AFSCrossFit, Andover - Gym Talk

Read more at www.afscrossfit.com

I’ve been thinking about writing this blog for about a week now.  My original reason was going to basically be a huge rant about the why’s and where fore’s of the Dominance series but also the worrying factors I keep seeing happening throughout the UK CrossFit scene.  For those of you unaware as to what the Dominance Series was it was basically a CrossFit League.  The country was split into something like 13 territories and you had to travel or host a team from within your territory each week and pay £100 for the privilege.  The competition kicked off over 11 months ago now and month by month the numbers in our territory dwindled.   We had two teams entered and I have to be honest my team dropped out on the release of a WOD with rolly polly’s in it.  I had to question the programming at this time and to be honest it was becoming an ever increasing ball ache not only to organise a fixture but to be able to get all the players in the same place at the same time.  Needless to say it was still a joy to hear Ryan “Boz” Tilley shimpf like fuck after doing the rolly polly’s.  So the journey started but there was never a specific end goal.  I know I had no idea if there was a final and what that would consist of.  Anyway the league finished a couple of months ago and we were discussing its merits with some guys from Nottingham so I decided to message the organisers and get an update, here is what I sent and the reply:

• Gareth Millings: Hi ME, Can you give me an update as to what is happening with the dominance series and what the end game is for the comp


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  ME: The regular season finished with the last workout in May. The top team in each territory compete in a final. I don’t think there were any from your box

  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  Gareth Millings: I appreciate that no-one from our box has qualified however there are a lot of people I have spoken to wondering what is going on and what they signed up for.  It might be worth firing out an update.

  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  ME: They signed up for a 9 month season which they have all taken part in – it was a online league not a qualifier.  The top team in each territory is invited to a final just as is explained on the website. There is nothing to send out as a update yet until I have confirmed the finer details of the final WOD and got the online scoreboards and sponsors in place.

  
  

  
  

  As you can see I was left in no doubt as to what was happening, kinda.  At this point I just said fuck it.  Its finished and after 11 months if there is no final organised and no sponsors then lesson learned.   That was until a blog update was published on the website (Read It).  Now taking into account that apparently an update wasn’t necessary I was intrigued as to what was being written about.  Low and behold we have a full breakdown of the winners.  Some rhetoric about working alone on the project and the difficulty that this created.  It also went on to talk about the final.  Now this whole project was geared around building the CrossFit community (Once again I can see Ryan rolling his eyes LMAO).  So what better way to bring the community together then by bringing everyone together for a final throwdown.  I don’t know maybe ask Train Manchester or one of the bigger boxes to host it centrally and get everyone together.  Don’t charge, don’t charge spectators just a good old fashioned throwdown.  Sounds good YES? Sounds Old School YES? No wait what we will do is we will publish a WOD and you will submit a video online.  What an absolute anti climax.  9 Months of WODS, 2 months of nothing then an online video submission.  I couldn’t be more excited about the prospect of next years competition….Meanwhile with 260+ teams having paid £100 pounds each apparently publishing a website, answering a few emails and publishing a WOD once per month is quite challenging for just shy of a 3grand wage per month.

  
  

  
  

  After following CrossFit for nearly 9 years and seeing the original games in Aromas and the growth of CrossFit it is becoming more and more apparent that money is all that people are interested in.  T-shirt Quality is shocking, some of the equipment I see is terrible.  More importantly people are throwing events together and just expecting the CrossFIt Community to ignore the bad organising, the incredible lack of communication for what is incorporated in the events and what is expected and I feel like people are walking away from a lot of events dissatisfied but never say.  I guess the old adage that people talk with their feet holds true however with the exponential growth new CrossFitters are going to continue to get ripped off until some one says something.  So I say this,  if you are going to run a competition then make sure you cover all the bases.  You are running an event, not having a reunion, or a jolly with your mates you are charging people and therefore providing a service and an experience so stay on point.  Don’t charge £20 a spectator when we are all crammed into a 1500sq ft box 6deep shoulder to shoulder.  That’s just outrageous.  Spectators are the atmosphere of any comp.  If they are having to put up with cattle class facilities they should pay those prices.  I think BOL’13 was £25 for a weekend and that was in an international standard venue the standard has been set.  No-one gets more annoyed then by inconsistent judging.  If you can’t provide this don’t hold a comp. Why not tell people what they are going to do.  We don’t need the format but the exercises are crucial.  A great example was at Box Rocks recently.  One WOD had Over Box Jumps involved.  To my utter distain someone actually asked what was involved.  We then spent 10 minutes discussing a fucking box jump.  It was bad enough that someone was stupid enough to ask, but what made it worse was the organiser changed the standards and that resulted in confusion during the WOD.  All this could have been avoided by a simple standards video and would have saved I would estimate 2hours worth of meaningless questions about basic CrossFit moves.  This Strength in Depth competitions is firing out updates and videos all over the place and I’m already confident they will run a good comp, as its costing £200 to enter then a further £900 to go to the final it certainly needs to be.  (If those costs are wrong then feel free to blast me).  We recently went to the Primal Games Comp run by CrossFit Plymouth.  100 teams, 7 WODs that every team took part in, £100 to enter, with only a club to the winner was without doubt one of the best comps I’ve been to and over ran by 25mins which was not bad at all.  That and the Battle of London, although on two totally different scales are leading the way by a mile.  I look forward to the Premier Fitness League online comp which already looks like marginalising the Dominance Series not only with the ease of format, the cost of £45/team, there are actually prizes for first place each week, but also the fact I’ve emailed them twice and had a very thorough answer back on the same day.   Keep it up guys!!

