If athletic bloggers of any kind don’t know by now, here’s the greatest tip on how to generate thousands of views on a post and bring people to your site: bash CrossFit.

Duh.

You will awaken the sleeping giant that is “community” and instantly become Public Enemy #1. Case in point, Erin Simmons. Now, prior to yesterday I had to idea who this chick was. Until a bunch of the FB friends started circulating a blog post of hers giving her opinion on why she doesn’t do CF. OOoooooo, she stirred up some shit. I was able to make it a few paragraphs in to the article before I got bored and moved on to Kissing Suzy Kolber‘s fun for the day (by the way, Johnny Football took a middle row seat on an airplane and is taking heat for it. Slow news day I guess.)

Erin’s article is fine. It’s been written at least eight times before by different bloggers and has generated the same response from CrossFitters. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about; she’s outright lying; her form is horrendous, she should get a coach; did you see her box jumps? Horrible. THAT was the one that got my attention. SRSLY? Some chick that doesn’t have any impact on your life did a box jump that YOU don’t approve of and so you took the time to comment on a FB thread that her BOX JUMPS were horrendous? SRSLY?

Box jumps. You jump. You step down (unless you really hate your achilles tendons.) What form is there to bash? Ummmmm, you’ve just become a parody of yourself. Congrats. Here’s your sign.

So some chick doesn’t like CF. Who cares? WHO CARES? You’ve just given her a crap ton of publicity and a couple k in views to her site. But pulling out the camera a little bit, why does it bother yous guys so bad when people don’t like CF? Have you READ the Couch Thread? Is it just easier to go after a sweet little Texan than the likes of Shaf or whoever the hellz is posting over there lately? (The last tasty tidbit on the Couch Thread was the black box explosion. It’s been boring ever since.)

Are you not aware that some of her points (in the first couple paragraphs anyway) were possible spot on? That there ARE horrible CF gyms in the country (thankfully with a youtube account that they’re more than willing to utilize every attention whoring chance they get so we get to see the “horrendous” form on everything, not just box jumps.) Shouldn’t THAT upset you more than some chick who dabbled in your swimming pool and didn’t like it? GeeJUS, it’s like saying we can’t profile and then you head into an inner city DMV. Uhhhhh,yes we can.

I have always said that there are some amazing S&C gyms that happen to share a CF name. These people have been training others far longer than CF has been around and are doing amazing things with the general population. Well done. I’m proud to have shared some platform space with them. But they are not the norm and if that ruffles feathers and causes others to “circle the wagons” well, you’ve just circled the wagons on your shit. Thank you, keep that stuff contained.

But if you’re going to go on the attack of one little girl who spoke out against it, probably for the sole reason of getting views on her blog, you’ve just played into her hand. Oops. By the way, I did watch a little video of hers. She looks no different than the average CF’r. Don’t hate.

It’s discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.

Noel Coward

Training Log