What's In A Score And Why Do We Post It?

Coach Russell Deadlifting everything... If there were children present I'm sure they'd be hanging on the ends of the bar too! 

What’s in a score and why do we post it?

Every day we walk into the gym, and for most of us the first thing we do is venture over to the big white board in the corner and find out exactly what is planned for the day. We see the warm up and we see the workout, and we can begin to mentally prepare ourselves for what is to come, but as our eyes move down towards the bottom we notice what else is posted on the board. The scores (times, reps, and weights) put down by members earlier in the day. We see names we recognize, we see some we don’t, we see scores that we think are in our range of doable, and some that seem downright incredible.

But why exactly do we post our scores on the board for everyone to see? First off, while it’s important that you keep personal track of the workout and your daily score in your own journal/binder, the board serves as an open journal, and feedback for the coaches and programmers. While the WOD’s are programmed with a specific goal in mind, in order to keep variety in the workouts (one of the things we love) there has to be some element of the unknown. Scores on the board allow the coaches to judge things like the time it should take to complete, assess previous performances and the weights used and make modifications for the current class. Posting your score helps other classes.

Secondly, it holds us accountable. The coaches always ask that you count your reps, that you do every rep and you do them to the best of your abilities. Posting your score keeps you accountable to every one of those reps.

“If everything that you ate in the past week was going to be written on the whiteboard in your box, for everyone to see, do you think you would eat differently?” –FletcherFitness: Sport Psychology for Elite Fitness

When you look at the scores on the board you know that every pullup was over the bar, every pushup was full depth, and every wallball was to height. You know that every person who put their score up on the board before held themselves accountable, and that you held yourself accountable to those same standards whether or not you did the an identical workout or a modified version.

Thirdly, it allows athletes to gauge suitable modifications to a workout. For many of us, the RX version of the workout is not entirely possible. Sometimes we have to modify the movements (from C2B down to pullups or bands) or the weights. At the same time, many of us know in and about where we sit in terms of our abilities, and who as well sits with us at that same ability level. When we post our scores, it works two-fold. One; it gives people a chance to see possible weights and mods:

The workout is Fran. Athlete B looks on the board and sees athlete A did it with 75#’s and pullups earlier in the day. Athlete B knows from past experience that Athlete A is at close the same fitness level as them. They know that 75# pounds will probably be a suitable weight, and that 95# might be far to heavy and defeat the goal of Fran.

Two; it gives them a goal to set as well. Athlete B sees Athlete A did it 6 minutes. This gives them a score to shoot for and maybe even beat. Though it is not a competition! It is still a chance to push yourself and in turn leave a score that will push others.

Finally and most importantly, if nothing else, posting our scores at the end of the workout is a badge of honor. Posting a score on the board is a privilege. It’s a right you earn when you get through the often times grueling list of demands above. When you post your score up on that board it isn’t about a number, it isn’t about who is fastest or who is strongest. There is no best and there is no worst. The scores are simply a statement that you came in, gave it everything you could find and that you earned that right. We all earned that right. It’s the equalizer among us all, that it doesn’t matter if your Fran is 2 minutes or 20, your space on that board and your accomplishment is every bit as important as everyone else. That we are all in this together. That is how you build community. And that is why we do what we do, every day.