Because of the explosive growth of it worldwide, we now have two major problems:
- Quality of coaching (the all known discussion about “Are you a qualified coach after a few certifications)
- The bombarding of competitions and events, and that fact that everybody wants to enter them.
I will start with number two, and talk about the first one a bit later.
Attending competitions every weekend?
In Europe you can enter a competition almost every weekend, and most of them also have a qualifying round. So what is the issue here? If you understand training, you probably see the problem right away.
Training means you start with a long term goal first (macro) and later create micro goals towards your macro/main one, beginning from your personal, starting situation. A well thought PROGRAM must fill the gaps between your micro and macro goals (topic on its own).
If your goal is just do whatever you feel like and you want to enter all or as many competitions as possible, be my guest and don’t read the article. Personally I am more of a “clear set of goals guy” so if that’s what you want, you need to pay attention.
If you’ll enter too much events, this will definitely mess up your training program in the long term (injury/mindset).
What to do? Here are my 6 rules:
1. Set your long term goal.
Make sure it is realistic. It’s not about a single workout, a single week, a single month or even a single year: All those small goals are a build up towards your ultimate goal.
When your goal is not to do Crossfit as a competitive sport, but as fitness, it’s even more important to not be dragged into the “What’s your score culture”.
The ultimate score is being as fit as possible to sustain a long healthy life. Or the ultimate score can also be competitive and take part at the competitions.
2. Take small steps towards that goal.
And keep track of your progress closely but don’t get frustrated or blind stare. Enjoy the journey have fun first.
3. Don’t get stuck into details in the beginning: strength with technique first.
You need to get strong first (Crossfit style), at least that’s what I believe. So longer strengthening workouts together with general technique training which build the foundation for Crossfit as a sport. The analogy I use is that when you start Crossfit you are a big rock with a diamond inside (personal best you can be).
If you start trying to polish the diamond from the start (pay too much attention to details) you will never see the diamond. But when you take a big hammer and slam that rock (Hard/ long work/strength /power/the grind) first, then as soon as you see the diamond, you pay more attention to details, I will assure you the results will be better.
And don’t get me wrong, there should be a solid technique base of course but hard work first, details later!
4. When you have a good coach he will be able to tell you when you are “ready to compete”.
First this brings me back to: you should really pick your coach wisely. Whatever your goal is, stop “box-hopping” every week and stick to your coach’s programming. Our Reebok CrossFit 020 Rule is very simple (and is also a general Crossfit rule): You need to be able to perform the general movements with a solid technique and this needs to be consistent. When you have added intensity to the WODs and you have “proven” yourself and to your coach you reached that point, we encourage people (if they want) to start being more competitive.
5. Enter a competition, but pick your battle!
Ok so here it gets real interesting: you need experience in competitions, but that doesn’t mean you should compete every weekend. When you have set your goals and programming, you should get your periodization. Then you need to look at each individual separately when to enter a competition, which and how many.
Together with your coach, you should look up for competitions available and take a closer look at the organization running it and how they program (weird things can happen) it.
If you attend too much events, this will intervene with your training. It’s also very well possible that if you do that long enough you’ll lose the hunger for the competitions and eventually burn out. (I have seen this a lot in my previous sport judo, where children have competition every week and then at age 16 there sick of it all).
6. The competition you enter to get experience is not the goal. It is just a station on the journey!
Go for quality of movement and although you give it all you got at that moment, never get frustrated about results.
For example: our Coach Karin started Crossfit and wanted to compete, so we made a plan:
Step 1: long term goal of winning an event.
Step 2 was qualifying for the LLTD and just get to the final event (2013)-
Step 3 was this year (2014) and the goal was getting in the final event which means top 10 (she finished 8th).
Step 4 is getting to the top 5 (2015) and in 2016 the goal will be to win the event.
If she will be able to win the event, we will expand our goals towards “is it possible to get to the Regionals”.
These rules should be in harmony with your private life/job.
Stick to your coaches programming, don’t get carried away with watching YouTube videos.
Remember that the guys you see at the CrossFit Games are professional athletes and they are top 1% of the total population.
Everything you do should be to be based on: be the best YOU can be. With that in mind you can never be disappointed about “the sport of Crossfit” and you’ll last longer.
3,2,1… go!
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