Last week, I had a parent email me a 'crossfit' workout given to her daughter at high school. Now, we've partnered with many high schools in the area, but this particular high school has resisted our advances. There were three workouts, all featuring four or five exercises. Each exercise was performed for fourty to fifty repetitions. For five rounds. That's a lot of volume.
The real kicker: the kids did all three workouts in a day. That's a thousand reps per workout, times three, thank-you-may-I-have-another?
CrossFit has been working hard to overcome the "dangerous" label for years. Information has been our slow weapon; knowledge has finally trickled down to the lower levels of gym culture. Unfortunately, there now seems to be a more ominous consensus: instead of CrossFit isn't dangerous when coaches properly, it's now believed that CrossFit Is Dangerous And That's Okay. Any workout that kills a kid is, by definition, CrossFit. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
If you take the example of the gym teacher who does a little personal training on the side, has read one or two textbooks and has a silly certification or two, you'll see the potential issue. Where once the 'trainer' prescribed the same bodybuilding-style workouts for every exerciser, athlete or otherwise, he's now prescribing his idea of CrossFit. What was once "Chest and Tris" day for his hockey players is now "bucket day" - kill them by any means possible. Functional? Meh. Core-to-extremity? What's that? Pukie? Awesome.
This looming threat isn't the theft of our methods, because none of it is truly "ours" to begin with. You can't patent 21-15-9, or the name "Fran," or doing workouts for time. The real threat is the entry of the word, "CrossFit," into the common lexicon, like "zipper" or "Kleenex."
So what's our choice of action? This was answered succinctly by Pat Sherwood at a recent cert in Ann Arbor. One word: community. Your affiliate community is what drives new members; what pays the rent; what makes CrossFit powerful. What makes them a community? The common glue is education. It's your job to make your community the most informed group of exercisers on the planet.
Writing essays, referring people to CrossFit Journal is a great start. The main site is a massive chest of great information. But you have to get your own face on it, or risk leaving HQ's message open to local interpretation.
"You coach CrossFit? Well, my gym teacher does, too, and he says something different....." Establish yourself as an expert. Video is better than text, and most of us speak better than we write.
Video is also easier to watch, and setting up a series of short, one-point videos is a great way to build a reference library locally. Correct naming will help Google find you easier, and you'll find you're explaining basic concepts less frequently to members. New members considering which gym is best will gravitate to you, because you've already demonstrated knowledge.
Don't worry, you won't run out of information to put out there. Information is already available to everyone; you're just the frame.
The best way to avoid theft? Make it available for free.
Comments