Thursday – May 5, 2016 (20160505)

On Friday night we observed an act of Integrity by Denny.  He finished “Jackie” and posted his time on the board.  It was the fastest time of the day.  He beat me by just a few seconds.  “Jackie” is one of my favorite workouts and I don’t like to lose.  While I did not see Denny’s workout I did not question his time.  He is incredible on the row and has been working on both his thrusters and pull ups.  What surprised me was hearing from Coach Pat that shortly after Denny had written his time on the board he realized that he did not complete the workout correctly.  Denny only did 40 thrusters versus the prescribed 50.  He not only took his time off the board but he redid the workout.  Doing the workout twice in a row did not help his time.  He still managed one of the fastest times of the day.

I admire Denny’s work ethic and his commitment to making himself better.  He is fiercely competitive and doesn’t like to lose but most importantly he is not willing to compromise his dignity.  This is an example we could all use to better ourselves.  Coming to Mission CrossFit we all have the same goal. To be better.  It is not about the time you are able to post on the board.  It is about whether you are completing the movement better than you ever have before.  It is about being stronger and faster.  It is having better agility and balance.  It is about doing things we never thought we would do again or ever be able to do.

I catch kids in our youth program all the time not completing the correct amount of repetitions because they are embarrassed about being left behind.  I always make it a teaching point to pull these kids aside and explain to them the importance of being honest with themselves and having integrity.  No real surprise we as adults have the same issues as the kids.  We don’t want to be left behind.  We don’t want to be the last one done.  We don’t want to be beat by someone that we once could consistently beat.  Every workout we do is an exercise in Integrity.  It is very easy to not complete the full amount of reps or count reps that we know should not have counted because our chin didn’t go high enough or the wall ball did not reach the target.

Just like in the kids class, the coaches notice, and more importantly your peers notice.  Unlike the kids class, we ask you to post your score on the board.  Please do not post times that are not a reflection of actual work done.  This creates uneasy feelings for those working out with you.  Trust and honesty are essential to building relationships.  Mission CrossFit fosters a community and environment that encourages people to be their best.  The scores on the board are meant for you.  They do not really matter as compared to other peoples’.  What matters is that your technique is improving.  There are several benchmark workouts that I do today that have lower scores than when I did them a few years ago.  This is because my early scores did not have good technique.  My scores today are an accurate expression of full range of motion.  Don’t worry about other people.  Be motivated by others to improve, but do not compromise your standards for the perception of keeping up.  Denny had a huge victory on Friday and earned more respect than any score on the board could have ever given him.  Being awesome is not about how many people you can beat in a workout.  Being awesome is giving your best.

-Justin Yee

August 4th, 2014