Emma Keen is an international field-hockey player for Wales and also a CrossFitter out of CrossFit 365, which shares its facility with Ospreys Rugby. Keen discusses how she found CrossFit and how it has improved her performance.
Gary McLean, owner of CrossFit 365, talks about the progress she has made.
“She is like a cat—she moves very, very well, naturally gifted with the barbell, but quite inexperienced at the moment, so we can do a lot with Em,” he says. “Her strength is her engine—she just has no stop.”
Still new to CrossFit, Keen is focusing on her technique, especially at advanced movements like the muscle-up, handstand push-up and snatch. She says her goal is “to make myself as efficient as I possibly can.”
Keen also enjoys competing. She has been participating in the Again Faster Competition Series, and her CrossFit coach says she has been competitive with elite athletes like Samantha Briggs. He sees her continuing to do well into the 2012 CrossFit Games season.
“She is seriously driven at this point,” McLean says.
“The more it hurts for me, generally, the more I kind of enjoy the workout,” Keen says.
7min 20sec
Additional reading: Rugby and the Rotational Kettlebell Swing by Nicolas Rithner, published Oct. 5, 2009.