You hate the band.
I get it. It feels like a show of weakness. It feels like “not good enough”
For weeks, months maybe even years you feel like you are branded with the band. Heading over to the place where they hang every time a WOD is announced with pullups.
Those damn pullups.
Why? Why do they have to be so hard? Why haven’t you figured out the kip yet? Why can’t you do them yet? Why did that other guy just walk on in from the street and get to crank them out?
You secretly hate and admire that guy at the same oddly conflicting time.
When will you get to say farewell to the band? When will you get to finally feel like you “can”?
It seems like doing your first pullup is like a stamp of validation. Then, and only then, are you a true CrossFitter.
Sure, getting a pullup and saying goodbye to the band in your first WOD is a major achievement. In fact, let’s not downplay it – for those of you who struggle and fight for the pullups, it is a downright epic moment.
But it isn’t the end all be all. It doesn’t make you a CrossFitter. It doesn’t mean you are all of a sudden capable of great things.
You were all of that far before your chin rose above the bar. Committment, community, the desire to conquer your fears and weaknesses – that makes you a CrossFitter.
Drive, desire, determination – that is what makes you capable of great things. Not some color of rubber wrapped around an iron bar.
Remember that next time you begrudgingly head over to grab a band.
It will come. With time, like all good things, it will come. But until then, keep you head up. It isn’t a symbol of “can’t” it is a symbol of “someday I will”.