Quick Definition: “One man and one woman on each team go back and forth through an increasingly difficult pair of movements. Each successive quadrant adds difficulty to the movements with fewer reps. Athletes can’t work unless their partner is standing in the corresponding hash box.”
This race is pretty simple because there are only two movements. It’s a great race because the strategy can vary so much depending on the makeup of your team. Here are a few things to think about:
1. Clean movements: There are generally only 40-50 movements in this entire race. Each one is very important. If you are faulted (GRID’s version of a no-rep) you will be at a huge disadvantage. It’s important to go fast, but even more important to accentuate the end points of the movement to leave no question for your ref.
2. Transitions: Very often the race comes down to how smoothly the transitions happen between the two athletes on the GRID. Practice moving in and out of the hash boxes with one another so you don’t run into each other, but still move quickly to not waste time when reps could be happening.
3. Substitutions: There is no right answer here. There may be some teams where it is more efficient to have 2 athletes do the entire race. Sometimes it’s best to substitute twice. It just depends on how taxing these movements are to your particular teammates, and how the slow down in reps compares to the time tax in a substitution. The two important things to remember with a substitution are: The further down the GRID you are, the longer it takes. It’s much less costly to sub in the first quadrant than the 3rd. MOVE FAST. Know where you are going to run so you don’t trip over any barbells or dumbbells on your way to or from the start line.
4. Don’t forget: The race ends when you cross into the finish zone. You could finish the reps first but if you don’t cross that line first it doesn’t matter! Be aware and ready to jump across that line.
By Nicole Capurso