  
  

  
  

  So that was my original reason for blogging a week ago but as you can see I have calmed down since and moved on from it.  The new reason to blog was to give you all the heads up on the next 6weeks or so.  Today saw us have our first Open/Bring a Friend day.  The idea of this was to grow our little gym.  I could make up some stuff about Community but Ryan has probably already deleted me off Facebook ;).  On a serious note we have developed a really tight group of members.  As each week passes I can really see the the newer members starting to get comfortable and start to add their little bit of character to the place.  Beth and her favourite band – Dying Foetus was a true moment of genius and Jamie’s Bootcampers are starting to chops off as if they own the joint.  You, the members are the heart and soul of our little gym and to be honest we rely heavily on you guys to bring people in.  For all the advertising and all the flyer drops, word of mouth is by far the most effective way for us to spread our message as CrossFit is so difficult to explain in 30seconds.  Have a go in the comments section lets see who gives it the best go.  I’m sure I can come up with a t-shirt for the winner.  We have a certain style, as you can see by this blog,  it’s a little old school, swearing and speaking our minds is pretty much what we are about.  I personally have trouble with giving any kind of positive comments when there is nothing positive to say, I call it how it is.  Oh and don’t worry more then a few people have told me how shit I am at this.  Some people will cry and leave, others will tell me to Fuck Off and prove me wrong.  Dave “Slug” Allen popped home after moving to Gloucester and joining CrossFIt Glevum and came in for a workout.  Afterwards we had a catch up and he said something very profound “Glevum is nice, But its missing something.  No one ever calls me a c**t from across the gym” we laughed and he continued “But when you do get a “GOOD JOB” when you get it right here you know you have earned it”.  So the truth is when we run these open days we appreciate that you are supporting us, and we also don’t want to let you guys down.  I know when I put my name to something and it goes wrong I take it personally.  We are looking to run these days every month if possible and would really like you guys to help us grow the AFS community.

  
  

  
  

  So what’s coming up? I hear you ask.

  
  

  1 MONTH FREE TRIAL – The idea of the open day was to give people a taste of CrossFit, get them interested and sign them upto our 1 month free trial starting August 2nd.  This includes a full introduction to CrossFit and access to all of our classes over August including the Yoga and Mobility, Barbell Club and of course CrossFit.  If you would like to sign up or know someone who is keen then please point them to the website www.afscrossfit.com and sign them up on our bookings page.  We have 5spaces available and are always able to squeeze a couple more in if needed.  Again please spread the word and help us grow.

  
  

  AUGUST 16th – MUSIC IN THE PARK – Andover Rugby Club are holding a community day and we have entered the touch rugby competition.  We need 12 players so if you want to come along, have a laugh and drink a little Pimms join in.  There is talk of a fitness comp so we can take that on as well.

  
  

  AFS CUP – On Saturday 6 September we have our first in house comp at our new home.  The AFS Cup is a pairs competition open to all gym members.  We have seeded our better athletes so they can’t team up to level the playing field and encourage everyone to get involved.  We did the first WOD on Sunday and I have to say it was a nice little warm up and nothing any of you will be scared of.  So please get involved, take a punt on yourself and you never know, you might just actually enjoy putting all that fitness you have been grafting away developing to the test

  
  

  
  That’s my blog.  Its longer then war and peace so I’m sorry.  If you got this far you must enjoyed it I guess.  The guys in Wales probably think I’m a proper c**t if they have read this but they wont be the first or the last to think that.   Maybe my head is up my arse a bit far thinking this may even get viral.

  
  

  
  Give em Hell TAFS

  
  

  G-Unit OUT

  
  

  
  
  
  

 

AFSCrossFit, Andover - Gym Talk