CrossFit Athletic Group

Looking at CrossFit through the lens of team sports, I feel, provides a context and perspective that helps me coach you guys more than anything else. In fact, now that I think about it, I've lost my way both as a coach and athlete when I would get too wrapped up in the specifics of CrossFit and forget the bigger picture. When my mind is right I shift my focus away from things only applicable to CrossFit workouts counting reps, gimmick movements, and judging reps and turn them to "sports" things, like competing, toughness, and communication; I'd usually prefer you lose count because you were talking to yourself than keep count with chalk tallies, and I'd usually rather you be more aware of your overall momentum for fitness than the specific numbers of lifts and workouts.

Momentum, in particular, is something I've emphasized quite a bit lately with a few people in private conversations. I've directed them to two posts from the archives:

Momentum is a Weird Thing but Definitely a Thing - December 2019

Up, Straight, or Down: Where's Your Momentum - Summer 2021

The general idea for both posts has to do with getting a feel for where your momentum is headed and deciding whether you're okay with it or not. Oddly enough, both posts were written before the single biggest momentum-swinging incident in Champions Club athletics history.

Now consider for a moment the macro scale of Cecilia's game-winning goal: Cecilia had banked 3 great Summers with us from 2018-2020, was fresh off an Athlete of the Summer in 2021, single-handedly won a National Championship with the dopest play we Muggles have ever seen on a soccer field, was awarded National Player of the Year in D-II, then came back home and proceeded to go a year and a half straight with us while she prepped for her professional career; her Summer 2023 was even better than 2021 by all measurable and intangible standards, and was thiiiiiiss close to joining Bubs with a repeat banner. Then she shipped her butt off to Spain in a physical form so formidable that for the first time in her life coaches labeled her as objectively "fast."

...that was exhausting just writing all that. I can't imagine actually living it for 5 years straight, through a major injury, global lockdown, national accolades, and waiting games. Since Cecilia came back in May I've talked to her about a lot of things - rating Pixar movies, euchre incompetence, how to spot a Russian secret agent spy - but soccer hasn't been one of them. Her fitness was telling the story of someone who needed a break from the focus and intention in favor of light-hearted, just-happy-to-be-here workouts. And boy I can tell you from experience that CrossFit is not very forgiving for... really anyone in general, but especially for someone trying to get back in the swing of things.

Why am I doing this?

How did I ever do this much weight?

I must have miscounted last time Cindy came up?

Is Mr. Ron still on the same run-on sentence from last Summer?

Why is Emma Lang giving me her birthday list in July when it's not until October?

Maybe I'd be better off exploring sleep at 9 am than exploring the boundaries of my comfort zone.

Like Atmosphere said, "It doesn't take much to get a lot of us to talk this way." But fortunately for Cecilia, with the hours and weeks and months and years she's put into her fitness, it also doesn't take much to get back on track.

Cecilia is not at peak Cecilia fitness right now, but she doesn't have to be either. She just has to be close enough to call on it in, say, a month's notice if need be. Ballpark Fitness might be a good term for it. Was May Cecilia in Ballpark Fitness? Nope. But instead of slipping into a path that, frankly, most of the parents here probably went down when they were her age, she fought the downward momentum until it finally turned around the other way; it took about 2ish weeks, maybe less, of full-time commitment.

Cecilia and the rest of you poor bastards have been convicted of crimes against fitness and given a life sentence without the possibility of parole. You are to serve the entirety of your sentence at Champions Club State Penetentary, which is presided over by an intimidating warden with legendary calves. If you are expecting to hit high points along this journey, then you must also expect struggle, for without struggle the high points wouldn't be so high after all.