We believe that OCCF remains true to the mantra that CrossFit is a “judgement free” environment. We don’t care what you look like, what you weigh, if you wear booty shorts or baggy sweats, how much weight you move, or who cuts your hair. Regardless of make and model we are all of us together striving toward one goal – bettering our lives.
And the fact that you come in and do the work, regardless of what that work might be…well, We think that is pretty frickin’ awesome. The stuff we do isn’t easy, and if you’ve been around long enough you know it will never be easy. Bringing yourself to the brink and pushing onward – that takes a special kind of person. Oh yes, we like to think that we are special.
While we don’t judge, we do have expectations – be on time, put your weight away, cheer on your fellow CrossFitters…however, the most important expectation we have of you is that you hold yourself accountable to the movement and WOD standards we set forth.
Yeah, that accountability thing. See, it’s not just about showing up and doing the work. Ok, maybe you got up early, or it’s been a long day at work, or you only have exactly one hour…whatever…like we said above – we don’t judge (read: we don’t care what your excuse is). What we care about is that you make the most out of your time in the box. What we care about is that you do the “common, uncommonly well”, and that you perform every movement to the BEST OF YOUR ABILITY, and to the standards of the movement being performed. You know the standards.
We push the fundamentals on you because mastering the fundamentals carries over into every movement we do in CrossFit. We strive for perfection in ALL our movements because performing even the most basic of movements with strict technique not only reduces your risk of injury but also provides additional training effects other than the training effect of the prescribed movement.
Why kip when you can’t do a strict pull-up? Why ring dip when you can’t do a strict push-up? Why try to do regular push-ups when all you can do is the “worm”? Look, it’s not about what Jimmy, Sue, or Johnny are doing, it’s about what YOU CAN DO and how well you do it. The competitive nature of CrossFit sometimes (ok, most times) pushes us to try things that we are not yet ready to do. And that damn whiteboard, sometimes we want to post a good time so badly that we might cheat movements and their standards or even worse, cheat reps.
The only way for you to be better than you were yesterday is to hold yourself accountable to a higher standard than what you set for yourself yesterday.
Each and every one of you is on a journey to better fitness and you’re all at a different place on that journey. You have to remember that on this journey there is no end point, so take your time, do the movements to the standards we set forth, to the best of your ability and your journey will be long and fruitful.
