So glad you asked!!
The CrossFit Open is a three week online competition that is technically the first stage in qualifying for the CrossFit Games, but for the majority of us, it is a way to bring together our community in a celebration of fitness, friendship and fun!
Starting Thursday Feb.16th at 3pm, CrossFit will release one workout per week for three weeks (starting with 23.1) and we will have until 8pm on the following Monday to complete it. At our gym, we will have a Throwdown between a few chosen athletes the night the workout is released (Thursday 6:30pm) and then that workout will be programmed as the WOD for the next day (Friday) for all classes. In the class on Friday we will run two heats, where you will partner up and one person will judge while the other completes the workout and then switch. It will then be up to the athlete to submit their score at games.crossfit.com or on the CrossFit Games Appbefore the Monday 8pm deadline. Don't forget to submit your score!!! There will be other opportunities to complete the WOD if you can't make the Friday class. Saturday at 10am, Sunday at 10am, during any Open Gym time Thursday-Monday (if you secure a judge or video your workout) and during Monday's class (we will make the class WOD the same length as the Open WOD).
So that's how it works on the scheduling level, but there's more!! We run the Open Intramural style. Meaning we select teams within the gym (live draft Saturday Feb 11th to determine the teams) and then pit them against each other in an overall points battle. Points are awarded for each athlete that completes an Open WOD and submits their score. So if you have 15 people on your team and all members complete and submit their WOD score to games.crossfit.com then the team will receive 15 points. There will be 3 bonus spirit points per week awarded to the team that goes that extra mile. Team costumes, cheers, dances, etc will all go toward spirit points. There will also be one bonus point awarded to the winner of the RX, Scaled, Foundations, Masters, Adaptive and Teens WOD weekly. For the weekly WOD winners, an athlete can only win one week (known as the Kyle Cant rule) and even if they have the best score the next week it will go to the second place finisher.So what does that mean for you the individual athlete? It means you need to complete the WOD sometime between Thursday and Monday, submit your score, cheer on your teammates, show some spirit, attend the Thursday night throw downs and HAVE SOME FUN!
That's it! If you have any questions, ask a coach and they would be more than happy to help!!
