Johnnie,

As a future Games competitor, I wanted your opinion on how many days do you think I should do Crossfit Football. I train in a garage in Florida and I want to show the world, that although affiliates are GREAT, you can get it done in your garage WITH ONLY CROSSFIT PROGRAMMING. I currently follow main site but I want to get much stronger so I just want your opinion.

Sherman



Sherman,

I think your best bet is to train hard, train smart, be consistent and be ready for the competition when it presents itself. With that said, I think (and I could be wrong, I usually am) the days of the average person coming out of nowhere to win the CrossFit Games is behind us. There is too much money, too many great athletes and too much exposure to CrossFit for someone to be able to win the Games without special programming and an athletic pedigree.

I am the last one to stomp on someone’s dreams but lets break it down.

To be a competitive CrossFit athlete you have to have a big engine, incredible physical capacity and almost a uncanny ability to recover. You have to be strong enough to make everything look easy, but not too strong that it skews the balance. I would say 5’7″- 5’10”, 165-185 lbs is about the build, with a 250 lbs clean, over body weight snatch, 400 lbs squat, 500 lbs deadlift and 50+ pull ups. You need to be 800 meters fast, not 100 meter fast. Do you know the difference? A elite 100 meter sprinter can hold top speed for 10-11 seconds and then they shut it down. You need a sprinter that hold top speed in the 800 meters. And a nice skill set that allows you to handle anything from swimming to basic gymnastics moves.

Everything is measurable. There are dozens of benchmark workouts to measure yourself against. There are 5 years of CrossFit games workouts to perform and times to beat. If you are not competitive with the best CrossFitters in the world, what are you going to do increase your chances? If the best in the world can do a workout in 3 minutes and you are at 12 minutes, how competitive can you be?

This is similar to Olympic weightlifting. If you are an Olympic weightlifter with the goal of making the Olympics, you can look at the totals of the world’s best and see how you stack up. If you are 100 kilos behind the top guy in your weight class, are you realistically going to make the Olympics? No. You hit some local meets, tell some lies and compete in your sport. Most people have no concept of how cold and hard professional sports are. There is no thought of feelings or self-esteem, it is based solely on can and can not…win or lose.

And when you can no longer compete at a high level you are cast off to the island of misfit toys.

Most of the top CrossFit athletes have done something in their past that required a high level of capacity, daily training and freaky genetics. Whether it be track, wrestling, football, swimming, NSW, rugby or gymnastics, many of these athletes were athletes before CrossFit decided to test for the “fittest man/woman in the world.”

Next, can you survive the training? The volume of training needed to be competitive is extremely high. If you can’t survive the training, you might never get the chance to compete.

And lastly, can you suffer? Physically and mentally? Can you go to that uncomfortable place, turn your brain off and just go?

If you answered yes to these questions, and are competitive in your lifts and numbers, keep training and don’t lose sight of your goal.

John