CrossFit Athletic Group

Dillon Sharp hates Lira Bordoley. While Lira was sleeping, Dillon tiptoed into her house, kidnapped her new puppy, and brainwashed it to take a dump every time Lira told it to sit. But this is because Lira Bordoley hates Dillon Sharp. In the fall when Lira was out of shape, she took the scissors from the table and cut Dillon's shoelaces in hopes to slow her down. After years and years of built-up hatred dating back from their days in the baby cradle, they are set to duke it out live at the Champions Club next Saturday night in prime time. You can catch it in person or on PPV for only $49.99. All proceeds go to the Get Nick Bewick Some Longer Shirts Foundation.

None of the above is true, of course. I just like starting shit.

See, they won't even look at each other

I think one of the things that makes me good at being a CrossFit coach is I didn't grow up doing CrossFit, and when I started at 15 years old I wasn't doing CrossFit for CrossFit's sake, I was doing it to get better at basketball, football, and track. Even though there were brief phases where I'd get lost in the chase for a pr on Helen, I mostly kept my pull-up jumper in mind more than my actual pull-ups, and my long jump in mind more than my box jumps. Even now, coaching basketball and track gives me a great perspective on how I want to make the gym better. The Champions Club is run more like a team or program than a business.

In a sports program there are opponents and rivals; opponents are in the short term and rivals are in the long term. An opponent changes all the time and they can be good opponents or crappy opponents, they can be important opponents or they can be insignificant. Rivals are a different story altogether.

Rivalries take years to build and years to move past. Sometimes rivals can be opponents in the short term, but there is always the long-term mindset when thinking about your rival. At the core of every rivalry is respect. Your rival is someone or some program that exposes your weaknesses as their strengths. They make you feel insecure and unsure about your own abilities because of it. All the while your own strengths do the same for them. There is less of a desire to win because "winning" comes with a definite end point. The goal with a rival is to be ahead and climb back when you find yourself behind. Both are inevitable.

Rivalries are, in my opinion, the coolest thing in sports. They cause both sides to reach level of performance neither would ever achieve without the other. Sometimes it goes too far when cavemen like Kurt Rambis are involved...

...but more often than not great things come out of rivalries.

Champions Club rivalries have been around for as long as the Champions Club has. Ryan Richard vs. Pip (the original Pip.) Murley vs. Shannon. David Sap vs. Jason. Mrs. Pip vs. Mrs. Carey, Lindsey vs. Ricky. Mrs. Nevarez vs. Mrs. Tara, baby Cameron vs. baby Thomas. Maddison Bettys vs. Rylee Hesske, Mr. Carey vs. Person Who Can Do a Pistol. It is perfectly okay to feel animosity towards a certain somebody in the gym (besides me) when 3...2...1...Go! is yelled. More than okay, it is healthy - healthy to have someone who has strengths where you have weaknesses, or who has a personality that makes it that much more UGGHHH when they beat you in a workout or have better form. Lira and Dillon are perfect rivals because of this and I really enjoy watching them compete when they're at the same session. I hope they have the same appreciation for each other as I do because they are both studs! When you can learn to love and seek those people, not only will it make you improve that much more, but you'll also form a mutual bond that will last long after the timer stops.