in 2017 when her judge said she was done the overhead squats so she ran to the finish line. The judge was wrong so they gave her a couple second penalty. This time with Justin they gave no penalty, which I personally believe is an incorrect judgement. Whether Justin intended to do less work and was lucky he got away with it, or he was just listening to his judge who was incorrect I don't know! Related video here instagram.com/p/C3erD83vLmX/

Play by the rule, did no cheat, he outsmart the others. Don' t hate the player, hate the game.

This is the best CrossFit commentary page by far!

Work smarter not harder reigns true. We love our boy Justin

I love reading rules and standards and strategizing. This is strategy. Great video.

I don’t know who this Mason dude is but I like him.

I think it’s part of the sport. Just like any other sport, rules are adjusted and refs are trained to look out for new things as the game evolves and new ideas come into play

You nailed it, Bro! Great analysis!

Another great video Mason!

Another interesting video 👍🏾

Firstly, I salute you sir, great channel and fantastic analysis. People seldom think about the tactical aspects of CrossFit at the competition level, there is a reason beyond pure physical fitness why the elite guys are the elite.

Athletes should take advantage of any gaps in the rules without violating what is written. Rules should be written knowing that athletes will do this. Another well done vid!

I agree that he games some workouts and others do as well. Mat Fraser gamed the T2B lunge workout at the 2020 games by placing his KBs next to his T2B spot instead of at the next lunge line like the other athletes - probably won him the workout even though Noah was much faster otherwise. The regional event a while ago with strict ring muscle ups is similar to gaming as well. Athletes found out how much of a kip they could get away with from their particular judge. There was also a lot of speculation that Katrin knew during the run at the ranch that Dave was going to make them turn around and do the course in reverse. I agree that the rules ideally are written so that every athlete has a fair field. I think that the most pressing issue here is athletes watching previous heats. The heat 4 athletes have the advantage of watching three heats of athletes experiment with pacing and they go into their workout with that advantage. I believe that they should force the athletes to go in blind in order to make it fair.

Best youtube channel analyzing CF as a sport hands down

Innovation keeps a sport exciting. This is true even if the rules are later updated to outlaw the innovation. 37K views and the lively discussion on this video is proof of that! As long as the rules can be updated quickly in order to maintain fairness (like they can in CrossFit) , then I think it's perfectly healthy that competitors stretch the rules and that rule makers, in turn, update the rules.

As an aspiring games athlete this is some really good insight, great video bro 🔥🔥🔥

Mat used to do it too. He even said in one interview before. Be on the limit of the rules...

Every sport is an effort to win by every possible advantage. If the rules allow for a technique or don't specify against it, it's fair game until the rules change.

What’s your take on the men’s competition this year? IMO there’s different tiers of guys, some who are strong contenders (guys who have podiumed in the past few years) and guys with an outside shot (guys in the top 4 - 10 in the past few years)

Para os que vão traduzir para inglês: justin Medeiros jogava com o regulamento debaixo do braço. Extremamente esperto

I mean its not a sport. They are just the best at exercising.

🔥💪🏽💪🔥🏅🏆🌿👍🏽👍

I think the crossfit needs more strategy like these, the atletes need to show some brain to

As long as kipping exists in the pullups, noone can complain about bending the rules

I think what he did is reasonable and that they just need to shore up the rules when things like this happen for the future.

re handstand walk..his "breaking it up" took time. other athletes no doubt valued time vs effort

What a chad, crossfit is about cheating movement anyway, he was clearly the best at it and also this happens in every sport. You take every advantage you can get, it's a competition - in powerlifting this would be a wide grip and a very arched back doing bench press just to name an example outside of crossfit. You gotta stretch and abuse the rules as much as you can, if you actually want to win, because anyone else can also do it aswell. Gotta have strength, but you also have to use your brain to excel beyond your physical capability/reduce fatigue as much as possible, especially in a sport like this, where endurance is quite important. I see nothing wrong.

*Justin cutting work on handstand walks. Still comes second to Matt Fraser.

I like the thinking, but at the end you are measuring performance, not the effort. So if somebody is able to do the work more efficiently within the rules than he is fitter. In other words, somebody can have all the strength, cardio, stamina, but if he doesn't have technique, he will do less work and therefore he is less fit. Even if all his stats might be better.

The first two things were taking advantage of rules for sure. The ski-bag bullshit was straight up cheating, and it should have been penalized. He knew. It was a part of the athlete briefing.

I can only follow the rules they give me. Nothing to limit my creativity

So he is fit and smart? That is the only take.

Fix your sound.

Best part of any game is figuring out how to bend the rules to your advantage

Human as a race are lazy. We find ways to make things easier for us. why go over a mountain when we have machinery to put holes in it and go through? Medeiros did what our race been doing since the dawn of time. find ways to make life easy.

Can't vilify your new white poster boy. This video will upset a lot of people.