CrossFit Athletic Group

As far as flashy names go, nothing can match what the Summer 2013 offered. But as for consistency, performance, and overall product, I don’t think we have seen anything better than Summer 2015. This time around, we had a bunch of “role players” performing way above and beyond what we expected of them. And that may be more gratifying than anything.

Mr. Wonsil, Mr. Carey, Mr. Anderson, Senior Blob, Mrs. Carey, Mrs. Anderson, and Mr. Z all put in 60%+ attendance. Rookies Kyle Anderson, Mike Morrow, and Jack Clouse finished in the 70% group. Bubs, Alexis, and Jacqueline came through in the 80’s. Emma pulled off 90%. And Katie freakin Shakes literally missed one day the entire Summer. None of these names are going to win workouts, or flash perfect form, but their consistency really set the tone that our “superstars” had better bring it if they wanted to claim the Athlete of the Summer award.

Enter Elizabeth Banet.

We view you guys working out through geometric bifocals. You think cleans, pull-ups, and presses; we think angles, arcs, and lines. We use these overlying shapes as the Scantron answer sheet to judge how you move. When you fit the mold, we are happy, when you are outside of it, we are not.

Everyone has their breaking point, though. I could load up 5 million pounds on the bar and eventually Mrs. Pip will round her back. Or I could make Matt do Murph straight through to show you how a professional marathon runner dies. Being humans, we are all bound to be exposed.

Elizabeth Banet, however, is not a human being. She is the original Banetbot, programmed for anatomically perfect CrossFit movement. She is a fortified, self-regulating athletic machine incapable of bad form. To Elizabeth rounding your back is a sin only forgivable after five Hail Mary’s and a Glory Be. If Anita wasn't so distracting during Mrs. Schoenherr's class, I could've added a geometry analogy here.

It would be one thing if this only applied to the realm of simple squat/push-up/deadlift movements. In that case, Mike Cement Plaster Morrow would fit that description very well. But what makes Elizabeth great is how easily she progresses up the movement pyramid. She can kip, tumble, jump, vault, throw, catch, hit, and run. Elizabeth is an athlete in every sense of the word. Her default is perfect. Even one of the Brand X coaches said it. “Perfect.”

Unfortunately this can sometimes present a problem.

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Imagine a world where there are tornadoes, lightning storms, rain, snow, poisonous insects, mountain lions, snakes, and even “bad guys.” With all of those things out to get you, you need nothing short of a perfect sanctuary to make it through alive. As it turns out this is our world, and we have that sanctuary: it’s called our house – complete with a roof, windows, locks, parents, food, and ESPN. If we were homeless, we would be overcome with joy during our first night spent in the safety of a house. But we are not. We have it perfect, and we are so used to this perfection that it just passes as normal. We are immune. This has happened with Elizabeth in the coaches’ eyes. We see her move perfect so much, it takes only her best performances just to get that “joyous” feeling again. And on the flipside, rare imperfections stand out like Maria at the 5 pm session.

You can only be impressed by something you didn’t know was possible, and since we think she can do literally everything we throw at her, gone is the ability to impress. No matter what she does, how great, how perfect, it’s something we expect. In reality, I can’t remember a time where we didn’t hold Elizabeth to this impossible standard – even in the early days. And considering this is not a secret, it seems she has managed to keep from getting discouraged as many athletes would. Nobody bounces back from a crappy workout like Elizabeth. The most recent example came in August, where she responded to a bad less-than-perfect showing in Murph (losing to her sister, Erika) by dominating her namesake benchmark. This is where greatness comes from. Everyone is productive when they are in a good mood. But what happens when you fail? What happens when you don’t meet your own expectations? Or the expectations everyone places on you?

We also have the competition factor. Yes, it’s just a measly award based mainly on one person’s opinion, but winning Athlete of the Summer can be a pretty satisfying accomplishment (or so I’ve been told.) And in reality, we have never had more competition for it than this Summer. In fact, Elizabeth didn’t have to look past her own house; Erika showed us she can be better than anyone on any given day, and Jennifer showed us she might be better than Erika. You also have Lauren Higgins – who can both lift a car and outrun one, Ricky Carey – who rx’d nearly every workout, and Katie Shakes.

Katie Shakes underwent a complete body overhaul, catapulted herself to the top workout performers, and had 99% attendance… and still did not win Athlete of the Summer. That is how good Elizabeth was. And still is.

Just look at how serious the competition was

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Perfect changes. That can be really discouraging – especially when you thought you were perfect before, or even close to it. But it can also showcase those who truly want to be great. What we thought was perfect during Elizabeth’s first Summer is much different than what we think is perfect now. We haven’t had any grand technique reversals since fall 2012 when Unweighting became a thing. (If we did, that would be a convenient excuse for not performing up to our current standards.) But instead, we continued to make minor tweaks and raise the standards closer to perfection as we learn them.

Elizabeth was performing the same clean this Summer as she was during Summer 2013. The only difference is she got better during that time – which is what happens when you show up a lot. As a result, we raised our expectations of what her clean should look like. The old Elizabeth perfect was now a better Elizabeth perfect. She had two options:

1. Complain that we expect too much out of her
2. Hold herself to those standards as well

We know which one she chose, and we also know what that resulted in. This is an example of the Khalil rule. When you can hold yourself and others to high standards, you will eventually accomplish what you want.

Now we just gotta do it all over again.