CrossFit is all anyone seems to be talking about these days.
Over the past 3-5 years it has grown significantly, especially in the Australian market. Since 2007 and the first CrossFit games, the “all inclusive” strength and conditioning program turned into a world class sport and gained MASSIVE popularity all across the globe.
So naturally, when anything grows too fast it will face challenges.
The challenges that the CrossFit industry faces today, is quality over quantity. The push to drive more and more people to become competitive crossfitters has amazing ups (greater levels of fitness, more people working on their health, individuals learning more about movement and training and better health across the board.) but it also has a lot of downs (Overly competitive in the early stages, under-qualified coaches, poor programming and a push to compete rather than a push to move better.). But there is one thing that you cannot ignore. CrossFit has most definitely produced some of the most amazing athletes on the planet, if you love it, you’ll know it. If you hate it, you can’t deny it.
What is my view on CrossFit?
I love it. I do it, I teach it, I program it and I enjoy it. So do many of the people that we train with.
Of course we have many members that have the dream of being the next Rich Froning or Dan Bailey, but of course they need to work their way up. Not only do they need to train efficiently, they need to train smart and of course in order to get good at competing, you need to compete.
So we held our first ever CrossFit UFT competition.
WHAT A DAY!!
It was amazing. There was a lot of preparation to do and a lot of people to get in contact with and a lot to set-up the night before.
With approximately 70 competitors and around 100-200 in the crowd throughout the day, the atmosphere was so intense and so exciting that you just didn’t want to leave.
It’s days like this that you get to see the best part of CrossFit. The passion. The drive and determination of all of the competitors was phenomenal and I can say that I was very pleased with the overall technique of most of the competitors. Was it all perfect? NO. But since when is technique ever perfect in competition? especially at a beginners level? See how long it takes you to find on youtube poor technique in a weightlifting comp, on an athletics track, in a dance performance, etc.
This is definitely something that we will do again (annually), and yes, we have things to improve on, and yes we will continue to strive to create effective programming that is challenging not highly dangerous (anything that has any benefit has a level of danger).
All we can do is continue to educate and improve on our own abilities and if we are trainers/coaches/teachers, we NEED to make sure we are exceeding the expectations of our members/competitors.
And most importantly if you are a competitor or a coach. Listen to your bodies, if you shouldn’t compete, DON’T. Ego’s kill bodies. No matter the sport.
A UFT PLAYground is a place that people of all shapes, sizes and ages learn to develop their movement abilities through an infinite learning and development program. UFT PLAYgrounds have been created to re-inspire our natural ability to move, create, adapt, re-act, connect, have fun and of course PLAY.
PLAYgrounds have been developed to allow people to feel and explore their own abilities by utilising a multidimensional, infinite, creative and PLAYful approach to training.
We live in a world full of specialists and obsessions. At an ever increasing rate, people are specialising more and more, in their jobs, in their businesses, in their sport and in their training. The result, is a backward step in human evolution. By specialising, we limit ourselves to thinking that 1 particular way of doing things is the right way, or the only way.
We promote creativity, not only in movement and training methodologies but in thinking in general.
A UFT PLAYground is created to provide the general public with an opportunity to PLAY across multiple styles of training and moving, to be able to progress in the training methods that they become passionate about or that excites them and to be a part of a community that promotes more than just fitness.
The “fitness” industry above all others has brought about a need to specialise in order to achieve anything, and majority of what we do for “fitness” is for an aesthetically pleasing reason. We understand that aesthetics are nice and we too love to look and feel good. However a UFT PLAYground is developed to allow people to move better than ever before across a broad range of training methodologies and ideas. Aesthetics, therefore are a result not a goal of that system. We know that “If you train to look good, you will not always enjoy what you do, but if you PLAY a lot, and do the things that you love, you will ending up looking good”. Aesthetics should be a result not a goal.
For years now, we have recognised that the best movers on the planet are children. They are flexible, mobile & fit, they have better relative strength than a typical adult (and even most adolescents), they are the best creators and innovators, they learn faster, the adapt better, they interact better with other people, they are more connected to nature and most importantly, they PLAY more than anyone else.
As adults, we tend to believe that because we are taller and more experienced in “life”, we are better, and then we get to an age that says we are “too old to PLAY”. As we grow taller (and in a lot of cases rounder), we experience things that inhibit our ability to move, think and not think. We allow our experiences to limit our abilities as humans, whether it be a physical injury, a story that we heard or a youtube video that we watched. We also allow our emotions to control our behaviour because of our past experiences. Maybe it was the feeling of humiliation when we tried something new, regret when we failed or heart break when it was taken away from us. Because of this, we allow our experiences to control our future instead of learning from them and creating our own
.
This is what UFT PLAYground’s are built on. The understanding that we as humans need to go back to the way things were before our negative experiences took over our subconscious mind and body.
A UFT PLAYground gives people the ability to re-learn what they have lost, as well as develop new sets of skills that will allow them to follow any particular passion that they uncover in PLAYtime. When we PLAY, we are simply, exploring. Through exploring we become curious and through curiosity we become obsessed or passionate about a particular thing. This is why in a PLAYground we allow people to PLAY across a broad range of training systems (minimum of 3), Through this system they are able to identify 1, their current limitations and be educated on how to overcome them, and 2, identify their passions and learn to develop, grow and excel in them.
UFT PLAYgrounds are also a development centre for up and coming entrepreneurs in the fitness industry.
Each PLAYground founder will have been trained and will be continuously trained in UFT’s Trainer Success System.
This system allows personal trainers, coaches, teachers, instructors, etc. to continue to develop in their fields of specialty (as they play they will find it) and in the philosophy of PLAYtime. They will also be trained in the business systems of UFT in order to have their own successful and profitable business.
See UFT Trainer Success System for more details.
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