Competing in CrossFit is very challenging. It is something that causes your average everyday athlete to knuckle down and start approaching their training, nutrition and lifestyle in a way similar to a professional athlete. But what kind of preparation goes into this and how do you select the right competitions at the right time?

As a beginner it pays to compete often and develop a hunger and love for the sport, but then it can be wise to reduce the frequency of competition in order to put in the time to develop your fitness and skills as an intermediate athlete. You can then return to competing at a higher frequency when you are more advanced, to practice the skill of competing and use it to direct your training focus.

In this episode we look into everything about competitions, from planning them out, to qualifiers, the preparation right before a competition and then the competition itself and debrief. We discuss what lessons we have learnt from our own experience competing, as well as from helping countless athletes in competition at all levels from local events to the Games.

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Email Matt Harvey for content production! (mattharvey93@gmail.com)

Show Notes:

[1:30 ] Creating a plan for competitions and having short term and long term goals

[3:30 ] Focusing on the next competition versus detailed long term plans

[6:00 ] Picking the right competitions when you’re a beginner

[9:15 ] Learning how to take competitions less seriously

[15:00 ] How to manage qualifiers and how much should you strategise

[20:30 ] Using a weekly throwdown workout to practice competing

[22:15 ] Practicing the logistics of doing a qualifier and higher stakes workouts

[26:50 ] Having to repeat very difficult workouts

[29:45 ] Preparing for a competition once you’re qualified

[38:30 ] How to support different types of athletes during a competition

[43:30 ] Using competitions to direct the next phases of training