It all started at a dinner with family friends. I was discussing how mundane my days had become and how much I battled to sleep, when a friend suggested I try just one CrossFit class with her. The next day I decided there was no harm in trying so off I went. After spending 30 minutes in my car, parked in my driveway, I eventually got up the courage and headed to the box. I ended up having so much fun I haven’t looked back since. I was instantly hooked.
CrossFit Wildcoast instantly made me feel like part of the family, everyone was so welcoming and always there to lend a helping hand if I needed it. The box owner, Luke Davies, approached me immediately and asked how he could make his box more accessible and if there were any changes he could make to help me feel more comfortable. The smallest changes made the biggest difference in making me feel like part of the team. He put handles up for the Ski-Erg, added a disabled parking bay, got smaller boxes made, dismantled a rower so I didn’t have to, just to name a few. These little changes were big for me as they now allow me to feel independent while working out.
Only a year into CrossFit I have already achieved so much. I competed in the first ever CrossFit Open that officially included adaptive athletes and I finished 1st in South Africa and 9th in the world! Now I have caught the competition bug. This was a new and challenging experience and I am proud of my results in my first CrossFit Open, after only 5 months of training. Sadly, there was no seated 2 adaptive division in the CrossFit Games this year, but that just gives me more time to train for the 2022 Open and hopefully my division will be added to the games next year!
Since then, I have also completed my CF-L1 trainers course which has allowed me to start coaching classes at my box. Chad and Candice Theron presented the course and were so accommodating and proactive in getting me involved. When there were movements I couldn’t perform they ensured that I was watching for faults or trying to give corrections instead of just sitting the movement out. It has been great to see how receptive our members are and how well everyone listens to verbal cues as I can not demonstrate all the movements. Coaching is about teaching and being able to spot flaws in people’s movements but also about being able to give the right cues to correct those faults. There is no reason I cannot coach to the same standard as an able bodied person and am now a regular trainer.
Although there have been some local competitions, there are very few adaptive divisions or athletes to compete with, so I have resorted to entering any online adaptive competitions that I can. More recently, I entered the online qualifiers for WODAPALOOZA 2022 which is a massive CrossFit competition held in Miami, USA. After recovering from a shoulder injury, I originally was competing to see how far behind the other girls I had fallen but to my surprise I finished 5th overall! This means that I have qualified for WODAPALOOZA 2022. This is such an epic achievement for me and I cannot wait to compete in such a big setting for the first time!
For now, that’s all but this is only the beginning. Stay tuned.
