Training vs. Performing
As Crossfitters we are involved in the Sport of Fitness. Our sport doesn’t ask us to put a puck in a net or do multiple flips across a narrow beam, it simply tests our ability to do work. Regardless of what sport you do, most people would agree that it’s valuable to train and practice for it. Athletes will train the specific skills required for their sport as well as the physical requirements such as strength, speed and muscular endurance. If all a hockey player did was play games and never practice skills or conditioning, would he get better at hockey? We can probably agree that it’s quite likely he will. However, will he improve as much, or as fast as another athlete who does practice skills and conditioning? Not a chance! Any coach of any skill, sport or not, knows you need to practice and train if you want to get the best results.
As Crossfitters, our sport isn’t as clear cut. Our sport is the workout. It is fitness. We practice and train, by playing the game. This creates a grey area making it much harder to know when we’re training vs. when we’re performing. This has been a problem, emphasized by the way we’ve been programming and posting workouts at CrossFit Edmonton. A huge part of this has been the idea of constantly comparing back to previous results. On EVERY workout we do or to every other person in the facility. When this is done we constantly come in thinking we need to beat or PR our last score. We need to perform, not train. And that, greatly diminishes our ability to improve.
The good news is that we do have clear testing points built right into the program. These are the benchmark workouts and the weighted lifts. To test these every so often and have clear comparisons are extremely valuable. However, we need to understand that everything in between is our training for that. Yes there are scores to all of our workouts and yes we can compare and see improvement, but if that’s all we ever do the question becomes: When are we training and when are we performing?
Our emphasis in our programming at CrossFit Edmonton is now on understanding the difference. We want you to know when you’re training and when it’s test time. When to perform. This means that our programming is taking a pretty different shift making it much harder to truly compare to stuff we’ve done in the past. It doesn’t make any of our previous training worthless. Far from it. It just simply makes it hard to compare. Our goal is that we now have a much clearer definition of our training which will actually make comparisons in the future even more valuable and more precise.
As members of CrossFit Edmonton, you get to experience this improvement first hand in each and every class you come to.
Training and Game Day.
Chad, I like this post. I really like the changes & challenges that you’ve been incorporating into the program with the difference in ways to do the lifts, rep schemes, etc. Personally, I feel that changing it up this way will push us further for the same reason that CF in general is such an excellent training program – random, constantly varied movements. Incorporating this philosophy within movements as well as across them can only be of benefit I think. It also helps to keep things fresh and interesting – it was really fun doing a 30-round Chelsea for example. Even though it was scaled, I think a lot of us felt a real sense of accomplishment in having done that.
I also agree with your comments about training vs. performance. I think when we first start CF, every WOD is like a performance – every day is a new pr, and progress is fast and exciting. After a while, however, you just don’t pr every time and some days are worse than the days before. Mark Rippetoe likes to say that training isn’t the results of a single day, but it’s sometimes hard to remember that when those pr’s stop coming so easily (and sometimes go down!). It’s definitely something I’ve personally struggled with, but have been looking at it more as a process lately and trying to enjoy the process rather than just the end result.
The upshot is that personally, I have really been liking and am excited about the changes that you’ve been incorporating into the WOD’s. I feel like I’ve been making some gains in some of my goat areas & it’s great!
My only concern is that I wish we were more concerned and passionate about our workouts.
Above what Sandra said…I’ve been enjoying the new direction of the WODs…it does leave me with a better sense of accomplishment too…
I love the way you’ve defined the difference between performance and training. In the first year or so of crossfit, I constant compared myself to others, my previous PR, and would rate my workout based on those comparisons. It was ‘good day’/'bad day’ based on this, and to be honest, I wasn’t having a whole lot of fun. Anger and frustration does not make for a fun workout.
Letting go of that a while ago, and focusing on the ‘training’ as you put it, has allowed me to actually perform better, push harder, and actually have fun again. Constantly comparing yourself to others will not make YOU better. Doing your best every day makes YOU better. Seeing the changes in your stength and technique (not simply the numbers and/or PR’s), your body, energy, how much easier simple life tasks are, how you feel….to me these are more important markers of fitness vs. did I make the board or PR on that day.
