I'm Competing in my Ninth CrossFit Open in a Row -- Here's Why

By Coach ACM

I’ve competed in every Open since 2011 — and here’s why.

As an affiliate owner, I’ve had the conversation many times over, with many different types of clients, about whether or not to participate in the yearly competition that is the CrossFit Open.

The answer, as it is with most things related to fitness, nutrition, or lifestyle, is the ever-so-helpful “it depends.”  While I am all for embracing challenge, as well as getting an honest assessment of one’s fitness, I also feel that competition comes AFTER many other things are put into place (movement mechanics, structural balance, and overall metabolic health just being a few of these things).

The best way I’ve found to respond to the “should I do the Open” question is to step back and ask another question: WHY should (or shouldn’t) you do the Open?

In an effort to help guide others, I have decided to share my reasons for doing the Open, which, admittedly, have changed over the years.

Having started CrossFit in 2009, I was ready and able to compete in the very first worldwide Open, in 2011, back when there were six workouts instead of five, there was no scaled division, and muscle-ups were still a novelty, even at the Regional level.

For the first two years of my Open experience, the goal was to place as high as possible.  I was fortunate enough to qualify on a team for Regionals in that first year (again, performance standards were nothing like they are today, not to take anything away from those 2011 athletes). Going into my second year, I had a goal of qualifying for Regionals as an individual — I came up short by 9 spots (69th place back when they took the top 60 men from each region).

Shortly after that 2012 Open, my now-wife and I opened Full Range CrossFit, and things changed dramatically.  Though I was at the gym most of the day, my energy was now being put into coaching, programming, and growing our business.  Simultaneously, though, I was training with the same intensity and intentions that I had been before.  I’d say that this was when I first learned about “living out of alignment.”  My priorities had changed, and my roles were different, but I was still acting in a way that was a hold-over from what my goals had once been.

The 2013 and 2014 Open competitions were not only my worst performances, but the least enjoyment I’ve gotten from competing.  I know now, in retrospect, that this is because I was doing the Open for the wrong reasons — I was doing them for others, and not for myself.

I don’t mean to say that it was other people’s fault that I didn’t do well, or enjoy myself.  I took great pride and pleasure in helping others succeed in their fitness journeys, and improving in the Open was one measure of that, for them.  What I mean by doing the Open for others is that I was chiefly concerned with where I finished on each workout, relative to others, and not at all in what I was getting out of doing it.  I wasn’t learning anything through my mistakes, as the only thing I really looked at was the result, and not how I was actually approaching each week, or even how my training could be altered to help me improve in the future (something that every coach should be looking for, constantly).

After those years, my feelings about the Open were forced to mature a bit.  The sport was growing (as it still is, but seemingly faster then), and “being competitive” meant something totally different.  No longer could I be casual about my training and expect to have a great performance in the Open, and nor should that have been the case.  As my roles in life continued to expand, as a coach, business owner, husband, and eventually father, I learned that I needed to figure out how to continue progressing in my fitness for the long-term, and could no longer be attached to results as a means of judging myself.  I started putting into perspective how, though I was FAR from finishing in the top 70 in the Northeast, as I once had, I was actually a lot stronger, and less likely to be injured than I was back in 2012.  My movement was much better, and I was able to do things that I couldn’t have done back in those early days.  The competition around me improved dramatically — way more than I had over those years — but I, myself, was still making progress, albeit slowly, and in a way that fit with my lifestyle, and kept me happy.

Why do I still do the Open each year?  For one thing, I still enjoy performing at a (relatively) high level, especially in the environment that we have been fortunate enough to create here at Full Range.  If people that we coach get anything positive from seeing us “walk it like we talk it,” then that is worth it enough to at least go out and give full effort.  I have always, and will always, warm-up much more extensively for the Open workouts than I do for a typical day of training.  Why? Because, in the Open, it’s real.  The scores are put out there, the reps are all judged, and, if you’re going to put it out there, you might as well give it your all.

I still do the Open because it helps me practice creating focus on a singular task.  At work, I often jump from task to task, and am pulled in many different directions.  But, on Fridays during the Open, once we’ve done all of our set-up and briefing, I can turn all of those other things off, at least for a little bit, and concentrate on committing myself to a task that is challenging, engaging, and, in the end, weirdly fun.

I still do the Open because I love taking part in something that is larger than I am, and being tested in something that, at least for some of us, matters.  It can be frustrating to not perform as well as others, but there is also some solace in knowing that we generally get back what we put in.  If I’m not working as hard, or keeping good habits, then I can expect to not do as well that year in the Open — and that’s ok.  I don’t want the rules to change, or for others to do worse so that I can feel better.  I want to see what’s really there, and what’s true.  And, if I couldn’t handle that, then I would/should probably sit it out.

Lastly, I still do the Open because it brings people together in a way that is hard to replicate, especially in adult life.  We are all out there, allowing ourselves to be judged (literally), and risking failure in front of a bunch of people that we respect.  I admire that ability in people.  I encourage people to take risks from time to time, to see where their limits are.  And so, I follow suit.  I try, and I fail, or I do all right, and either way, it’s all good.  In the end, we are here to grow as people, and to share an experience.  For 99.99% of us, that’s what the Open is.

So here’s to another year of the Open, and another chance to test myself, to have fun, and to share some good times with people whose company I greatly enjoy.  Onward!

-ACM