The CF Finances Thread

[Tom Fetter]

The games may easily lose money as an event, but they're a primary source of Journal content. And also, frankly, a primary source of Crossfit's product - which I do not think is a brand name, but a dream, an aspirational community.

The dream is that with enough focus on intense and varied training, enough grit, enough time spent on skill development, that anyone can be a firebreather. Mind trumps genetics. The Games represent a pinnacle, but an achievable pinnacle ... not one that depends on the eye-hand coordination to play major league baseball, the size and athleticism to play NFL or NBA. Crossfit's much-ballyhooed appeal to military and LEOs ties in as well; we all know that Games competitors may not be pro-athlete material, but we convince ourselves that as GPP specialists, they'd be modern Spartans.

And it's hard to dispute that Games competitors aren't so far removed from the fitness of the general population, even of the general population of mildly athletic folks, that the dream's got no connection to reality.

But the conceit is that everyone can become a firebreather. Oh, everyone can become a firebreather in comparison with their own untrained potential, to be sure, but we are not all latent Spartans.

But that's what CF sells; the dream of being a Spartan, and a methodology which manifestly seems to get people there. A methodology which works well enough with untrained populations to produce striking changes in short order - changes that are striking enough to convince CFers that if they themselves did have enough focus, grit, time, dedication etc., that they would be Spartans. And that not being that is a choice, more than a fact of genetics.

[Darryl Shaw]

Originally Posted by Tom Fetter

But that's what CF sells; the dream of being a Spartan, and a methodology which manifestly seems to get people there. A methodology which works well enough with untrained populations to produce striking changes in short order - changes that are striking enough to convince CFers that if they themselves did have enough focus, grit, time, dedication etc., that they would be Spartans. And that not being that is a choice, more than a fact of genetics.

What did crossfitters want to be before 300 came out?

[Sara Fleming]

Trojans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_%28film%29 (wfs)

[Tom Fetter]

Greg Amundson.

[Tom Rawls]

Do the guys like Amundson get that way doing X-fit? My impression is that the icons of X-fit all did and still do considerably more than the WOD or its equivalent.

[Pat McElhone]

I am not aware of any of well known CrossFit athletes (Speal, Everret, Amundson) who were not very conditioned athletes before doing CrossFit (I believe everyone of them participated in NCAA athletics, except Kalipa) Kalipa is the only one I know. OPT played national level soccer up north (or so I heard on CF Radio.)

But, said another way, no one currently at the top of the CF totem poll was a regular guy, before finding CF.

[Tom Rawls]

My question goes beyond what their backgrounds were when the showed up as X-fitters. It is, what do they now do to maintain strength and conditioning? My impression is that they rely on more that X-fits WODs, but I don't know. It seems that you don't get to be an elite X-fitter by simply doing X-fit.

[Pat McElhone]

You could search the internet for the training program on each athlete, I would bet less then 25% are following the dot com WOD. Most, I bet, are doing a mix of periodization of strength training, general metabolic conditioning and specific skill work in the "known CF moves, like muscle-up, wall balls, double unders, etc."

Greg Amundson has stated he does the dot com WOD for his training and continues to set PR's in the "benchmarks" after 8 years. This is based on info from the CF Journal. But, interpret this how you will, for me, this means that after 8 years of doing Fran....well you are better at Fran.

[Patrick Donnelly]

Got certs? The June 2009 - June 2010 Lv1 CrossFit Certification calendar:



I probably missed a few somewhere along the line, and there were a few that I never saw listed as sold out (though they might have done it by the time the date arrived), but the above list is pretty complete.