12-30-09 Coach’s Corner
Unhealthy competition?
I’ve spent all day contemplating how to write this edition of Coach’s Corner. CrossFit as you know is competitive by nature. Any time you put a group of humans together and do something physical there is always a tendency to compete against one another. Most of the time this is very healthy. It makes people work harder then they would normally do alone. It breeds a good atmosphere in the gym, and is a reason why CrossFit is unique and FUN.
Today I want to address when competetion becomes unhealthy. It is ok in the gym to see someone else working hard, and then you in turn work hard to try and beat them. This can make both of you work harder and increase each others performance. Where it becomes an issue is when if you do not beat that person you become depressed or devasted and you let it affect you. CrossFit is supposed to be FUN!! If you let other peoples performance affect you negatively it becomes not fun. The WOD’s are meant to be tough, and they will be. They are also meant to challenge weaknesses and make you stronger. Everyone has different things that they are good at, so people will have different performance outcomes in different WOD’s. They will also have different scaling needs in different WOD’s. It does you no good if you don’t scale the WOD and it takes you way longer then everyone else at the gym. It also does you no good if you get upset about having to scale. The WOD is meant to challenge YOUR physical capacity. Don’t get caught up on getting an RX! It is much more important on finishing the WOD with intensity and doing it in the time domain that it was intended for. The most important thing to remember at CFB is to go as hard as YOU can, and do the best YOU can do! Ultimately it doesn’t matter what everyone else does, it only matters how your performance is doing.
One last point! If you get a PR you get a PR! Their will be times when you do not PR a lift or a bench mark. It is ok! There are thousands of things that can affect you performance, nutrition, sleep, stress, recovery, etc. IF you do get a PR celebrate and revel in your accomplishments!! Lately, it seems that many of our members have just shrugged off PR’s and then been depressed when they don’t get one. Celebrate the victories, shrug off the defeats and come in to try again the next day! That is what is important, and if you need a reminder check out your performance journal and see how far you have come! Everyone in the gym is doing awesome! Keep up the good work, and remember to keep a champion mind set, if Michael Jordan got depressed every time he missed a shot, he never would’ve won all those championships!
Most importantly HAVE FUN!
Check out what CrossFit Charlottesville has to say about Rule Number 1
