First off, training for the Open should have started the first week of December; and for some, even further back. But, we are here now so let’s identify where we are so we can implement sound struc...

SISYPHUS EVERY 4 MIN X 5 SETS: 1 Squat SnatchAMRAP Unbroken Chest to Bar (C2B) SUBMIT SCORES RULES Your score is the total of all made snatch attempts in pounds + total C2B completed. There will be...

Coaches Sam Smith and Henry Torano have worked with hundreds of clients in fitness and health 1:1. They have seen many patterns that have led their clients to success as well as failure. I wanted t...

Sam Smith has worked with Colleen Fotsch in multiple capacities, but he’s been her head coach for the past year.  Colleen is a high profile CrossFit Games competitor, but she’s also become a wonder...

Where did #chefsam start?

Sam Smith, for all of the notoriety he receives for working with big name CrossFit Athletes, is extremely introspective. He constantly investigates his thoughts, his actions, and the environment around him. He not only wants to grow, he wants to understand his coaching craft and the world at his fingertips.  It was this reason that struck up my curiosity. I wanted to better understand part of how Sam got to this mindful place in his life, so I asked him to talk about an experience in his formative – teen – years that both shaped his life as well as remains at the forefront of his coaching methodology today. What arose was a wonderful conversation about how Sam approaches the world.

Coach Sam Smith loves sharing what he reads on a regular basis, but with the year coming to a close we thought to consolidate his top 12 books from 2019. This year Sam focused on understand himself on a personal level so that he could give more of himself in his relationships.

So many people ask us “how do I get better for a competition,” so I decided to ask coach Sam Smith to help me better understand how athletes can spend a year building the important movements for a competition. More specifically, I asked him how to improve from one year’s CrossFit Open to next year’s CrossFit Open.

We have been discussing the CrossFit Open with everybody inside of Big Dawgs, so I decided to ask coach Sam Smith to help me better understand how athletes can view the Open for themselves to get their best performance inside of it. Something important to note, though, is that this isn’t an article about how to train for a year - or 5 years - to peak physically for it. No, this article and video are about how to take wherever you sit, right now, and put your best result forward.

In this blog, Jim Crowell spoke to both Big Dawgs Coaches, Henry Torano and Sam Smith. They discussed the 4 athletes they had compete in the 2019 CrossFit Games, Colleen Fotsch, Nick Bloch, Yuyi Aldano, and Corrin Lemieux. The 3 of them discussed their take on the CrossFit Games format in 2019, what went well and what went poorly for their athletes, and what they will focus hard with all of their athletes on for the upcoming 2020 CrossFit Games and Sanctional Season. Enjoy!