Sentiments From Leigh | A Regionals Wrap Up
Train/Adapt/Evolve=We Are 1
Regionals has come and gone and almost every year, I’ve compared it to Thanksgiving dinner. You plan, prep and cook for what seems like forever and once everything is cooked, the meal is consumed in a fraction of the time spent preparing it. Leaving most retiring to the couch, taking the longest food induced nap, and calling it a day. It’s probably the most anti-climactic holiday ever!
This past weekend was different and I’ve found myself reflecting more upon this year’s competition than previous years and have yet to take my nap! I’ve tried to figure out this difference and the thing that resonates with me is Aaron’s new motto, of ‘Train/Adapt/Evolve.’ Sure it sounds simple. You train, make adaptations and evolve into a better athlete. Repeat cycle. Easy! But this weekend proved this motto to mean much more to me than that.
To Lindsey, Lizzie, Stacey, Andrew, Blaz, Gold and Conner:
On a physical level, I think we all held true to Aaron’s motto. However, based on the demands of this year’s competition we had to train two things that were much harder than any physical test Wes and Aaron put us through; communication and teamwork. Unlike years past, there was no more hiding behind our stronger teammates. We had to learn what worked for the group and also on an individual level. We needed to know each other’s weaknesses, the cues/motivation to give when fatigue set in, use our strengths to make others’ weaknesses stronger, and set egos aside to come together as one.
We also needed to learn both our own and our teammates’ work thresholds during workouts…which movements we could blast through and which movements to lean more on our teammates to perform. We learned to pull each other towards success rather than push. We learned to trust each other’s abilities. Each week we got better…we adapted to the needs of the team and of individuals. We were evolving into one. We established a foundation of trust and camaraderie leading up to Regionals. We were ready!
To Wes and Aaron:
You two were absolutely necessary for this process. Aaron’s motto was present between the two of you. Both with different skill sets, knowledge base and even your personal relationships with each of us, provided a ‘power house couple’ that helped us train for Regionals. Both of you adapted to our needs as a team and as individuals…even our freak out moments were handled flawlessly by the two of you.
The constant feedback, guidance and support provided by the two of you were vital to ensuring our success on the competition floor. Genevieve and I joked about how this year was like choreographing a dance number where everyone had different roles but needed to come together in order to execute the perfect routine. You two ‘choreographed’ our performance with ease and we couldn’t have asked for better support and leadership throughout all of this!
To our community, CFA:
It is all of you who bring this cycle together. Our gym changes on a daily basis with fresh faces popping in but we adapt well to new personalities and accept them with open arms. We are on the same mission to lead healthier/more optimal lifestyles which makes it easy for anyone to fit in. We are constantly evolving into a bigger and better group because of the members it consists of. I’ve seen this community change and for the first time since the 2011 Regionals, it was about ALL of us on that competition floor; collectively, as ONE.
Our other motto, ‘We Are 1’ was established and cultivated these past few months and I saw both the team and community evolve into one unit…especially during this weekend. You all could’ve given up on us. But like every other day in the gym, y’all came together and rallied for us. I never once saw doubt from our fans and if anything, the CFA community helped provide that extra push to finish strong. I watched our team evolve over night. Everything we thought could go wrong on the first day went wrong. We ended up in 30th place (last place). Both our physical and team adaptations came unhinged on the competition floor. However, our fans and community made it clear what was seen on the floor, wasn’t a representation of what we were capable of. After close to two hours of ‘team huddling’ after our workouts on the first day, we came together and made it our mission to fight and gain some ground on the leaderboard. Considering more than half of our total points for the weekend came on the first day of competition, we made up some serious rankings. We ended the weekend tied for 20th!
What I’m trying to convey is I’ve been a member/coach of this gym for over three years. I’ve also been a member of our team for the past four Regionals. Each year, I’ve seen changes from one team dynamic to another. Same goes for our community. But this year was different. We were all on the same page as we have trained, adapted and evolved together.
This is the first year I haven’t looked at Regionals as an ‘end to a year of training.’ Rather, I see it as a ‘warm-up’ for what’s to come next year and am excited to train with the established group of members we have in our gym. Not to mention, work with and learn more from our amazing coaches. Maybe it’s because the process we went through this year and on that competition floor provided a solid foundation of community that is apparent and exciting to build off of!
With that…Thank you to everyone who came out this weekend and cheered us on. Thank you to Wes and Aaron for the time and energy spent on ensuring our success while never giving up on us. Thank you to Adrienne aka ‘Mama Ade’ for hosting fun opportunities for all to come together and also providing perspective during our weaker moments. Thank you to my teammates who turned it around and never gave up! Everyone fought through this weekend and even though CFA didn’t make the top three, our efforts as an entire gym and the support/fight I saw, puts us in first place! I’m proud to be a part of our humble gym and am excited to ‘train, adapt, and evolve’ with all of you! WE ARE 1!!!
Coach Leigh