Episode 14: "By The Numbers" with Sean Manseau

Sean Manseau is the author of “By The Numbers.” A former animator, Sean found CrossFit in 2005 and believed he was “the only person in New York who had ever heard of CrossFit.” As often happens, he was drawn to coaching after a few years as an athlete. In the animation world, a “master animator” draws the major positions of movement, and then an assistant draws all the joint angles between those positions. Sean teaches the major positions and assigns them a number–hence, “By the Numbers.” Sean refers to “rhyming positions”–positions that are identical across different exercises. “The second position of the deadlift is really close to the bottom of the KB swing, which is really close to the hang position of the clean…” he says. When he’s coaching, he can relate new cues to previous positions. We talked about “drawing the line” between intensity and sloppy movement. Sean says the line will depend on an individual coach’s “quality of mercy.” While he agrees a coach must take the long view on client training, he names different modes of training through which an athlete passes. See the full episode notes here: http://twobraincoaching.com/episode-14-sean-manseau-of-by-the-numbers/