“So what led me to choose individual this year? Honestly, a lot of things have factored in here, but the biggest factors are my mom, my friends who I train with, and a handful of the CrossFit Seminar Staff I work with.”
James Hobart is going back to the CrossFit Games for his sixth consecutive year—his first time as an individual since 2010.
Hobart competed as an individual at The Ranch in Aromas, California, in 2009 and in Carson in 2010, the Games’ inaugural year at the StubHub Center (then Home Depot Center).
For the past three years, he has been an integral part of CrossFit New England team, helping it win the Affiliate Cup in 2011 and take second place behind Hack’s Pack Ute in 2013.
“So what led me to choose individual this year?” Hobart reflected. “Honestly, a lot of things have factored in here, but the biggest factors are my mom, my friends who I train with, and a handful of the CrossFit Seminar Staff I work with.”
He continued: “Last year, they were positive toward me going individual instead of team, but I had my sights set on team. It’s uplifting to have people who believe in you and wish the best for you. The hard part is overcoming the fear of letting them down; what if I compete as an individual and don't make it to the Games? When I competed in 2009 and 2010 as an individual I didn't perform as well as I had wanted to. I let that rule me too much.”
In preparation for the Games season, Hobart lived and trained with three-time CrossFit Games champion Rich Froning in Cookeville, Tennessee, throughout January and February.
“After the regional workouts came out, I didn’t really practice any of the events fully through,” he said. “I was talking to Julie Foucher, and she was talking about running through the workouts. I haven’t been competing as an individual in a while, but CrossFit is so unique—I can only go to that special place and hurt that bad one time, so I save that for competition.”
Hobart would not take the floor at the Reebok Headquarters in Canton, Massachusetts, until the fourth and final week of regionals, giving him plenty of time to mull over the events. It also gave his mother, Lucie Hobart, plenty of time to analyze the performances of top athletes in other regions.
“I kept getting these stressful emails from (my mother),” Hobart said. “’Are you are going to have the capacity to walk down and back halfway again? You know, Sam Briggs did amazing the whole weekend, but that handstand walk really got her.’”
“She also sent me a full breakdown of Kenny (Leverich’s) performance on Event 5,” Hobart added. “It’s been cool watching how involved she has become in CrossFit. I really appreciate it.”
Hobart’s plan going into the North East Regional was simple: Stay in the top 15 for Events 1 and 5 and do his best in the remaining events.
“Everybody is so damn strong now,” Hobart said. “I practiced the hang snatch a lot, just to be consistent. I had hit 250 lb., but 245 lb. was consistent—before a workout, after a workout, I could always hit it. I was happy with it.”
His 245-lb. hang squat snatch was enough to land him in a 13th-place tie and then it was on to the handstand walk.
“I had not walked more than 120 feet in practice,” Hobart said. “I heard them say ‘10 seconds left’ and I made a charge for it. I knew where Austin (Malleolo) was and made a run for it and it didn’t really work.”
Hobart finished the event in second place. He walked 315 feet on his hands, 10 feet less than event winner, Malleolo.
During Nasty Girls V2, Malleolo and Mat Fraser made easy work of the pistols, while Hobart had to break them up into sets of 5 going into the third round. He was able to make up some ground on the muscle-ups and complete the hang power cleans unbroken for a second-place finish on the event, and a second place overall at the end of Day 1.
He started Day 2 with another second-place finish, and moved on to the legless rope-climb event—one that had brought heartbreak to many top athletes in other regions.
“This event has been slipping people on their ass,” Hobart said. “Everyone kept telling me that the workout was about the sprints. Now that I look back at it, I should have sprinted the runs faster.”
A 16th-place tie dropped him into fourth place overall at the end of Day 2, 4 points out of third.
A solid performance on the 50s chipper event brought Hobart back up to third overall going into the last event. He knew he had to stick to his plan and finish in the top 12 for the event if he wanted to end the weekend on the podium. He finished in sixth, took second overall and punched his ticket to Carson.
“It feels great to be going back,” he said. “I’m humbled and excited, and so fortunate to be supported by so many people. So yeah, I’m stoked.”
Since qualifying for the Games, Hobart returned to Tennessee to train with Froning.
“I do all my own programming,” Hobart said. “I steal stuff from Ben (Bergeron) but there is a certain flavor to the main-site WODs that no one else can get. No one programs quite like CrossFit.com.”
Hobart and Froning do multiple workouts a day, often coming up with them on the fly.
“When I’m training with Rich, it’s whatever comes up next,” Hobart said. “We come up with some nasty things, or stuff that comes up through the grapevine.”
Froning finished 26th on The Beach in 2012 and 30th in The Pool in 2013—his two worst finishes of any events at the Games. Hobart and Froning have been swimming at least twice a week.
“We’ve been working with coach Jenna Bekker and it is pretty awesome,” Hobart said. “At this point I don’t think anyone will be surprised to see swimming in the mix. I would be surprised if it didn’t show up. Water has become a huge component at the Games.”
After finding out the Games were starting at the beach, Hobart has been working on open-water swims, remembering how to run in the sand, and making sure he is comfortable getting in and out of the water through waves and surf.
“Swimming is one of the few fitness skills that you can’t bullshit your way through,” he said. “If you don’t have it, and really need it, you are dead. You can’t outsmart the swim.”
Hobart is excited about the other possibilities a beach workout may bring.
“When I saw that the first workout was going to be at the beach, we started thinking about benchmark WODs,” Hobart said. “They did Naughty Nancy last year and Nasty Girls V2 at regionals. What about Kelly in the sand with a mix of run and swim? Kelly is already brutal. Imagine if they did that—just simple CrossFit movements.”
After three years competing on a team, Hobart does not feel alone competing as an individual.
“There is still so much camaraderie competing as an individual,” Hobart said. “The regional would be 100 percent less fun without the community. Hopefully I can be something inspirational as a competitor. I want to represent what it is we do every day, and the people who are in gyms every day.”
Video by: Torin Simpson
