HWPO PRO Head Coach, Ste Fawcett

If you know you aren't yet at the level to advance to Semifinals, then enjoy the 5-day test and try to arrange hitting the workouts in a crew so you can have a good time and push each other.

Don't get too worked up if there are skills or weights that are beyond you right now—it fuels the fire for the future! Quarterfinals will find your limits, and there's no better feeling than smashing through those limits over the next year of training.

If you are pushing for the Semifinals, my biggest piece of advice is to be prepared. Make sure you know who will judge you and that you both know the exact standards to follow. Four Workouts over six days isn’t going to be a huge amount of volume, but your intensity in those workouts will likely be higher than you've hit in training. Prioritize cooling down properly after each workout. Simply, 10 minutes on the Echo Bike right after you are done will make a big difference to how you feel in your next workout!

HWPO Coach, Josh Godinez

Be prepared to push yourself outside of your ‘comfort zone’, which ALL athletes naturally find in their regular training. The Open can push people past their expected limits, and the Quarterfinals can do this even more.

Create a plan beforehand to put yourself in a position to make your first workout your best attempt. This plan might need to be adjusted once you begin, but if you take the time to plan out how you will attack a workout, how much you will rest, and what you do and don’t want to do during the workout, you can help yourself avoid any costly mistakes that would force you to redo.

If you are trying to maximize your results on the leaderboard, or if you are trying to break through to the Semifinals, do not be afraid of a redo…but do so cautiously. There are usually pros and cons to any decision you make, and redoing a workout is no different. Ask yourself: How much could I realistically stand to improve with my current fitness level?; How much would redoing a workout affect my ability to recover and do well for any remaining events?; and, Do I have an actual plan of what I could do differently to achieve a better result, or am I banking on being “tougher” or “fitter” and taking the same strategy but hoping for a different outcome? … Among the answers to those questions, you can usually deduce whether or not a redo is in line with your best interests as an athlete.

If you have aspirations to compete at a Semifinals-level or higher, be sure to film EVERYTHING, and know that having a back-up camera is always a good idea. Even if you are not in a situation where your video will be requested for review, you can learn a lot from simply watching yourself compete. Some of the most productive takeaways an athlete can have in their own competitive journey can come from simply watching themselves back and taking notes. Even if you are not a Semifinals athlete yet, if you one day want to be, then take measures to grow from your Quarterfinals experience by filming your workouts and critically watching them back.

On videos — be sure to upload these as SOON as you have cooled down from a workout, and submit your score as soon as possible. With a weekend full of so many other stressors and stimulations, don’t add to the burden by waiting until the last minute to submit scores.

Remember, there are absolutely no “style-points” in CrossFit. In most scenarios, you will not get extra points or placings for going “unbroken” or sprinting on a cardio machine but rather for simply having the fastest overall time or the most work completed. There are certainly many situations where large, unbroken sets with large, forced rests are a much slower approach than small sets with short, planned rests. With this said, always keep track of your rest and transition times in workouts, and try to have a plan for when these rest/transitions will happen BEFORE starting the event. In so many instances in CrossFit, slow and steady wins the race, so don’t feel pressure to “outdo” yourself with giant sets when you know you can keep moving more effectively with small sets and short rests.

Be sure you eat and hydrate well before, during, and even after the Quarterfinals weekend. Like with any competition, your adrenaline will likely be carrying you through a lot of the work, but that same adrenaline can have you either feeling like you simply can’t eat enough food or are not hungry at all. In either scenario, try to stick to what your “normal” is for your nutrition as a baseline.

Regardless of how the weekend goes, take at least a day or two to be OUT of the gym once the event is all over. It is a lot of work, both physically and mentally, to compete in CrossFit®, and after the stress of the Quarterfinals, taking a small time away to recharge mentally and recover physically can be huge for your long-term success as an athlete.

HWPO Coach, Jake Marconi

There are more than enough practical tips on how to prepare, strategize, and execute the Quarterfinal workouts. Reading or watching content in preparation for next week can quickly become overwhelming if you try to implement what everyone has to say. Rather, listen to all of the advice, pick what applies to you, and get to work giving your best effort on each workout.

Competing, whether casually or seriously, comes with intense highs and lows, and next week will be no different. It is easy to let the lows outshine the highs. With only four workouts, one ‘bad’ event could make the whole week feel like a failure if you let it. You will find small wins in each workout if you are looking for them. Make this your goal for the week. Sit down at the end of the day and reflect on what went well.

Here are some places to look:

• Was your movement good or improved?
• Did you handle a stressful situation better than you may have in the past?
• Did you execute your pre-planned strategy more often than you didn’t? 
• Did the workout go bad but you ended up making the most of a tough situation?
• How would you have done on this workout last year?

Going into a workout knowing you will ask these questions often leads to finding the positives during the workout itself because your mind is looking for good rather than bad. This quote from Poet Marianne Moore puts my point more succinctly than I ever could: ‘I’ve made it a principle not to be over-influenced by minor disappointments.’ Good luck next week, not that you need it, you’re prepared.