Affiliate Cup teams work to adapt to the adversity of the CrossFit Games.
Carson, California—Rich Froning sat dejected in a converted storage room in the Templehof Airport in Berlin, Germany. His muscular shoulders sagged, and his eyes looked as empty as the cavernous hangar outside the room.
Beside him, Val Voboril still had tears in her eyes. Jason Khalipa looked disoriented and shocked, like an MMA fighter who had just been summoned from knockout by smelling salts and a sharp slap to the face.
It was Oct. 26, 2013, and Team USA had just lost to Team World at the CrossFit Invitational. Boasting five of six podium athletes from the 2013 Reebok CrossFit Games, Team USA had been a lock to win the competition, but somehow Froning tasted bitter defeat for the first time in years.
After the event, while the members and coach of Team World talked about having a weaker team that sought to capitalize on superior communication and strategy, Team USA talked about being outplayed, about not training together enough.
In Berlin, the three-time CrossFit Games champ learned a valuable lesson that will help him when he enters team competition again, as he says he will after this year’s CrossFit Games.
“It’s a completely different event when you have to come together like that,” Froning said. Then he dropped his eyes to the table.
Teams vs. Groups of Athletes
Can a true team beat a more talented collection of individuals?
Some athletes at the CrossFit Games say it can.
If she could improve the athletes on her team by 10 percent or improve their teamwork by 10 percent, Jennie McKernan of Rocklin CrossFit said she would choose the bump in teamwork.
“We all work out together all the time, we all know each other, and we all get along, so we all understand it’s a team, not each other,” said David Richman, McKernan’s teammate.
Viktor Larsson of CrossFit Falun said he would choose an increase in athleticism—with a qualifier: “Because we have pretty good teamwork. I think we got here on teamwork.”
If you watch the teams at the CrossFit Games compete, it’s immediately obvious when members are on the same page. Smooth squads move with precision, switching plates like NASCAR pit crews and calling cadence like drill sergeants. The members know their duties and execute them on time.
Teams that don’t communicate are as obvious as train wrecks. They make events chaotic as they look at each other in confusion and forget the plan. Like a ’90s boy band one beat out of sync, their movements look jagged and random.
After all six teammates swam a rescue sled 1,000 yards on the first day, while the second day of the team competition opened with a relay run that had partners linked together by a length of rope. The Frantasy Land, Big Bob and Deadlift events forced athletes to communicate constantly with their mates. Later in the weekend, a modified version of the Worm will test competitors as they squat and perform burpees in unison. And there will be other challenges as the Games weed out the groups that have no claim to the Affiliate Cup.
“Everything’s been teamwork … . If you’re a great swimmer, you have to pull the sled with everybody else, the rescue sled. If you’re a great runner, you’ve got a partner,” said Alex Howard of Physics CrossFit.
“We train together at least probably a minimum of three times a week as a whole team, and we’ve done a lot of workouts with either synchronized burpees or just lots of teamwork where communication is really emphasized,” he said. “And we’ve usually got someone who’s in charge for every workout who’s calling out the reps and making sure that everybody’s on the same page.”
Many teams train the same way, drilling plate switches, practicing transitions, determining when partners need to rest and how they’ll communicate. But the best-laid plans seldom survive a CrossFit competition intact.
And that’s where the good teams shine and real teamwork is revealed. How do teams rise above an error to adjust and adapt on the fly? How do teammates react to stress and pressure? What happens when the shit hits the Fran?
Things went wrong on July 25 for Backcountry CrossFit when one athlete went out too hard on his portion of the work required for Frantasy Land, according to team member Becky Conzelman. The group finished 28th and was forced to regroup quickly for the events that followed.
“We talked about it, learned from it and moved on to the next event,” said Conzelman, who finished 14th in the Games in 2012 as an individual.
Instead of dwelling on the disappointment, her team pulled together and was one of only 14 to finish Big Bob 200, taking 11th on the event.
CrossFit Atlanta had problems of its own.
“We had some communication issues. Let’s just say that,” said Michael Giardina, whose team finished 25th on Frantasy Land. But there’s no time to mope and point fingers at the CrossFit Games.
“You’ve just got to clear it out of your head and get ready for the next event,” he said.
Indeed, CrossFit Atlanta came back to take second in Big Bob 200.
In the Deadlift event, Brick CrossFit took 42nd in the men’s half. Member Jarett Perelmutter said it wasn’t going to be the team’s strongest event anyway, but confusion on the platform made the score worse than it could have been.
Brick had a loading plan to get the bar to the correct weight, but members got thrown off by the red 55-lb. plates next to the blue 45s. Perelmutter said the team doesn’t train with reds, and things went sideways. But adapting to adversity is the hallmark of great teams.
“Things go weird, you start to communicate in the heat of the action … . You just have to trust ’em that they know what’s best, and through communication you can get ’em back on track,” said Perelmutter.
Giardina agreed, summing up the entire Affiliate Cup competition in three words: “Communication is huge.”
At the conclusion of the CrossFit Games on July 27, you’ll see six great athletes holding the Affiliate Cup, but you’ll also see six people who learned from their errors, communicated from start to finish and stuck together as a team.
All for one, one for all.
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