“ From the beginning, the aim of CrossFit has been to forge a broad, general and inclusive fitness. We sought to build a program that would best prepare trainees for any physical contingency—prepare them not only for the unknown but for the unknowable.”
– Greg Glassman
(CrossFit Journal, Issue 56)
This past weekend we were invited to participate in the Waterford Dragon Boat Festival to raise funds in support of ToLife!. They are an amazing organization we’ve been fortunate enough to have a long standing relationship with.
In years past we’ve held our own fundraiser for ToLife! but since covid put an end to that we have yet to reestablish the annual event, so we were very excited to paddle for a great cause!
Aside from learning that Dragon Boat racing is way more fun and intense than anticipated, I had a few very interesting takeaways from the day.
CrossFit Spur initially got involved with ToLife! because of the many commonalities they share.
Both exist to improve the lives of those they work with.
Both provide a supportive atmosphere of like minded people.
Both help others face and overcome adversity by adapting.
The last sentence of Fitness in 100 Words (poster hanging by the bathrooms) says “Regularly learn and play new sports.” This is the first thing that came to mind when I heard about the race. Not a single one of our 21 person team had ever been in a Dragon Boat. Many had never even heard of a dragon boat. As a coach I saw this as a great opportunity to test the methodology we utilize which is supposed to prepare us for the unknown and unknowable.
The night before the event we had an opportunity to practice, however a lightning storm prevented us from doing so. Instead our amazing instructor Cathy ran us through some safety measures and reviewed the basics of paddling and racing in a Dragon Boat. Slightly confused, still unsure of what to expect and a little damp we all headed home excited to see what the next day would bring.
Race Day:
The weather was a bit dreary but everyone was still excited to get in a boat and give it a try. We were also a bit nervous as some of the teams showed up with matching jerseys, custom paddles, seat pads, team tents and were running warm up drills in the lawn. Some of the teams participating were club teams who had traveled to be there and had their own boats. Apparently this was a little more competitive than I had anticipated, but competition is something we thrive on so I thought we may be able to use this to our advantage.
Our first race wasn’t great.
The steersperson (person at the back using a large wooden paddle as a rudder) who was provided by the organization running the event didn’t quite explain things the way Cathy had the night before. This resulted in a very confused and unorganized CrossFit Spur team. There was an abundance of splashing, paddles smacking into each other and a lot of “what did he say?” coming from the front of the boat.
The key to a successful boat is having everyone work together. Every paddle must enter the water, pull hard, exit the water and return the forward position in unison for every single stroke. Not doing so results in a very inefficient and slow boat. Not to mention a very soggy crew.
We somehow placed second of the three boats in our heat. Feeling excited about the second place finish, but slightly frustrated at the communication breakdown we headed back to our tent. Team discussion revolved around our steersperson not doing a great job of guiding us as a group of paddlers with no prior experience.
Then, someone from the team said “we’re used to taking direction from you”. This got me thinking. I’m not a Dragon Boat coach, but I am a coach who gets to work with my team every day. I know the physical and mental strengths of my team. I know how they respond to my coaching and I know how to push them to succeed. This was a great opportunity for me to step up as a coach and see if I could use our strengths to adapt and overcome the challenges we faced in our first race.
I gathered the team, organized into our seat positions on the grass and had everyone sit in place. We put our drummer in a chair at the front of the line with a cooler as a drum and we practiced our paddle position, timing, communication, rhythm and pace. We knew how hard we can push for just over one minute and we were all confident it was harder than those we were competing against.
With a plan set and a new found confidence we headed back to the dock for race two. As we headed down the ramp we realized the steersperson on our boat was Cathy! We were already excited, but this put our team over the top. I told Cathy our plan. She was on board and as excited as we were.
When the horn sounded we stuck to our plan. Moving in sync, sticking with our pace, keeping our focus ahead and running our race. Cathy was counting us out each stroke “one, two, three, four, five!” as the team chanted “stroke!” with each pull to keep us together. Just like any class at CrossFit Spur we all pushed ourselves, suffering together while headed toward the same finish line. As we crossed we heard the announcer call CrossFit Spur as the winner.
It worked.
With two races complete we were sitting in second place overall and had made it to the championship. While we were all very pumped with our performance I knew we still had to keep it together in order to get through one more race. We had one final team meeting, practiced on the lawn one more time and felt more confident than ever in our plan. I’m sure many people reading this have heard me say “slow is smooth, smooth is fast” on more than one occasion. Never had that been more applicable than our final race.
We lucked out one more time and had Cathy behind us for our final race. This time when the horn sounded we all knew exactly what to do. We held it together, pulling and yelling in unison. This time as we approached the finish no one was yelling louder than Cathy, demanding we give a little more as we pushed past the finish line.
Once we crossed and came up for air no one was 100% sure who won. There was so much noise in and out of the boat we couldn’t really hear the announcer. It seemed we were neck and neck with the boat next to us, so we listened intently to the announcer as we began turning back to the dock. A few seconds later we clearly heard CrossFit Spur announced as the champion and somehow avoided capsizing our boat as we celebrated in the middle of the river.
While CrossFit as a sport is considered primarily individual, CrossFit classes provide an atmosphere of teamwork. Each individual has their own “score” at the end of the workout, but everyone is aimed at the same goal. It’s not uncommon for athletes to cheer for one another in the middle of a class, encouraging everyone to put forth their best effort.
The physical preparedness we’ve built through many hours of constantly varied, high intensity, functional movement (aka – CrossFit) had clearly helped us when faced with an unknown physical challenge. But, the community bond built within the walls of CrossFit Spur is what carried our team to victory.
Here’s a link to a video of the final race where we came from behind to finish first!
Championship Race
(championship race finish line photo below)
