On Saturday February 28th, we made memories. We made new friends, we tried new movements, and we had FUN. It had been since 2018 since our last in-house members competition because of 2019’s ‘double Open’, but CrossFit 6S brought the house down for the 2020 Underground Throwdown. 44 of our athletes came together on 11 teams. Some people meeting for the very first time on that Saturday, but everyone came together and worked as a team. By the end of the day and after 4 (and for some 5) workouts, we crowned 3 teams on the podium, handed out those giant cheques you see on the game shows, and celebrated every ones hard work with post workout carbs (beer)!
Let’s rewind to 3 weeks prior to the big event. The coaches came together to create the team workouts. It was a collaboration of the minds where the coaches all created ‘The Ski Biathelon’, ‘X + Y = Gains’, ‘Team Work Makes The Worm Work’, ‘Hang On, DT’, ‘Gorilla DBalls’, and the finale ‘DBall Relay’. As a coach, it was hard to keep these workouts a secret! We were all so excited, especially about the ‘Unknown & Unknowable’ Nerf gun challenge. The coaches even tested the workouts when the doors were locked to ensure they were all challenging yet do-able, and FUN!
Now it’s Saturday, the big day. And what better way to kick off the Throwdown then with a Golden Girls inspired warmup led by the ever enthusiastic coach Sid? We’re still waiting for some of those movements to appear in the daily programming…
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Wod 1: The Ski Biathon
​Ski, push press, shoot the Nerf gun to 5 targets, wall ball penalty. How difficult could it be? Lets just say there were a lot of wall balls that happened. However, there was one team that handled all the elements and came out on top. Team One More Rep got all 4 athletes through the challenge in 9:15! The Unknown and Unknowable was conquered by feats of precision and accuracy for this team! |
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Wod 2: X+Y=Gains
​Choose a movement: Back Squat, Bench Press, Hang Clean, Snatch. 2 minutes each to max out the reps, and accumulate team calories on the rower. The catch? You chose your weight on the bar. Reps x weight + calories = TEAM GAINS! So how did the strategy play out for these 11 teams? Team Honey Badgers took the lead on this math wod! |
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Wod 3: Team Work Makes The Worm WorkÂ
​A take on the famous ‘Worm’ used in the Crossfit Games. 4 movements, all completed in sync, each team member with varying weights of balls. Deadlift, squat, thruster, burpee, all in sync, and all connected by team synchro lunges. Visually, very impressive. But experiencing this workout required patience and team work. Athlete Ana said “The sync part was a challenge and I could learn to respect my colleague’s pace and how to encourage them!” This was also athlete Jenn’s favourite wod. A “total team effort!” But the team that handled this wod with precision was Chafing The Dream. Thanks to Renee’s drill Sargent calling and the team’s work ethic, they completed the worm challenge in 7:25. |
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Wod 4: Hang On, DT!
​A grippy take on hero wod DT. 2 athletes on the kettlebells completing 1 synchro round of DT, while one athlete hangs from the rig, one athletes holds a handstand. Reps can only be accumulated when the athletes are hanging and holding. So who held and hung on the longest to complete the most reps? The top 3 teams, Toronto Squat Exchange, The Honey Badgers, and Pull Up Fiction all repped their way into the finals. |
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Semi Final: Gorilla DBall ​A relay style sprint consisting of a DBall sprint and gorilla burpee DBall over box. DBalls got heavier, box got higher. If that wasn’t enough, the team had to also sprint to set up the boxes. It was probably the fastest we’ve seen anyone sprint with those heavy soft boxes! But the team that sprinted, burpee’d, handled the DBall and boxes the fastest was Won Direction. |
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​The Finale: DBall Relay
​Bike, burpee box jump, ski, DBall toss 25 feet. Everyone loves a photo finish. A sprint to the end. It was anyone’s game at this point. But The Honey Badgers over took Pull Up Fiction at the last second to take the win. It was an epic finish to the day as it’s always the underdogs, the team you never saw coming that takes it home.
We also handed out some pretty cool prizes. The Spirit award to Nicole, for always smiling and giving it her all no matter what the challenge. MVP to Renee for her outstanding leadership in the Worm event and The Rookie of the day to Tyler, one of our newer 6S members who took each workout head on and even finished on the podium.
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Congratulations to all the athletes who participated. Thank you to all the volunteers, coaches and spectators who came to support. Thank you to the vendors. The 2020 Underground Throwdown what a huge success because our entire community came together. We can’t wait to do it all again next year!
​- Coach Whit
