High Rep Complex Movements

This topic comes up from time to time on CrossFit and weightlifting blogs. How the CF community takes a very complex movement, mainly the clean and jerk/snatch, and then have people do a lot of reps of these movements. People say it's an awful idea and I for the most part, agree. I say for the most part, because I do have some reservations about it.

I hate trying to do a workout RX when it's a rather large weight and a movement that I think is unsafe at high reps... like today's. If I had known that the workout was going to take such a downward spiral, I would have dropped the weight and approached it differently. This was a bit of hubris and a bit of it being far too early to think properly.

So, the main reservation I have about the approach of high reps of complex movements, is that I subscribe to the idea that you need to complete 10,000 reps of something to truly master it. It's a common enough idea, you do something 10,000 times and you're probably going to be pretty well versed in it. It changes from person to person, some say 10,000 hours. 

There's an obvious flaw to this logic though(don't mind me if I tend to talk in circles and disprove myself when I ramble). If you're doing 10,000 reps incorrectly, you are mastering something incorrectly. But I'm thinking that if you do something over even a 1000 times, you're not doing it incorrectly. You're inherently going to fix your form. Sure, you could do Isabel with shitty form(Isabel is 30 snatches for time). You could definitely throw your back out doing such a workout. But, if you want to get good enough that your times are starting to be competitive, I'm positive that you can't do so with bad form. 

Your body is going to figure out how to do that movement correctly. Is it "perfect" by someone else's standards? Doesn't have to be. I'm sure Coach Pendlay has some issues with Jason Khalipa's snatch form, I know I do. But you know what, he does it sub 2 minutes. Is it pretty? Nope. But, his body has figured out how to do that very complex movement safely and efficiently.

So, the take away. Go lower weights. That's what I should have done this morning. In a workout where there is something that is complex(read: C&J, Snatch, Deadlift, etc.) drop the weight and get your reps in. Figure out the movement; listen to your coaches and listen to your body. If you're ever going to master a movement, you need to get your reps in. Just be smart about it.