My First CrossFit Competition — Sweat-it Training

In this piece, we follow the journey of SweatIT member Charlotte Dartnell in her first-ever individual fitness competition. She speaks about her preparation for the event, she shares her key takeaways from the experience and the physical and emotional demands of competition. SweatIT coach Matt Tyler adds his own insight into Charlotte’s performance both on and off the competition floor. Matt is an experienced athlete, competing all over the country and offers valuable advice to strategise recovery and execution for optimal performance. Between the two recounts, learn what it takes to test your fitness - from preparation to participation. Enjoy.

The Lead Up to Ragnarok

Matt:

Ragnarok is the annual individual event run by Battle for the Middle Ground. It was the first time I got to send two athletes I coach to a competition final, and Charlie was one of them. Charlie showed an interest in wanting to compete individually after a couple of exposures in a team situation. 'Pick it up, put it down’ and ’Turf Games Winter Festival’ during the winter of 2021-22, where she was in a team of 4 and 5, both mixed. Team competition is good fun and great exposure for those interested in competitive fitness as you’re typically with your mates and all in it together. From the travel up, to the travel home. When you decide to compete individually it's a different beast. In the sport of Crossfit, competitions will typically involve some online qualifiers in which you have to complete a series of workouts from your own gym. You’ll then video them and submit them for external verification. If you are within the top ‘X’ amount, you receive an invite to the in-person finals. This gives the competition some credit and ensures the best of each category have a chance to battle it out, rather than anyone and everyone.

Leading up to the qualifiers Charlie booked a chat with myself to discuss how she could have some more help. She wanted to have a go at an individual event but she didn’t feel prepared for some of the movements that may come up. A great trait of Charlie is that she isn’t afraid to throw herself into the deep end. She had already signed up for the qualifiers before our chat. There was a possibility, however, that she may need to perform some gymnastics movements she had never done before, and also some higher-skilled Olympic weightlifting movements that would be new to her too. Myself and Tom had a chat about how we could cater for Charlie to do some more work with us here at SweatIT, but for the best results short term, it would need to happen outside of the small group environment. Some 1-2-1 focus for her, some more technical coaching on the weightlifting and gymnastics front, and then some personal programming to iron out some areas of importance.

As noted, Charlie had never submitted official online qualifiers before. She did the Crossfit open in February with the coaches at SweatIT but only as experience of doing externally programmed workouts and a chance to compare to others of similar ability. She dealt with the pressure of the qualifiers really well and stayed composed throughout the weeks in which these were being submitted. She stuck to her training those weeks, she gave each qualifier her best effort without overthinking it, and never got distracted from our main priority - which was to have fun and enjoy the experience of something new.

Finding out she qualified for the final was great. She deserved it and had worked so hard for it. Not missing a session although she was buying her first house and decorating it, working away from home, and having to drop into gyms all over the country she had never been to before were just a couple of obstacles she overcame. We had loads of fun with the training leading up to the comp. Typically you get 10-12 weeks build-up from qualifiers to finals. This gave us so much time to work on bits she needed to. Only building her confidence.

Competition Day

Charlotte:

Waking up I wasn’t feeling as nervous as I thought I would have been, I got a great night's sleep and was ready for the day ahead. I felt as prepared as I could have been... minus taking a week off to go to a festival... Matt T from SweatIT had spent the last few months tailoring my programme to get me the most competitive I could be, with lots of voice notes, messages and sweaty fitness. It was time for it all to come together in one day of fitness with 4 workouts. Even though he couldn’t be there to support me on the day I felt the support from afar with the last-minute tactic talks the week before as the workouts were released.

Arriving on my own felt weird, but that feeling didn’t last long as Abi, who was also competing, and her partner Matt finally turned up! We set up camp just in front of our lanes, which happened to be right next to each other. Both buzzing with nervous excitement energy for the day to begin wondering what we got ourselves into.

