Competition: The driving force of human development

I believe that the development of CrossFit had a lot to do with Greg Glassman’s observations when he started scheduling his personal training clients into group training sessions to open up more training slots. He saw exponential improvements not only in their work output, but also customer retention, results, and ultimately community development,. These same observations can be seen in any good CrossFit box today. This means that competition is the Keystone of our program. When Coach Glassman developed CrossFit he knew it was the best way to develop GPP (General Physical Preparedness). He did not develop it so someday it would be a premier competition for people to test their fitness; he saw it simply as a way of developing the true fitness for his clients. The coaches of Flatland CrossFit understand this and don’t write this as a selling point for everyone to try to be the fittest in the world, but to the same respect why competition will make you the fittest you that you can possibly be. Through everyday competition every workout is a competition between you and the last time you did that wod, or you and your best friend, or the biggest challenge between you and yourself (those days when everything hurts and you don’t want to even come to the box).  Victory is easily obtainable

I’ve always been fascinated with competition, maybe it’s because I watched a lot of Football and boxing with my dad growing up. But I’ve always had a focus on measuring my self against others, that's not always a healthy obsession but when that passion is focused in the right direction it can lead to untold success. It wasn’t until later in life that I realized you don’t have to receive the first place trophy to have achieved a victory. Competition is something that is hardwired into our system; it's the root of things like jealousy and lust, in the way that you’re jealous of others successes or lusting for the successes that others have found. These emotions have to be actively combatted against in society, but in the gym let those feelings run wild. You should strive to be better than you were and if you reference the people that have the PR’s that you want, great! I’m sure they would be more than happy to help you develop the (skills, strength, technique, stamina) to achieve those goals.

My coach in junior high Matt Heider was constantly trying to get all of us 7^th graders comfortable going full speed in pads and hitting each other, this was imperative so that we would be ready for full game speed. But everyone was so terrified of making a mistake that we were paralyzed by fear. Some of our fear stemmed from hitting each other, others of us were scared of messing up our newly learned plays. This was when our quarterback kept the football on an option even though he was forced to keep it because he turned left “the wrong way” for this particular option right. But he ran over a linebacker and scored on the play and coach praised him, because even though he made a mistake he did it at 100% and made something out of nothing from sheer force of will and I’ve always remembered that when I’m faced with a new challenge. Similar to what Benjamin Franklin said “When someone asks you if you know how to do something say Yes!, and then get to work figuring out how to do what you were asked to do.” Remember that you can’t be scared of making mistakes, as long as you do everything you can do there’s no failure you gave it all you had, and that is success. Don’t fear failure!!!

But I’d like to add that if you have interest in competing in the sport aspect of CrossFit or any other sport for that matter. Let us know everyone has a goal you have one whether you’ve ever actually said it out loud. Some of us it’s to got to the CrossFit Games, but for most of us its simply lose weight, look better naked. It is also acceptable to just simply wish make your crush admire your hard work. Whatever floats your boat, but I truly believe that competition at higher levels helps us conquer our fears. When your brain is distracted by competition you can step into a cage to fight another person, when the brain is captivated by competition you can step into an arena in front of thousands of people and not think twice about it because the task at hand is so important to you that your fears of public speaking or large crowds are the least of your worries when attempting to Overhead Squat 285lbs, you must push fear to the side and remember to keep armpits forward and squeeze your abs and glutes tight or you will not make that lift and you will lose to someone else who was able to push their fear away and maintain main line stability. Remember, “Behind every fear is the person you want to be. Fear is self-imposed, which means it doesn't exist. You create it, and you can destroy it. You can face your fears and become the person you want to be.”

• Also heres a video that demonstrates the power of competition 
• http://youtu.be/3E3j6SByR1k