Anyone that knows me can pretty much attest to the fact that I have a special place in my heart for anyone who has served in the U.S. Military or as a First Responder. Simply put, I truly respect those that put their lives in line with danger in order to save, prevent or protect others from harm. One thing that the CrossFit Community does very well is to recognize and honor those men and women that perform their duty in the most dangerous of environments. In my opinion, and hopefully yours, the military and the first responders for this great country deserve mad props as often as possible and it's my intention to recognize this every chance I get. It doesn't matter where I am, I go out of my way to personally thank the elder veteran donning the "Veteran" baseball cap or the active duty service member that I spot in uniform somewhere I happen to be. I teach my children to do the same. This is my Patriotic duty as an American....period.
As a Coach at New Species CrossFit I have been awarded the opportunity to program 2 days every week for our athletes, thank you Josh Hunnicutt! One of those days happens to be Friday, and it is a very special day for our CrossFit box. If you go to www.unleashtheevolution.com and look on any Friday, you'll see it referred to as "Forged Friday". The programming volume is always larger on "Forged Friday" as it is the very least we can do as athletes to honor the men and women that defend our nation's freedom. Just before we W.O.D., the coach reads the obituary from the Valor section of Military Times or a simple passage from a "HERO" in history. Sometimes the reading is about a current event that one of our athletes brings to our attention. I find it very refreshing that together, New Species athletes find it so important to NEVER FORGET and to HONOR with best efforts of physical and mental strength on these days.
I love it when there is a happy energetic buzz at New Species CrossFit. To witness like-minded individuals come together for similar purpose is.......well, it's just really fucking cool! On a different level, it's a great thing to see a country come together. We notice this most during times of tragedy such as 9/11 or more recently the Boston Marathon bombings. Our country seems to pull together in times of need. It's a shame we can't seem to stay together once the smoke clears post these horrible occurrences. I'm not going to pile on this topic, but how crazy is it that as a society we have witnessed a new era of INSTANT NEWS thanks to social media. Who wasn't listening to the Watertown man-hunt on Friday? I don't care who you are....unless you were James Vreeland (FREAK) - enduring GoRuck Selection 005 (CONGRATS YOU SICK BASTARD) - you could not get away from it! Nowhere to hide. Taking that forward, our friend James was out doing something positive. Something that can inspire others to do great things. Something that former U.S. Military Spec Ops personnel have designed for the civilian to better themselves. If only for a brief moment in time as comparison, I can only imagine the good/bad/ugly YET positive mental training and physical tests that the GoRuck participants glean from their experience in the "Cadre". Judging by the progress updates on Facebook of his endeavor, we had a good many of our gym locked into supporting him from afar. By observance, Mr. Vreeland's ability to challenge himself went beyond where most will consider taking themselves. Don't get me wrong, we challenge the shit out of ourselves with CrossFit programming, day in and day out.....looking at it this way allows us to hopefully see that the practice of difficult tasks can expose life at it's positive best! I believe that keeping life as positive as possible is a key to survival. Embracing difficulty should be a regular thing. Testing oneself in various ways is a necessity and a must in life's journey. The survival that I refer to is not just maintenance and living, but growing and persevering and looking for more. Testing yourself to get better......at LIFE.
There seems to be a reciprocal understanding in the athlete/coach relationship within New Species and hopefully at your gym too. It's quite simple actually, and most, if not all of the NS athletes have experienced it. It goes something like this; If you care about yourself and your well being as a person and as an athlete, then you'll typically apply the athletic and mental skills learned to your advantage in order to become better at any number of things. Some of these skills can be applied to life. Through that channel, who can honestly say that they are not better at something in their life because of CrossFit? To the person that doesn't CrossFit, well you're probably saying "what a bunch of elitist assholes!" Yeah, well fuck you! Ha! There, I said it...... if you haven't tried it you will just never know..... I know, thick fucking Kool-Aid right? But it's true - the shit that we do when we throw down in the confines of New Species is really fucking hard!! The benefit of all that shit is that it can make some of life seem a lot more palatable, not to mention as one of our athletes likes to say "it'll keep you FUCKABLE" - I didn't say that....I'm not that original and I can't make that shit up!
Thanks for listening to the Johnny rant! Here's the takeaway - Let's stay together as a community and as a country (as best as we can). Put as much of the political bullshit aside.... or all of it. Coexistence can be very trying and super difficult in these times, but I think historically it's probably always been this way. That doesn't mean that you just accept it. Instead, continue to evolve.....for the better. Keep the physical and mental tests coming. Face your fears. Do positive shit. Help someone. Thank someone. Teach someone. Test yourself or go outside of your comfort zone and you might like what you find. I'm walking a few different paths these days myself in the hopes of improving my mental and physical performance. I'll share those horror stories with you some other time as I have no idea what the outcomes will be.
W.O.W. - W.O.D. Of the Week
I pulled a "Lone Wolf" session @ 0600 on Saturday - Still walking funny....no shit....worth it!
"Manion" - Be a Patriot and honor this Hero!
LINK: http://www.crossfit.com/mt-archive2/007762.html
Until next time...... STAY PRESENT -Fuck the past and don't worry about the future.
Peace - Johnny
No comments:
Post a Comment