Flowmaster and self-described “slow learner” Pat Sherwood shares wisdom acquired over six years of CrossFit training.
August marked the end of my sixth year of CrossFit, and let me tell you, it has been one hell of a ride. Since 2005, I’ve gone from watching Greg Amundson’s WOD demos on CrossFit.com while working a real-estate job that I did not enjoy to working for CrossFit Headquarters, teaching Level 1 Seminars and meeting CrossFitters from around the world.
I truly enjoy the many aspects of my current position at CrossFit Headquarters; however, my favorite by far is explaining CrossFit methodologies to an audience. That audience may be a random person I strike up a conversation with on an airplane, 50 to 100 people at a Level 1 Seminar, or tens of thousands of people tuned into the media coverage of the 2011 CrossFit Games.
After six years, I have lots of experiences to share that will hopefully help newer athletes and coaches get on the right path a whole lot sooner than I did. Anything that you can do wrong in CrossFit, I’ve probably done. I’m a slow learner. I usually try to break the wall that is in my way before I decide to go over or around it. So, I’ve decided to share some of my lessons learned in the hope of making other CrossFitters’ learning curves better than mine.