(please note that my rants and essays are sometimes unpopular, and they are my views and opinions… not the views and opinions of my business partners and team of coaches)
Do you know how long the CF Games have been going on?
Can you tell me who won the first official "games"?
It used to be truly "open" to everyone… and a grueling weekend on a California ranch determined the fittest. If I wanted to, I could have registered and flew to Cali and competed with the likes of Spealler, Sherwood and Fitzgerald!
Things have changed quite a bit… on many levels, including my opinion and approach regarding The Open.
As easily predicted, CrossFit has evolved into very much of a business venture on certain levels… specifically the games. We now have purses for winning Open WODs, and very larges purses for winning The CF Games. It doesn't take an MBA to figure out that putting money on the table will take what was once a great grass-roots concept, and turn it into a spectacle… creating events for the elite of our sport to showcase their fitness… we now have sponsorships, commercials and have to endure pre and post WOD programs, interviews and analysis.
If I said I saw it coming, it would just sound arrogant and pompous… so I won't admit that I saw it coming in 2010, when I watched Janine, Brendan and Kevin compete at the Regional Level. I knew as we were driving home from Reebok Headquarters, that weekend was our one and only shot at being on that stage. It was going to get bigger and harder to compete every year… the writing was on the wall… and the leaderboard!
Oh the Leaderboard!!
Don't get me wrong in my attempt to share thoughts here… I totally get The Open, and I see how it does good things for people, but just hear me out on a couple of things that irk this Coach…
When I hear people say, "I love The Open because it gives me an opportunity to test myself"; well, that hurts my feelings a little bit! Why? Because you have that opportunity every single week, so not sure why you need The Open to prove to yourself what you're capable of??
Programming… I extremely dislike programming around The Open for 5 weeks!
The Leaderboard… it's good, and it's bad at the same time. Just like the whiteboard, the leaderboard is full of "one-uppers" who do the WOD 2-3 times in order to best someone on the leaderboard. Just like the whiteboard, nobody knows how legit the scores really are… we just expect that everyone is being honest (I watched regional competition for the past 3 years, and there are athletes there each year that make me scratch my head in wonder!). Just like the whiteboard, it creates the opportunity for unhealthy obsession over stuff you just can't control… other people!
I see how cool it is, and yes I find myself leaderboarding during The Open… but mostly to see where my athletes are, not to see who I am ahead of or what I need to do to beat someone in my age bracket. I totally get the fact that it is cool to see your name up there with all those thousands of people, and I am not here to deny that fact. What I dislike is what it does to people every year… the unrealistic expectations people put on themselves, the judgement it creates, and the freakin' drama of losing spots to someone you don't even know!
You don't know the essence of the people you are competing against… just by looking at their profile, you don't know how they grew up, the foods they have been exposed to their whole life, their stress levels, their family life, how they train, etc. It's unfair to you to obsess over competing against and beating people you don't know.. and I believe that obsession to be unhealthy… definitely does not create resiliency!!
Useful leaderboarding is comparing yourself to last year and all of the years prior to that! The Open can be about being forced to do something like double unders without any other options to "get a score". Maybe that will be the day it clicks?? There is really good stuff about this thing called The Open, and The Leaderboard…
…but every year it still creates anxiety, depression, obsession, self-doubt and stress for way too many people who should be more concerned about function, health and fitness; and less concerned about going Rx'd or Scaled and where they sit on the leaderboard.
just my 2 buck and 2 cents!
I will not continue my rant here (it would go on forever!!), but there is no denying the fact that CrossFit just punched thousands of its loyal followers right in the gut, and then flipped us all the bird.
15.3 is a great WOD, but not a great WOD for everyone… and last time I checked, The Open was supposed to be for everyone.
If nothing else, I think it gave many of us some goals (and more determination) for the coming year….
Great stuff, Pat. So awesome to see that a lot of our conversations build many of your essays. Wish crossfit was still the way it was back in the day.
What a lifetime experience with Brenvin Yurnott in 2011! Amazing to see how much Regionals have changed in such a short few years.
And such an awesome experience to see Brendan and his team totally dominate the Mid-Atlantic Regionals and then advance to the 2012 Games.
Just as exciting is seeing all of our athletes representing the Shed in local competitions. Makes my heart so proud to see your awesomeness!
Olive the Shed!
My leaderboard in 2015 was on the basketball court watching the scoreboard. Definitely just as intense and stressful…and the bonus was that I did not lose hours of my life during the 5 weeks of The Open worrying about stats.
I did, however, enjoy rushing home from Thursday night bball practices just in time to watch the live Open Announcements.
It certainly is an exciting time -but you cannot let it rule your life.