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Last weekend, we ran an op-ed titled “What Rep Cutting Says About Your Character.” In it, longtime coach and owner of a 10+ year affiliate Jeff Tincher, dives into the topic of rep cutting.
“As much as I love the CrossFit community, there is a subject in CrossFit that confuses me and troubles me deeply, a subject that few talk about in public. It has become more prevalent in my gym and it is time for me to stop ignoring it,” Tincher wrote.
Rep cutting is nothing new; it’s certainly not going away anytime soon.
In selecting Tincher’s op-ed for publication, the editors hoped to offer a point of view from an experienced coach. We recognize that not all opinions on this topic will be the same, however. This is why we’re publishing a rebuttal, of sorts. Coach Rachel Binette, a Certified CrossFit Level 3 Trainer, believes there’s another way coaches should address this situation.
Regardless of where you might land on this topic, it’s our role to elevate topics of discussion that reflect current trends. These op-eds are intended to stimulate conversation not necessarily pit one coaching philosophy against one another. In the end, CrossFit is about saving lives and providing a safe community to become the best version of yourself; how we get there will be different for many in this lifelong journey.
Justin LoFranco
Editor-in-Chief
What Complaining About Rep Cutting Says About Your Character
By Rachel Binette
I read the op-ed “What Rep Cutting Says About Your Character,” I saw the re-posts, the internet applauding, and all I could think was, “Nononononono…”
Not because I disagree that rep cutting is bad.
But because, as a mindset coach with Mindset Rx’d, this op-ed misses the point. It misses why people cut their reps, it misses how character is developed and personal growth achieved. It also misses the opportunity that this issue presents to reflect on and build our own character.
Why do people cut reps?
Ultimately, the question really is, why do people cheat? We love to answer judgmentally — they cheat because they have a bad character, because they like taking shortcuts, because they’re unwilling to work hard enough to earn the spot.
But this is not the real reason. This is the reason we give ourselves so that we can soothe our egos and feel superior.
The reason people cheat is because they don’t believe that the effort they put in is good enough. They believe that they have to stack up in a certain place in order to be worthy. And because a desire for belonging and worthiness is critical to our sense of social safety, they are willing to cheat to get there. This applies to the CrossFit athlete at your local box, and it applies to the professional athlete in any sport.
This is a classic case of fixed mindset, a key component of social psychologist Dr. Carol Dweck’s work. In a fixed mindset, an athlete believes that their abilities are innate: they have a built-in ceiling on their potential that they cannot change. They may cheat, or they may not try hard in the first place. People with a fixed mindset believe that failure is a sentence on their worth, and they will avoid it at any cost.
In athletes with a growth mindset, failure is an opportunity. They believe that they can develop their abilities and they find self-worth and security in the effort they put forth to improve.
For our rep cutting athletes, training is not an opportunity to improve their fitness — it is a test that they are deeply afraid of failing. Their sense of belonging is constantly threatened, so fear and shame rule their behavior.
Continue reading…
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