Sunday Musings 1/30/11
Sunday musings (feel free to scale)…
1) Secretariat. 31 lengths. Just saying.
2) Pro. The advent of the sponsored athlete is nigh. Mikko and the Rogue athletes. Jon Gilson’s Again Faster collection. Graeham picked up by Reebok. Did Coach foresee this? Did anyone? No idea.
It bears a little examination, though, to try to put it in perspective. Crossfit seems, to me at least, to have much more in common as a sporting endeavor with Track and Field, Skiing and Snowboarding of all sorts, and other individual sports such as golf and tennis. Team events like the Tahoe Throwdown, indeed the teaming of anything, seem to be more like those relatively rare times when athletes in individual sports assemble under some flag or another for an event that seeks to create a team ethos in an otherwise team-averse universe. Think Ryder Cup golf much more than think Olympics, for example.
My bet? The Track and Field analogy is closest, and we will see sponsorship activity more akin to that then, say, snowboarding; there’s just less STUFF to purchase, or need to purchase, to Crossfit. $22 for a pair of Chuck Taylor seconds, some socks and you’re good to go.
Think just for a minute what Crossfit has done for so many folks, business-wise, that is. 3000 gym owners. A few dozen sponsored athletes, sure to be a few hundred this time next year. Not one but TWO Crossfit-dedicated equipment companies, as well as non-CF companies who have seen an explosion in their sales due to their discovery by Crossfitters (Lulu Lemon, Innov8, Vibram). An entire business ecosystem has arisen in <2 years.
Did Coach foresee that? Did anyone?
3) Form/Function. I look good. I mean reeeaaaalllly good. I’m going on a beach vacation in a week or so, and I’m feeling just fine about taking my shirt off at the pool.
‘Cause I look GOOD.
Here’s the funny thing about that…I’ve made only the most cursory effort to look good. You see, for 5+ years I’ve been pursuing not so much form as function. The metric I have pursued, the measurements I’ve taken and the outcomes I’ve sought have all been performance related. What’s my “Fran” time? PR is Front Squat? Stuff like that. As a matter of fact, just for fun I’m going to go back to 2006 and do a few months of 2006 Main Page CF WOD’s to compare.
The point here is that form follows function with few exceptions. Want world-class marathon or triathalon times? You aren’t going to look like Mikko. Aiming for a podium in a power lifting competition? Likely the same thing. Chasing General Physical Preparedness, WCABTMD? Well now, YOU might look a little more like Mikko.
Let’s not get carried away, though. I look NOTHING like Mikko, and you shouldn’t expect any shirtless bingo pics on the Main Page (with or without a tire, PU bar, or KB), but the fact remains that form follows function, and I look good.
Bet you do, too.
4) Community. Made any friends recently? I have. Seems a week doesn’t go by in which I don’t “meet” someone new who could turn out to be a new friend. How? I’m a Crossfitter. I talk to people who Crossfit.
There’s an essential goodness that permeates the Crossfit community, whether it be here on Crossfit.com, Facebook, or in the Affiliate gyms. By and large we assume goodwill on the part of other Crossfitters (and are always taken aback when it isn’t there). The vibe is positive. Optimistic. There’s an enthusiasm about turning the next corner because what’s been around all of the previous corners has been pretty cool. It’s amazing when you think about how consistently this has been the case.
I’m a community kinda guy. Love this place, and love most everything about it. Communities are like gardens, though–they need care and feeding. We must tend to our community in ways big and small, as we would tend to a neighbors garden while tending to our own. We may choose to tend to Crossfit itself, or not, but we should always and ever choose to tend to the community that has grown up around Crossfit.
It’s a fertile garden, one from which friendship blooms, regularly and routinely, in ways as mysterious as they are wonderful.
I’ll see you next week…
This entry was posted on Sunday, January 30th, 2011 at 9:47 am and is filed under Crossfit. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.