Think Tank

Plotting His Next Move

I think we can all agree that if our ancestors had been complete imbeciles we probably would not have evolved into the species that we are today.
Cue flashback to back in the day, which was a Wednesday in the Paleolithic period by the way, and you will find a simple contest with severe consequences, man versus nature. Now, I understand there were women back in the day, thank god, but for the sake of narrative the only resources man had were his hands, his physical well being, his knowledge of the environment he lived in and the species that inhabited it, any rudimentary tools he had constructed or found, and finally his ability to put all of the above together into a pot that produced continued existence. If we looked at these characteristics of Paleolithic survival like we look at the 10 General Physical Skills of CrossFit we would immediately see the neurological components of survival. We can all agree that if man couldn’t think then man wouldn’t survive. Our cunning was in fact, arguably, our most important tool. Hop back in the DeLorean and head back to the present day. The society we have been brought up in has stagnated or even actively repressed our innate abilities to problem solve and transform questions into answers. From Pre-K on to post-secondary education, if we have a question we politely raise our hands and receive the answer from the all knowing instructor. This often devolves into over-reliance on another’s abilities to know what is supposed to be going on, thus giving us more time to think about more important things like how our fantasy football team did or what is happening with Brangelina and TomKat this week. Why think it through ourselves when all we have to do is raise our hand and have the solution given to us on a silver platter? So we cruise through life, making sure we meet the necessary bullet points in the curriculum and eventually get to wherever we are going. Now turn the table around, or even better take the table, flip it over, and hack it into pieces for firewood. Imagine a situation that has gone tits up and all the amenities of the “real world” are gone. Do you want to put your life in the hands of someone that you can out think? I know for damn sure I don’t. If we inadvertently find ourselves back in the realm of man versus nature or even worse every man for themselves, man versus man, I sure as shit don’t want to have to look at the person next to me and think “I really hope they know what we need to be doing.”
Insert CrossFit.
We are putting cunning back into our vocabularies and getting those problem solving synapses firing again. But for some this transition is hard and takes time and diligence from both trainer and athlete. We’ve all heard the adage “If you can’t breath or see you can’t fight”. But one thing is for certain, If you can’t think you won’t survive long enough to even get to worrying about breathing and seeing. In CrossFit, like in the real world i.e the world where a fuck up means no longer existing, you have to keep your mind in the game and your head on a swivel. Even if you are hitting the wall, groping to turn off the pain switch you still have to actively engage your mind and retain the necessary points of performance to successfully complete the task. If you don’t push that load away from you, like in OHS or HSPUs, you’re going to have a bad day real fast. If you don’t focus on extending your knees on the upswing of the GHD situp, you are going to be one hurt pup. You can apply this principle to any and all movements engaged in within the confines of any CrossFit gym. You can apply it to the broader spectrum of all activities engaged in within your life. If you can’t think, you’re just another sheep waiting for slaughter. We are training to do the common uncommonly well, and most common of all is our ability to look at a problem and come up with a solution, or create a question then sort through our existing knowledge to come to an answer.
Now this is not an appeal to no longer seek advice from those you believe to possess more knowledge or insight than you, trainers and mentors are there for a reason. The collective’s problem solving skills are 9.9 times out of 10, stronger and faster than the individuals. And if you don't seek out trainers and mentors you respect then you'll end up always being an FNG, and that is historically speaking, extremely detrimental to your life expectancy.
And I'm definitely not advocating that we all start exploring quantum physics, building homemade energy particle accelerators, or having nerdgasms over the algorithms of sudoku. Instead realize that the question you are about to ask, you likely already know the answer to. And the problem that seems insurmountable, has a solution; as long as you have the will to take a moment to assess the environment around you.
Engage your mind and your ass will follow.
-whit.