As a very short, small-framed kid, I was not very good at team sports (baseball, football, basketball — really anything with a ball). In fact, I had spent most of my life running away from these sports and the people who played them. So I took up running cross country and track, both individual sports. There was a factor involved that I didn’t realize at first: Not only could you place as an individual, but your school could place as a team.
You’re probably thinking, “How does an individual sport have a team component?” Well, that all depended on the number of people that showed up. We were a small school, so most events were not full. That meant if you just showed up and did your best, you gave your school a chance at the team award. Our coaches reminded us of this daily.
I was not the fastest runner, so I showed up to give my team a chance. Our school won quite a few meets because we showed up. This was my introduction to the power of group exercise, and I didn’t see this again until I found CrossFit where I saw it everyday.
We want you to show up. That’s most important.
We’ll use every trick in the book to get you there.
We don’t expect you to win the workout.
If you don’t show, the team has the feels over it. Seriously, people ask “Where’s Amy?” if you’re not at noon group.
One of the best parts about being on a team is watching people show off their superpower (or even FIND their superpower if they haven’t discovered it yet.) Yes, being in a tangible atmosphere of excitement, support, and love for what we do, it really does bring out superpowers.
So every February, we play a big game with thousands of other gyms. We call it the Intramural Open, and while the workouts come from CrossFit Headquarters, the Intramural Open, “Friday Night Lights,” is all about the superheroes at CrossFit Mattoon.
In the Open, we divide the gym into teams. Everyone gets drafted. Then the Captains use their dark magic (mostly sweet Facebook messages, hugs and funny t-shirts) to get you to show up for six workouts.
Every week, a new workout is released. They’re tough, but scalable for any level, and we’ll cheer for you no matter what.
On the last week, we get to choose a special challenge. And our challenge in 2018 is … let’s just say the fun of the challenge, plus celebrating the last 5 weeks of doing something we never thought we could do as adults – well, you won’t soon forget it!
If your team wins, you’ll get bragging rights for a year and some other cool stuff. If you lose–well, no one really loses.
That’s the power of Intramural play, and we do it every single day.