PREVIEW - The Value Of Sport
- More Burpees
- 6 Week Love
- Paralympics > Olympics
- Shogun & Creatine
THE VALUE OF SPORT There’s been a lot of discussion recently among affiliate owners about the future of sport in CrossFit. Should the sport of CrossFit remain a part of CrossFit or, perhaps, should it be separated – and continue as the “Sport of Fitness?” Opinions vary, but I am strongly in favor of keeping the “sport of fitness” at CrossFit. Ironically, “Sport” sits atop the pyramid of the “Theoretical Hierarchy of Development” created by the founder of CrossFit, Greg Glassman: nutrition > metabolic conditioning > gymnastics > weightlifting & throwing > sport. “Sport” is the ultimate expression of fitness. Of course, Coach was referring to ALL sports, not CrossFit. CrossFit as a sport was the manifestation of an idea by Dave Castro in 2007, to create a competition to determine the “fittest athlete on earth”. CrossFit made the sport of fitness possible, because it is (unlike all other methodologies): “measurable, observable and repeatable” – FRAN is FRAN anywhere in the world. Since CrossFit appropriately defined “fitness” as “increased work capacity across broad time & modal domains,” it makes sense that the sport of fitness be directly tied to CrossFit. Should CrossFit part ways with the “sport of fitness” or, “The Fittest On Earth” it is likely that the sport will stray from the definition of fitness (a core value) “increased work capacity across broad time & modal domains” in the interest of profit and participation. For example, it is known that obstacle course racing, including Hyrox, have higher in-person participation rates and thus, more revenues, but highly favor endurance specialists – but not necessarily the “fittest on Earth.” For this reason, the sport that crowns the “Fittest on Earth” must remain with CrossFit. Most importantly, as a CrossFit affiliate owner, I believe the sport of fitness, as represented in the Open, the Quarter Finals, Semi Finals and the Games, are a unique and distinguishing characteristic of CrossFit. NO OTHER METHODOLOGY has anything like the Open and the Games – and are unable to duplicate. And, the CrossFit Games athletes represent the ultimate manifestation of the physical potential for humans via exercise, nutrition, coaching and recovery. Games athletes are the tip of the spear for CrossFit. No one else has this. Finally, the sport of fitness is fun af and inspiring. Watching the Masters last weekend and the Diablo athletes this weekend at NCC was sooo much fun and motivating. The friendships and camaraderie among the athletes was beautiful and the performances inspiring. The sport of fitness has always been a community gathering for a cool group of people with a shared passion for health and fitness. The sport of fitness is CrossFit. SEPTEMBER CHALLENGE GETS SERIOUS: Our September Challenge is: Burpees, L-Sits & (No) Sugar. This is the week you should probably start breaking things up in the day!! - Week 1: 25 Burpees & 30s of LSits / Day
- Week 2: 50 Burpees & 1min LSits / Day
- Week 3: 75 Burpees & 90secs LSits / Day
- Week 4: 100 Burpees & 2m LSits / Day
Scoring: Complete your Daily Burpees = 1pt. Complete your Daily LSits = 1pt. (Total 2pts). No Sugar in the last 24 hours = Check the box. A BIT ABOUT DIABLO: 6 WEEK CHALLENGES – Our best marketing experience ever! A silly idea. In August, 2016, an OG CrossFit friend of mine, Tommy Hackenbruck, reached out to tell me about a marketing strategy that his friend developed to help CrossFit gyms attract more members: NewYou 6 Week Transformation Challenges. NewYou Challenges included 3 CrossFit classes per week and a Paleo nutrition guide with shopping lists and recipes. The process was simple: post ads on Facebook, offer interview appointments for potential applicants, interview, sign them up, take body measurements and “before” pics and then, put them through the program. Honestly, I was very hesitant. The whole “transformation” concept sounded silly and not in line with our brand. At the time, Diablo had two locations – Pleasant Hill & Alamo. Prior to 2016, we never officially advertised, relying entirely on word of mouth, our website and social media for our marketing. But, in 2016, Alamo was in need of new members and our Pleasant Hill location had room for more (we were 4000sf larger than today). So, I agreed to partner with “NewYou”. They gave me the tools, told me to clear our schedule and scheduled the first Facebook Ads for the weekend. The rest is history… NFW Early Monday morning after the first ad run, Tommy texted me and said: “you cleared your calendar for the interview appointments, right?” I didn’t, but replied, “Sure, why?” He said: “login and check your appointments.” I opened the app and literally freaked out. There were at least 50 “interview” appointments booked for our first challenge – starting that DAY! It was absolutely incredible. Over the next 2 weeks we interviewed more than a 100 women about their experience with fitness and nutrition. What I thought was a gimmick turned out to be incredibly enlightening and emotional conversations with modern-day, American women who were eager to change their bodies, health and fitness, but with very little knowledge and confidence on how to do it. There were many tears, hugs and expressions of gratitude in those conversations. I am a better coach because of them. We continued 6 Week Transformations for 2 years, in Pleasant Hill, Alamo and San Jose. During that time, we likely conducted a 1000 interviews and put more than 750 people (women & men) through our 6 week programs. The physical and health transformations were incredible and VERY visible in the pictures and especially in the workout performance tests. Our coaches and members loved being a part of the program. And, the best part of all – 8 years later – quite a few of the 6WT participants are still members at Diablo today. | 