And I still surprise myself some days when I find a gear I didn’t think I had, without huge expectations going into the workout and pressure, but simply to train, and work hard. Besides, who wants to take a test every day?
bs 205 x 3 pr
rd 50 x 3 pr
bs 185 x 3
rd 13 x 3
bs 185×3
rd 25×3
BS 135×3, 155×2. Rnds.
RD 30 w/white band
Bill was Brian-like today. Way to go old guy.
Awesome topic! One that targets everyone, but especially crossfitters that have been your longtime members since the beginning. How do you get them (me) to the next level? Let’s face it. We have been your test subjects for everything. The way you approach fundamentals, progression etc… has drastically changed since I started. And for the better. Who remembers the green/red/black levels? Or the report cards? Oh fun times! The adaptability of new members today is way faster than ours were and that’s simply because of the learning curve we all went through to refine the process.
Now having said that, I did notice that once I adapted I took off like a rocket. Everyday was a PR, I was deadlifting and back squatting the shiz out of everything I could get my hands on! And then about a year and a half ago everything stopped. PRs were few and far between. About 8 months ago, I told myself either step it up or don’t bother anymore. So I have been progressing again, but I know I’m not doing it effectively.
Reading this post today reminds me of a maturing process crossfit edmonton is going through. I think it’s great and look forward to it
Since I am posting this so late, no one will read it anyway, but here goes….
The flaw in using the training/performing analogy in a sport context was accidentally made clear to me the other day (thanks Vadym!). As a former elite level athlete, he knew that he would spend 8 months of the year training, and 4 months performing (competing). While I agree that training is an activity that is done at some level less than PR, and adding the variance of technique to the training (3×02, wtf?) will have great benefit, there is also benefit to knowing when the performance is needed. Think back to what your mental state was prior to any of the Inter City Challenges, or the Fight Gone Bad fundraisers, or on any WOD that you knew about the night before that your desire to “kill” it outweighed good sense and caution. Not knowing has removed the mental component of the WOD for me. So, I get up at 5am, wander in to Crossfit, meh, whatever, go home. Can’t be disappointed because there was nothing to get excited about.
Anyone who knows me will attest that everytime I say “Its not a competition” I am lying. Competition brings out the best and the worst in people. Its when I get through the worst that I feel the best. Now? In the words of the immortal y-vo….meh.
Interesting thoughts Bruce. However, don’t you see that that’s exactly what I meant by grey area?
The fact that ALL of our WOD’s have scores means that they are ALL an opportunity to perform. That’s the exact problem we are trying to avoid. Treat CrossFit more like a sport like Vadym was stating and train for events not WOD’s. You named two perfect examples in the ICC and FGB fundraisers. It’s also, why we’ll be bringing the ICC’s back starting in January and we’ll be programming to prepare for things like the CrossFit Games Sectionals that we are hosting.
I think what we are seeing in the massive amounts of discussion going on is that there are probably three groups (at least) that you are programming for. The newer people, whose experience in the program is short, so they can adapt to the changes, the middle group who are going to show up and do what they need to do, and the end group, who have seen the various iterations and changes the program has gone through. Presuming that I am in the end group, where my struggles are coming from is that I know or expect that there is a method to this change, and I can’t see it. You are feeding the first two groups in amounts they can digest, while I am not seeing the steps you have yet to share. When the concern is recording and track back, two days later you are telling us the log books are on order. So, you were in the process of taking care of that need prior to anyone even expressing it. But I didn’t see the process. As for yesterday’s post of mine, I didn’t see where the “performing” times were going to be brought in. Today, your post is about the planning for the next ICC,and the CFG Sectionals. Well, until today, I didn’t know those items were on the planning table. So either yesterday’s comments by me were a happy coincidence to your post from today for me to learn more, or I should, as I have been trying to do, keep quiet and wait. However, since you have seen me for close to three years, I doubt you would think that waiting quietly is something I do well.
I am sure there is more I could add, but I would need beer to do it.