To Sign Up For The CrossFit Open Or Not

It’s that time of year again when the CrossFit Open is less than a month away and we as affiliate owners encourage our entire membership to sign up for an online competition that comprises three workouts over three weeks where your score will be judged and validated and you can compare yourself to every other CrossFitter in the world who is also doing the Open.  

For our newbies there is a lot of uncertainty around what the Open even is.  Should they do it?  Are they good enough to do it?  What if they can’t do a certain movement?  It’s unknown territory for them, but more often than not a little peer pressure from the coaches and they sign up.  Our veteran athletes who are on the fence are typically harder to convince.  They’ve done the Open once or several times, and although they know how rewarding it is and how accomplished they felt after completing it, they’re nervous they may not do as well as last year or as well as they hoped.  There is a significant amount of self imposed pressure.  We all know that fitness is not some linear progression where there are year over year gains, but we are also aware that we place value on our self worth based on our last workout performance.   We as affiliate owners understand this mindset, but from our experience the more sign ups we have, the better the vibes during the Open, the more community engagement we get, and we leave the Open a stronger gym than we entered.  

This year there is another part of our membership that does not want to sign up based on things that transpired at the CrossFit Games last year and how HQ handled it as well as some of the recent ruling changes in competition. This group believes in the methodology emphatically.  They are 4+ days per week members, love the barbell and high skill gymnastics, needless to say are competitive, but they feel strongly about not giving CFHQ their $20.  

So that would seem to leave me in a predicament, but maybe not.  

We respect our members and their personal beliefs.  We have always let members participate in the Open workouts even if they are not registered officially.  If they want a judge, we will judge them.  If they just want to do the workout and move on, that’s cool too.  The $20 of course supports the brand, but I’ve always viewed the $20 as my race entry fee and the Open as the race.  I want to compete, and I want to see how I stack up to my peers and my previous self.  Not paying and then looking up where I would have been on the official leaderboard is not an option in my mind.  Being on the leaderboard and picturing yourself on the leaderboard are two different things.  

So, in my opinion, it’s an easy Yes for me to sign up for my 15h Crossfit Open.  I’ve already supported the brand considerably this year by renewing our two affiliates.  Why? Because we use the methodology at our gyms, and while nobody can own a methodology, I don’t feel good about doing CrossFit without being an official CrossFit affiliate.  That’s my personal belief.  

We won’t force anyone to sign up or even pressure them.  We will encourage our community to come together to participate in one of the most fun events we have at the gym all year long.  From the athletes, to the judges, to the spectators there to cheer you on, it’s truly a vibe.  

So, sign up or don’t, but we will be hosting an intramural Open.  If you plan to do the workout, you will be on a team, because at the end of the day we are 908 Athletics, and we are a team.  

Hope to see many of you out there!

Tim

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