Integrity.

I know I still have to post about the workouts this week, and I'll probably get to that tomorrow because tonight I'll be cheering on our basketball team, go cougars! Anyways...

I posted this in my teacher's blog, and I'm also going to post it here, but with a little backstory since not many people read this :)

I was initially bummed that my third period "weights" class got cancelled, but I was consoled by the fact that I would be in the fourth period "PE 4" class, which is "weights" but with primarily the varsity baseball and softball teams. I've never had so many female athletes to compete with in this class, so I was pretty excited. So we start going through the girls, Angie, Barbara, Cindy, etc. And starting with Angie, I noticed that some people, softball girls especially are posting some unbelievable times. I'll gave them the benefit of the doubt, but today I'm sure that at least some of them were cheating. Today we did Cindy, and I got 15 rounds going unbroken on everything, with minimal rest. I actually watched some of them resting in the middle of their sets while I was doing air squats. And then when time was up, the softball girls go to the board and somehow ten girls got the same score of 20, some said 21. Now I know some of them are capable of that, but definitely not all of them. Hence this post, which I've copied from Facebook.

I want to say a little something about integrity. I'm not calling out anyone in particular, but I am 100% positive that some people have knowingly posted incorrect scores. Whether it's doing less reps, less range of motion, or purposely miscounting, it's simply not okay. When you cheat, you're cheating Mr. Ellis who puts a lot of time into this class and who wants to see actual improvement, you're cheating your coaches, you're cheating your peers by not "competing" fairly, and you're cheating yourself most of all, physically and morally.

This is my fifth time in this class, and I can assure you that there is no better feeling than beating your own score on a workout. We have had kids come through here who couldn't do a single pull up, or even a single air squat, and they always improve tremendously. They improve because they don't really care that they get to write the best score on the board, they improve because they try their hardest, regardless of the outcome. They do every rep with full range of motion, they are the ones who keep on working out even when the time runs out. These people have integrity.

I really want the best for you guys, and I want you to get all that you can out of this class. If you're someone who has cheated, I really hope that you'll read this and change your ways. However, if you read this and think that I don't know what I'm talking about, or perhaps you don't care, then I can promise you that you will have a rude awakening next week when we start doing the benchmark workouts, and especially during our final, Fight Gone Bad. These workouts have consistently shown who's really doing the work in the class, and who's improving. That's all folks.

For further reading, here is an excellent article on character by Blair Morrison, a Del Campo alumnus and CrossFit badass who is currently ranked fifth in the world. http://crossfitmobile.blogspot.com/2010/06/fitness-is.html