CrossFit Athletic Group

Okay Chris, I need to chime in. Who the hell is Dominik?

Dean! Right off the jump? Get your translucent ass back in the afterlife where you belong!

No. I demand to know who this person is.

You will after I write about everything else that is not Dominik. You know how these posts work. Now scram you moocher!

...........

There has been one single thing that I've been tripping up on so far in Summer 2024: New Kids.

We have them. We have lots of them. We have more of them that I am comfortable with, and as a result my bad habit comes out: control freak. See, for all I get on Mrs. Goga or Mrs. Colleen about being a helicopter parent, I'm one, myself, when it comes to the Champions Club; you're my version of Only Child Syndrome. If I look at myself objectively, I don't think I helicopter over any one particular person (though, if you disagree I'd listen for sure), but rather the gym as a whole and the culture and environment it has evolved into, and I absolutely love where it's at right now, love it like a fat kid loves cake.

Now, let me tell you what I don't love: soft people. See, in February I was a little adrift with where I wanted the gym to go, so to help guide me I just wrote down a list of things I hated about my profession (which has since been erased in favor of the Draft board) and figured if I wasn't sure what direction I wanted to go, I would at least be certain about the direction I didn't want to go. Process of elimination-style. The list started with like 20-something things on it then eventually condensed into four, one of them being soft people. And while I was writing the Shark Week post it really dawned on me that that's probably the only true Champions Club deal breaker: I don't need you to be able to play rugby with Evan or even be able to push yourself past a 6... you just can't be soft. And what's soft mean, exactly? I wish I had a perfect definition for you, but I don't. All I know is we know it when we see it, and Mr. Kuiper will probably call you (and me) out on it. We are all bound to an eternal agreement to not be on some Soft Ass White People Shit.

This is my singular holdup with new people and "Are you soft?" goes through my head on repeat for however long it takes to find a good sense of an answer. The less I know you the longer it usually takes for me to come to a conclusion.

• I do not know Dominik. That is one strike against him.
• I do not know his immediate family. That is two strikes against him.
• He didn't walk from Venezuela. But neither did I, so no strikes against him.
• Hey! He's related to Megan and Erin Kav! Take one of those strikes away.
• He plays soccer. Add that strike back. And another one for good measure.
• He had a challenging time getting coached to keep his back flat on deadlifts. Strike... four?

This is where I was at after two days with Dom. I was convinced we wouldn't see him for Day 3. But he came back and asked to work on deadlifts again, which immediately erased all previous strikes against him. Then I gave him push-up homework... and he actually did it! One day he had zero push-ups and the next time I saw him he had 2! Now he's got more. And jump ropes! He even tried to shark a person last weekend! And this week he talked to himself constantly during Cindy, scraped his shins and kept going on max height box jumps, and pushed himself hard on running and dumbbell snatches (he did kb swings to better mimic deadlift practice). Tough? Too early to tell. Soft? No chance!

Another difficult habit I am trying to break is projecting, and I am constantly surrounded by it in my basketball environment because guessing where we think kids are going to be a few years from now is part of the job description when there are cuts. But still I try and remind myself that there's no way of knowing for sure.

I don't know what Dominik is going to be like next week, or next year, or by the time he's a high school senior. But I do know that I really like this kid right now for all the reasons that would not show up on the whiteboard workout score. I think he wants to improve and he wants to do it for himself and he is willing to make himself uncomfortable to jump-start the process. I'm a fan young fella, keep up the great work!