WARRIOR MINDSET

Fight Club: 250 Sparring & Coaching

by Gene Crawford | Aug 16, 2023

Fight Club: 250 Sparring & Coaching

Coaching: Beautiful

by Gene Crawford | Feb 26, 2018

Beautiful post by one of my athletes:

I’ve been coaching this person for almost a year now, she has just completed her first “CrossFit Open Workout” – if CrossFit has anything like a belt test like we do in Karate ,the Open (5 weeks of the hardest/toughest workouts you’ll do all year) is probably the equivalent to a Green Belt test. 🙂

Here is what she wrote just after her experience this past weekend… I feel like it pretty much sums up what I find (and feeds my soul) through Karate and CrossFit:

Sometimes you have to get to your dark place then push harder than you even knew possible, just to feel how alive you really are.

Today I found my dark place. My first CrossFit Open workout. Ever. And about 14 minutes into a 20 minute workout, I had hit a mental wall. My brain wanted to give up. My body literally bled for mercy. And there I was, in my dark place. I could quit and let myself feel defeated or I could push myself to a new level and prove that physical pain really is temporary. And determination can get me through anything. So I pushed…hard.

At the end of that 20 minutes I figured I would be so exhausted I would think I was dead but honestly, I felt the most alive I have in a long time. Like I had overcome that negative voice in my head and for someone who struggles to overcome my own thoughts every day, that is the ultimate feat to conquer.
So do yourself a favor…find your dark place, the place you think is the farthest you can force yourself to go. Then push past it until you feel so full and alive that you no longer believe the negative voice in your head that says “stop here”.

It’s not about CrossFit or ripping your hands apart, it’s about finding what makes you feel alive.

Couldn’t have done it without such a great coach!