This past weekend marked the 1st Annual “Throwdown” with CrossFit Northlake. In my opinion, the event couldn’t have gone much better….unless Vitality could have taken home the Championship Banner:)
It was the first time the two communities have come together for a joint event. No matter how long I do CrossFit, the community aspect of it never stops surprising me. We packed Vitality with 54 teams and 100+ spectators. Putting that many competitive people in the same space would normally cause problems in any other scenario, instead, with CrossFit it created an amazing environment of support and encouragement. No matter how bad teams wanted to win, there was never a display of poor sportsmanship. Tell me ONE other sport in which this is possible? These days, you will even see bad sportsmanship habits being displayed at youth sporting events from the parents in the stands. I am certain that those outbursts are what plants the seed within their children that allow them to think that acting like a child and losing control of their emotions is acceptable later in life. This was one of the many reasons I fell in love with CrossFit and our community years ago. We have created a place where it is ok to lose and it is ok to cheer for the opposite team if they do something awesome. Do we like to lose, of course not, but it has forced us to deal with it in an adult way because to do otherwise is socially unacceptable in this sport. If only other sports would adopt this attitude and outlook, our kids could grow up and actually learn what sportsmanship means. We would stop judging our worth based on how we finish and instead base it on how we can positively influence and affect others.
So many teams were stressed leading up to the event and no matter how much I assured them that, in the end, they would have a great time competing, they had to experience that for themselves. So many teams came up to me afterward and talked about how glad they were they took part in the competition. The truest statement I have ever heard about fitness was from Coach Glassman when he talked about how as athletes, “we fail at the margins of our experience”. Because you were able to compete this past weekend, your fitness potential, both physically and mentally, has increased because of it. It’s the same reason that when the playoffs roll around in any sport, everyone always talks about how many veterans are on the team and how much experience that team has. The team with more experience, 9 times out of 10, will be the favorite. It’s the same with our sport, the more experiences we can get competing or stepping out of our comfort zones, the greater our potential is to improve. But I think it goes one step further than that, I think that this experience spills over into other areas of our lives. I am convinced that being able to deal with the stress and anxiety that this event caused for some of the teams will help them in other areas of their life that have nothing to do with fitness.
The last thing that I think gets overlooked a too often is the value of learning teamwork. I know that this is a skill that people of all ages could be better about. Watching how much fun the teams had and how well they worked together was pretty incredible. Just like in real life, it’s super easy to work with people when things are going great and we are experiencing success, the test comes when we get punched in the face and a little adversity shows up. This is when peoples’ true colors will shine when it comes to their attitude and ability to work together. I watched team after team hit that point of adversity and navigate through it with ease. Not sure why I was surprised by this, I should have expected it to go that way, nevertheless, it was pretty motivating to watch.
Thanks to all the Competitors, Sponsors, and Volunteers who helped make this event great. We are already looking forward to the next Throwdown and trying to get our banner back to Vitality. In the meantime, JB and Amy will take good care of it for us:)
We will be posting a picture of all the equipment that we were able to purchase for the “Rebound” program once it gets delivered. The contribution for this program that you all helped make possible will impact the path of so many men that make their way through the doors of the Charlotte Rescue Mission. Thanks for your support!