Matt:

Unfortunately how the dates fell, I was unable to travel with the girls to watch them compete at the finals in July however I also think this was a little bit of a blessing in disguise for them. I already said that our main goal was about having fun and gaining experience. Moving up or down the leaderboard was almost irrelevant. We just wanted them to have a foot in the door and see if this scene was for them. With the girls being on their own, it meant they had a true reflection of this without any bias from my side. I did however ensure I stayed in contact with them not only leading up to the event but during the weekend too. Just to help with some reassurance or offer some advice for the upcoming workouts.

Expectations & Realities

Matt:

Being involved in the competition scene since 2018, it's hard to remember back to what 'first competition feelings' were like. It is also hard to not overload our clients with loads of information or ‘what to expects’ when what they really need to do, is have a quick unguided lap around the track themselves to get a feel for it.

Charlotte:

The first workout came around quickly, warming up in the athlete’s area was a different experience, I’m used to training alone with all the additional sessions I’ve completed at SweatIT, but exercising with LOADS of people around who didn’t want to interact was a strange feeling. Walking out onto the competition floor, any nerves I had disappeared I was ready and wanted to prove to myself all that hard work, and late nights were not for nothing. After finishing the first workout I was pleased with my efforts, I felt like I had given everything I had. Coming off the floor to our seats all I could think was, three more to go, need to eat something. Good recovery was something all my coaches at SweatIT stressed to me about. Although none of them could have prepared me for how difficult it was to actually eat anything when you’re in that environment.

It was my turn to cheer Abi on, I don’t usually get to see her train so watching her compete was very special. Being a coach at SweatIT she has an influence on my training, but seeing her give everything reaffirmed her position as my role model and someone I can aspire to. As the day went on we were getting encouragement messages from the SweatIT family back in Crowborough who were eagerly watching our progress on the leaderboard, and tips/instructions from Matt T to ensure we ate and drank enough to sustain the day.

We watched the elite athletes max out their Olympic lifts between our workouts, which was incredible. The females that were competing were insane with the amount of weight they were chucking about. The atmosphere when they made the lift was electric. It was soon time for the last workout, I was glad that I had 10 minutes between me and chilling out, but also sad that the day would be over. The last WOD felt like the hardest one because I was physically and mentally exhausted by then, but it didn’t stop me from giving it everything. Overall, I really enjoyed the day it was like nothing I have ever experienced before I will definitely be doing it again, and I think now I can actually call myself an athlete.

Matt:

Charlie executed the workouts so well. She managed to overcome her nerves and get a real feel for the competition. She did us so proud at SweatIT and we are so glad we could help her to prepare. To show credit to her personality too, not only did she compete for the first time as an individual athlete on the Saturday, she hung around and helped judge the athletes who were there on the Sunday. Probably more daunting to have the responsibility of judging the higher categories than it was for her to actually compete herself.

Charlie has signed up for a couple more competitions out the back of this first one and we can’t wait to watch her evolve as an athlete after such a positive first experience and individual.

Charlotte summarises the experience in 5 areas of reflection

The day was awesome, it was exciting and terrifying at the same time. We had 4 workouts to do over the course of the day with around 1.5hours between them to recover and prepare.
I feel like I did as well as I could have done on the day, there are lots of areas for improvement but I have only just started my journey so I wouldn’t expect anything less.
SweatIT coach Matt T was so important to my preparation for this day, he spent the previous few months tailoring my personal programme to get me the most competitive I could be, with lots of voice notes, messages and sweaty fitness.
The whole SweatIT team were instrumental in my journey to the competition floor, tweaking the small group sessions where possible, and giving me helpful hints and tips. Supporting me from the moment I walked into the gym almost two years ago now to now with my ever-changing goals.
I’m looking forward to completing more qualifiers to hopefully get back to the competition floor again, but most importantly I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do and how far I can go

A huge congratulations to Charlotte for her achievements. A big shout out to the SweatIT coaches in facilitating her training and Matt for providing bespoke coaching and support. We look forward to seeing you perform in the next one! Keep your eyes peeled for Matt and Charlotte in upcoming events.

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