CrossFit Athletic Group

CrossFit has always had this solid boundary to protect itself against... hmmm... maybe this needs a rant by itself first. We'll get to Dylan in a minute.

So to get in the mood for writing this post, I figured I'd check in on how The Family was doing this weekend, and 27 seconds of clicking around did not disappoint.

Allow me to introduce you to the MADE Hoops website. What is MADE Hoops, exactly? Honestly, I don't know. They are claiming to have Nike teams, but they're not the Nike league (EYBL); they have rankings; the shop linked on their site suggests they might be a fashion company; it would appear that they do player rankings as well. But what really has me laughing my sunburnt face off is this dumb gimmick shit right here. Badges. Players can earn badges to their profile by demonstrating certain abilities while getting evaluated. Not bad, right? Baseball does the 5-tool thing, makes sense for basketball to do a... 98(!!!!) badges... are you effing kidding me? Ball Stripper Badge? Slithery Finisher Badge? Low Turnover Guard Badge? Did they just pass around the hat for all the MADE Hoops employees and janitors to throw buzzwords in?

No, the reality of it is the more categories available, the broader the audience that can be dragged in. If you suck at baseball, you don't get to have a... /checks badge list... my Lord... High Academic tool and Good Genetics tool. Nope, you have to be able to hit for average, hit with power, run, throw, and field (did I get all them right Chief?). I actually have a post drafted up since March Maddness called the 11 General Skills of Basketball, and I've sat on it because I think 11 would be too much if it wasn't a sacred number.

CrossFit is protected against this because it was founded through science: Work Capacity Across Broad Time and Modal Domains. It doesn't take more than a year or so for dumb gimmick shit to reveal itself as not being able to increase our fitness. There are not many people on this earth who can be referred to as a genius, and luckily for us, Coach Glassman is one of them.

Basketball is different; there is nothing scientific about this:

This is a white dude - a white dude who wears number 37(!!) - who throws down dunks better than a man with the nickname Chocolate Thunder. Most of the dudes you see that are elite now were elite when they were 10 years old; God gave them a gift he did not give to everyone else. But there is a small gray area that involves things like work ethic, environment, and varied standards that leaves a lot of opportunity for dumb gimmick shit to try and convince kids and parents that your son + Nike shoes = better dunks. Or, even more, that your son + dunking = a better version of your son. Now I'm 500 words in and we can finally begin talking about Dylan Colussi, because he spits hot fiya!

Dylan just came off his junior season at Athens and is looking to put in some serious work this spring and summer to set himself up for a good senior year. I talked with him last week about where his head was at and I was really impressed with the confidence he had in himself and his work ethic. Out of curiosity, I asked him to text me a list similar to Mrs. Hana's about who had his attention. I mentioned the abundance of this in basketball in the original post...

I've trashed a few nutrition posts in recent days (one on tortillas, one on making sure you're eating enough, one on smoothies) because I think they'd be distracting the parents from the underlying issues that keep them circling back to the same damn place every year. One of these underlying issues is information overload (also a major limiting factor in the basketball world I live in).

... but man, I had no idea. Here's the list Dylan sent me earlier today of all the things that get his attention in the basketball world (I didn't include some last names and stuff):

• Dad
• Mom
• Mallory [ed-??]
• Chase
• Andrew
• Evan #1
• Evan #2
• Emmanuel
• Dominic
• Uncle #1
• Uncle #2
• Uncle #3
• Uncle #4
• Aunt #1
• Grandpa
• ESPN
• Overtime
• Ball is Life
• House of Highlights
• Coach #1
• Coach #2
• me (assuming I'm "Coach Chris")
• Mr. Kuiper
• Coach #3
• Griffin
• Josh Backos
• Perk
• Taylor
• Brayden
• Kyree
• Mr. Ricky
• Doug
• Brogan
• Charlie
• Classmates
• Alex #1
• Blaine
• Luke
• David
• Bleacher Report
• NBA
• NCAAB
• Alex #2
• Hayden
• Jason
• Brennen
• Louis
• Maddox
• Eli
• Issac
• He also included a note "I'm not done yet but this is what I got so far."

First off, this is about as thorough of a list as I could imagine, and tells me he really is taking the game seriously. Secondly, I don't know what exactly a conniption is, but I think I'd have one if I was his high school coach and I read this list. While about half as many on this list as the MADE Hoops badges, there's way too much for Dylan here. The challenging thing here is some of the people on the list are going to be around him no matter what: classmates, teachers, family, etc. At the very least, identifying the voices that aren't in alignment will bring a good awareness to the issue, and then maybe conversations can be steered away from basketball, or the YouTube notifications can be turned off, or context can be understood.

But what I would especially like to challenge Dylan with here (and I'll talk to him in person also) is to really understand what's his identity as a player? When Troy Athens gets Dylan Colussi next year, what are they getting? Or, what kind of player does he want Athens to be getting next year? When he can answer that question, he'll have a much more clear direction of who and what is allowed to have his attention.