Kids want to do crossfit instead of lift with team

Had one last year. Was utilizing for another sport and parent ran the business.

Worked the kid and had him handle the parent. Told him of all the positives of being involved in OUR program (chemistry, coaching, relationships, leadership, incentives, injury preventive lifts directed toward football, etc.) Asked him if he can validate those at CF then he had our permission. Utilized his peers to work him and stay in his ear about how they needed him, missed him there, etc. He slowly transitioned out of CF and back to us. If this didn't work, we would have had the same discusiion with the parent.

"Weights aren't mandatory, but neither is playing. While you're being an individual, your teammates are going to be getting better as a group."

If he wants to workout with Crossfit instead of working out with us, he can play on Crossfit's football team next fall.

We have a group this year that is doing it. I let the boys know I wasn't happy about it and got on them about missing the team lifting. Eventually I spoke to the trainer and we all agreed that what they did was fine as long as it was in addition to our program.

It was ugly and a few parents and I had some words. I was told by one parent that we have no proof that any of our staff know anything we are talking about. I guess it is time to start spending the money and get certifications.

i hope a parent does say that to me i was a power lifter i know what its like

I've never had a problem with this. If it's after the regular workout then ok.

We didnt have this exact situation but last season we had a sr that had broken his collarbone his junior year and a junior that tore his acl his sophmore year. The seniors dad was completely against any of the overhead lifts and olympic lifts in general. We talked to him and gave him evidence of the safety and benefits of what we did in the weightroom. No dice he went to multiple doctors until he found one that would write a note saying his kid had to do a modified workout that the doctor and dad came up with. The junior just wanted to do half squats, and all upperbody stuff. SO we basically would just set those two off to do their own workout but still required to do the parts of our workout that they could.

Fast forward to this offseason.... The Jr is now a SR and we just had a breakthru with him. We added another station to our lifting each day that is basically a large muscle target workout. He gets to pick the exercises in that station with coach guidance and in exchange he completely does all of the rest of our workout..... So we gave in a little and appear to be getting a lot more in return because this kid is also one we are counting on to be a leader and he is starting to really step it up....

SO my point I guess is dont completely write the kid off cause he wants to do a different workout, see if there is a reasonable compromise that can benefit both sides, but that doesn't make it appear the kid is running the show.

It could be worse, your school could hire a crossfit guy as the schools S&C guy.....but thats another story

we showed our guys video evidence of the worlds best cross fit competitors getting better at crossfit by STRENGTH TRAINING.

we also just tell our guys that NOBODY HAS EVER PRODUCED AN ALTERNATIVE PROGRAM AT OUR SCHOOL THAT HAS YEILDED BETTER RESULTS THAN OUR PROGRAM.

The strongest guys in our school all have one thing in common, they do our program. We show 100% proof of 100% of program participants getting faster as well.


Still, parents and kids think they need personal trainers, cross fit, special supplements, speed camps and so on and so forth.

Why fight it, make your case, then focus on the guys who buy into what you do. Play the best kids- if the cross fit guy is the best kid, he plays. Most likely if that happens, youd have to examine your program.

I had my strength clinic this weekend and had over 100 strength coaches from all over the southeast in attendance. That includes college, high school, and private coaches. Our first speaker was a crossfit guy who is a high school coach here in Georgia. He outlined some of the pros and cons of crossfit for training athletes and he also bashed some of the things we all think about when the word crossfit comes up. But he brought up a very good point. If you aren't doing at least some aspects of crossfit in your training then your kids will be somewhere else. Another coach who is a usaw senior international coach said the same thing two years ago. Crossfit isn't going away and we as coaches better find a way to trick the kids into thinking we are doing it or they will go somewhere else to do it. Now it's not all bad. Crossfit has popularized the Olympic lifts like nothing else. You can have support for your cleans and snatches now because once a week you can see it on ESPN. I bought rogue bumpers and then told the kids look it's the same bumpers they use in the crossfit games. You have to be a salesman.
I also wonder how many football coaches rail against crossfit but in reality don't know anything about it. At its core it's Olympic lifting and metabolic conditioning. Those things will always have its place in football. There isn't just one way to do crossfit. A lot of people talk about it like its a program when in reality it's not. It can be anything you want it to be.
Somebody made the comment earlier that every credentialed strength coach says that crossfit shouldn't be used for training. Really? I can name three big time high school coaches right now who use aspects of crossfit in their program and one does crossfit certifications. Whats wrong with doing your strength work and then finishing with a short medcon? Lots of people do that already and have been doing that forever.

The problem of kids training outside of your program can't be laid at the feet of crossfit. That's happening every where. It's happening to me and I'm USAW certified and run the Georgia strength coaches association. I've totaled 2023 in powerlifting having squatted over 800 lbs. Parents are going to always do stupid things. One thing I'm doing is trying to keep an open dialogue with the private trainer in our area so we can work together. Right now we have a hand full of guys that go to him on the side and I keep him up to date on what we are doing. I do have one that goes to him full time but I don't see that kid at all during the day so I just found that out. I do see that as a problem and I'm not sure how to fix it.

We as coaches could really help ourselves by getting certified so we at least can present ourselves as knowledgeable. But just remember that in the end you will always be the dumb coach.

But you could say the same thing about usaw and Nsca certifications when somebody does something stupid. It doesn't protect against morons.

I was going to bring this up as its own thread but I think it applies here. Football is the only high school sport where there coaches want complete control over the players. I am guilty of it too. Basketball has aau. Baseball has travel teams. Golf, tennis and other like sports almost all have kids who compete outside the high school n their sports at other times of the year. Football is the last stronghold and its amazing we held on this long. Our baseball team takes hitting and pitching lessons from outside people. Golf and tennis does the same. Only in football is it not allowed.

Has anyone mixed up the offseason weightlifting program by bringing in other people to run it for a day or just doing one off days, to keep it fun? I agree with pretty much everyone that lifting as a team is best, but also that kids now often want to stuff outside the program and, as mentioned, crossfit does have some positive aspects, not least of all the fact that it gets people fired up about the program.

But I was curious if anyone has brought in a (good) crossfit guy for a day or just incorporated other ideas? I remember after the movie 300 came out Michigan State started doing "Spartan 300" workout days based on the movie and the training methods the cast used to get ready for the movie:

coachad.com/articles/powerline-spartan-300-training/

I have to say I am slightly (only slightly, because I know you probably did it for simplicity in communication) disappointed that you fell into what I think is one of the most dreadful aspects of crossfit.  The concept that anything basically not using commercial gym machines or anything that isn't purely weightlifting or powerlifting is "crossfit".  You are correct things such as metabolic conditioning have been done for a long time in S&C--not sure why Crossfit gets to claim them as "theirs"

That is why I think it is important to distinguish between "doing crossfit" (working at a CF gym with hot soccer moms and aging ex athletes --at best-, or skinny but fit guy with a beard in a random bout of  exercise)  and using metabolic conditioning when appropriate in a well thought out (even if simple) training program.

I would also caution against those who suggest that "the kids can do 'whatever' after they train with us" might not be setting their athletes up for the best success possible.  I wouldn't suggest that kids that age could really suffer from overtraining much doing that (assuming adequate rest and nutrition...which may or may not occur during any training program)  BUT I would be interested to see if anyone has any solid peer reviewed research on the bodies adaption (or lack of) to strength training when also presented with frequent metabolic conditioning stimuli.   I actually think I have seen a few articles, but I am not sure enough to present with any confidence.