Our Gym Goals:
1 - Fun! The Open will be fun.
2 - Inclusive. Everyone can and should participate!
3 - Community, Character & Fitness Building. You will learn more about yourself as a person and athlete for having participated in the Open. And, your community will benefit from you signing up!
Your 2017 CrossFit Open To Do List:
Sign our Open Board
Register at games.crossfit.com
Select your home gym as your Affiliate and Team
Ballard CrossFit → Ballard CrossFit
Mark your calendars for Thursday, February 23rd. That is the start of the 2017 CrossFit Open. Then, mark your calendars for the 5 following Saturday’s: 2/25, 3/4, 3/11, 3/18, & 3/25. Festivities start at 3pm.
Get your Ballard CrossFit friends & classmates to come join you!
Get your people: family, friends, co-workers, etc. to come watch and cheer you on!
Train HARD.
I. What is the Open?
The Open is a 5-week online test of fitness. It is the first step on the road to finding the fittest on Earth, eventually culminating the CrossFit Games.
Here are some details:
1 WOD is announced per week for 5 weeks
You have from Thursday @ 5pm until Monday @ 5pm to complete the WOD and submit your score.
The WODs are a diverse test:
Between 4 & 20 mins
Typically in AMR format, but they’ve introduced For Time & Max Load
Single modalities, couplets, triplets & chippers (much like you seen in class)
Your WOD must be judged & verified, then you will submit your score online
You can attempt the WOD multiple times and submit your best score
Rx’d & Scaled Divisions
16.1: 50’ OH Walking Lunges 95#/65#, 8 Bar-Facing Burpees… C2B
Scaled: 25’ Front-Racked 45#/35#, Burpees, Jumping Pull-Ups
Further scales… YES! Do it.
II. How we’ll be running the Open this year…
For those that have done the Open in years prior, we have some fun changes coming your way.
Here are some details:
Judging
5 Coaches will be “head judges”, roaming, making sure everything looks just right, making sure equipment is organized, etc.
Then, we’ll ask members to be judges as well
We’ll post their contact info up in the gym, and athletes participating in the Open can ask any judge to score their workout as long as a head judge is present.
Athletes participating in the Open can run each WOD multiple times, but remember the your coach/judge is volunteering their time & energy for you!
Saturday Afternoon Lights!
Every Saturday @ 3pm, we’ll have a PARTY.
Awesome Workouts
BBQ
Drinks
TONS of energy
Photographer
Other ideas?
III. Why should I do the Open?
Own it...
What makes Ballard CrossFit such a special place? What makes us a vibrant community? What sets us apart? You do.
Not your Coaches, or your facility or equipment or programming… or anything else. As an athlete at Ballard CrossFit, you make our gym the incredible, rock-star, kick-ass home-away-from-home, family that it is!
We’re all a part of this program and this community for a reason. What is that for you? What drives you to come in, pour it all out, push your body to the limit, give some fistbumps and then keep coming back for more? What is your reason?
I’ll tell you what it is for me. For me, our gym is like a 2nd home. When I step foot in the door, there is a sense of belonging. There is a sense of participating in something bigger and greater than myself. I love the sport of CrossFit, I love the camaraderie within our community, I love to push myself both mentally and physically... and, I love to be a part of that experience for everyone else! I love being able to Coach people in what I love to do. I’m hugely blessed by the athletes here at Ballard CrossFit.
For most of us, if we’re honest, this gym has significantly changed our lives. Some of our closest friendships have developed right here inside the box. We’ve spent morning after morning, afternoon after afternoon giving our time and energy to make an investment in our health. And, we love it! We look forward to it. We plan our lives around it!
If we stop to think about our gym - the impact it’s had on our health and lives, the people we’ve met, the experiences we’ve had - we can’t help but feel gratitude for our gym family. And, we each own a piece of that gratitude we feel. Each of you has contributed to that feeling of “home” - that feeling of belonging, that feeling of success in fitness - for someone else! When we love our gym - when we’re thankful for what it is in our lives - we want to be a part of someone else loving our gym. Then, we pass it on. We’re not consumers that come in and take and leave, we’re owners, who are just as interested in the success of others as our own successes! Because, our successes come from the successes of others!
So own it. Be a part of what we’re doing. Invest in yourself by investing in others!
The Open as gratitude…
For each of us, there are a bunch of influences that have brought us to where we are in our fitness journey - coaches, fellow athletes, etc. Giving your very best in competition is a way of recognizing their influence & sacrifice in your life. In giving your all, you honor their contributions and show appreciation for your community!
The Open as the next step in your journey in fitness…
Growth takes trial. Growth takes struggle with difficulties and challenges. The Open will challenge you. And, in that challenge, you’ll grow and learn more about yourself as a CrossFitter. You’ll learn about your strengths - you’ll surprise yourself in some areas. And, you’ll learn about your weaknesses - where you need to re-vamp your efforts and come back stronger than ever.
The Open as a source of growth in community…
Nothing needs to be a solo effort in CrossFit. Not only will you experience growth participating in the Open, you’ll be a part of that growth for others! You’ll get the experience of facing off against brutal workouts, and you’ll be source of encouragement and growth for others as they do the same!
You never know what kind of influence you might be having. You never know who might benefit from seeing you give your all. Or what comment you gave that might’ve been the encouragement that somebody needed to hear. Or who might push a little harder because they know that you’re in their corner!
You Coaches wouldn’t ask you to do this if we didn’t truly believe that this would be a good thing for you and for your community.
Some inspirational quotes...
“Find your weaknesses, make friends with them, then beat them to death!”
“Walk away having left it all out there: No matter what, I really believe that no one will judge you based on your performance. We all may want to see someone or another do well. But the reality is that we are all so incredibly motivated by ANYONE that pours their heart out and lays it all on the line. Regardless of the outcome walk away knowing it was all you had.”
“Remember, CrossFit is not the Games. The community of people that throw down every day is CrossFit. As Rx’d or not, a regional or games contender or not. Soccer mom to elite athlete, we make up the community. The overwhelming majority of the community may never walk on the Games stadium floor but will have far more impact on their local community and possibly even farther by their daily efforts in the gym. THAT is CrossFit.”
-Chris Spealler