There’s a few things that we would like to address that we might not have been clear on before. Next time you come in, make sure to familiarize yourself with the House Rules if you haven’t already. Furthermore, make sure you understand the following:
Listen to your coaches
There are three and only three coaches at CrossFit South: Justin, Keras, and Haley. Tion is a transient coach and you need to listen to him when he’s here, too. I don’t care how strong or fast or awesome you think you are, we are in charge. If we say to use less weight for a movement, use less weight. If we say you’re doing something wrong then do your best to follow our cues to correct it. Safety will always be the most important value at CFS.
If we demonstrate the proper form and range of motion for a movement, then that’s what we expect you to do during the workout unless you’re physically limited due to a disability.
If you’re not a coach, then don’t coach our athletes. You can cheer them on and be supportive, but please don’t egg someone on to try a something they shouldn’t when their form is questionable. We appreciate the camaraderie, but let’s be careful.
Guys (and gals), if Haley is coaching, don’t ignore her because she’s a girl. She’s a very talented athlete and coach, and you can learn a lot from her. If any more people continue to be disrespectful to her, then you will stop what you’re doing and you can go run outside for the rest of class. If it happens more than once then you’re gone. Simple as that. The same goes with Justin and me: check your ego at the door. Act like an adult, please. If there’s something one of us did that you don’t like, then talk to us after class.
Everyone can compete
We go to CrossFit competitions every now and then and would love to have as many athletes from CFS to participate as possible. Justin and I don’t make the suggestions or organize them; it’s always been one of your fellow athletes with the idea: GORUCK Challenges, Garage Games events, and other CrossFit fundraisers/competitions. We simply piggyback on what someone else starts. What we have done and will continue to do is make sure these events are known to you. We have always posted upcoming events on the whiteboard, Facebook, and the website. Rule #7 on the whiteboard is to “Check our website daily & like us on Facebook.” Rule #17 also says to get more involved with the gym and participate in our outside activities. Be proactive and socialize with your fellow athletes instead of keeping to yourself and then blaming others for not being your friend.
If we have made anyone feel left out, we apologize. But we will not hold your hand to get you involved. We always announce social events and competitions. Anyone can compete and there are always multiple levels at competitions (Beginners, Scaled, Rx, Masters, etc). It’s about having fun, testing your abilities, and meeting other crossfitters from other gyms. Having said that, we do want to win. If we’re doing team competitions and we have enough people for more than one team, then we will stack one team with our more capable athletes. A-Team and B-Team; Varsity and JV; Veterans and noobs, etc.
If you want to compete then we’ll encourage you to do it. Anyone and everyone from the gym can join us for competitions, and we have never told anyone “no”. So please don’t say after-the-fact that you wanted to compete and we’re to blame that you didn’t. That’s fucked up, irresponsible, and lazy. The last competition we went to required 6-person teams: 3 guys and 3 girls. I dropped out, and I know Justin asked everyone if they would take my place and finally someone did. The only other person to express interest was Karah, but she was the only one. If more people had been forthcoming and volunteered we could’ve sent another team, but instead she had to wait this one out.
There’s a sign up list on the whiteboard for the GORUCK Nasty obstacle course in September. Put your email down if you want to do it. The next competition is a Garage Games event in Woodstock, GA at the end of the month. http://www.garagegames.com/the-girls-back-to-basics/ . It is an individual event, so we aren’t limited to having a minimum number of participants to form a team. There are 4 different skill levels. Anyone can do it. But it is up to you to sign up and pay for it. From there you need to talk with your fellow athletes to figure out transportation. If you don’t want to compete, then you can always come and be supportive. I wasn’t on the last team but I still went to cheer them on and take pictures. What’s your excuse?
Keep at it
All of you have gotten so much better since you first started with us. Thank you for all your hard work and dedication, I know it’s not easy coming in and giving your all every day. We really appreciate all the extra effort everyone is putting in since we started making changes to the programming this summer. Some of you are still sandbagging and doing less than you should to get the best scores, but we’ll break you of that soon enough. I think if some of you take the chance and sign up for the next competition, we have very high possibilities of getting top place finishes in every category! You’re also not limited to just the hour-long session you signed up for. We encourage you to come early or stay late to work on your weaknesses. Open gym starts this Saturday, I hope to see lots of you there trying to get fitter!
tl;dr – show some respect and get involved
-K