The CrossFit community is unmatched by the regular gym model and is often overlooked as an un-important aspect of human performance however this is a critical error to make.
What about communities is impacting human performance: 1/ Large support networks 2/ Increased athlete enjoyment 3/ Greater pool of competition 4/ Athletes learn from each other faster
Above are my Top 4 reasons for community being critical in the athlete development and success. Of course we know coaching and diet is important, community cannot be overlooked.
1/ A large support network of people around you is an important factor in your performance because of the perspective that comes with it. Perspective is often learned through experience and comes with an awareness of others. Within the CrossFit community at any one time there may be 10-50% percent of people scaling or adapting the workout of the day for multiple different reasons, whether that be because of weight restrictions, lifestyle factors, exercises history, daily niggles or other un-predicted and un-stated reasons.
Within the remaining group there will be a percentage of people completing it slower than normal, faster than normal and every where in between, so on any given day there are a multitude of results and adaptations occurring within the dynamic of any one group. Yet the common thread is that everyone who showed up can walk away proud that they moved a little closer to their outcome of becoming better. Its in this piece that the magic of the community takes place “team-ship”.
“Team-ship” like mate-ship in the health and fitness world is where the community has each others back. A community knows each other, understands each others desires and supports each other through the challenges and successes of life. This perspective and support rebalances any unfavourable thought processes and allows the optimism of each person to return as they endeavour to become better.
2/ Increased athlete enjoyment is a clear benefit of community. Any one who has trained or is currently training alone knows one thing, its nice to have some “me time” but, it would be great to have a training buddy or 10 that I enjoyed being around. Our culture is based around a set of guidelines or rules that allow our athletes to be themselves, whilst upholding a high standard of behaviour that leads to athletic performance and is equally respectful of other individuals. Within these guidelines athletes are respectful, up lifting, safety focused and team players all of which increase the general enjoyment of other members and improve the overall experience of the individuals. Great communities are fun to be a part of and athletes having fun are proven to perform better than athletes that are frustrated and down.
3/ A community where more people get together to train and workout leads to an increase in awareness around what other athletes/members are achieving and in that space it is impossible to not think “if s/he can do that then so can i”. Large communities have more people involved and more people means more members to learn from, improve with and challenge yourself to improve against.
4/ Athletes learn from each other faster than they would learn on their own. Why? Because no one wants to be the slow one. In a group of 2, you don’t want to be the one that lifts the lightest moves the slowest or asks what does that mean… in a group of ten, if you can tell you are falling behind you can not only rely on your coaches to answer your questions, you can also rely on your teammates who may be performing better than you for helpful hints and tips that worked for them. As your pool in influence increases around you you will realise that you are like a book with a library of resources around you.
Professional tennis players often surround themselves with “sport specific communities” including Fitness coaches, Strategy coaches, strength coaches, Psychologists, Therapists, nutritionist, hitting partners and more to ensure they have people around them that they trust.
Professional Footballers have Offence and Defense coaches, strength and conditioning coaches, nutritionists, massage therapist, osteopaths, Running coaches and their head coach.
At CrossFit with us you have your CrossFit Coaches, Mindset Coach, Personal Training, Team mates as well as being able to tap into our meal plan resources and the Physical therapists within the affiliate or through recommendation of other coaches and members.
All in all community is an undeniable benefit to athletic performance on many levels and CrossFit is a great model for achieving general physical preparedness and increase performance!!
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