CrossFit Football, New & Improved

I launched the CrossFit Football site March 31, 2009, to what seemed at the time a massive audience.  The first day the site launched, it received ~17,000 unique hits.  This was quite an accomplishment but seeing as the site was brand new anyone who came to the site was “unique”.  The reception I got was most positively with a few emails voicing their outrage for creating a sport specific CrossFit offering.  After all, CrossFit is a broad and general training style and they were lending their name to my training, which is specific and focused.  Needless to say, some people were confused and angry.  I still remember an email from Abi Grove, asking who the hell I thought I was and what was I was doing by having a specific CrossFit offering

CrossFit Football went from an idea to reality in roughly 30 days.  In those 30 days, I created the foundations of the program and the website.  The website was basic and intended to have the workouts on the right and a blog in the center.  The problem was I need to post multiple parts to each days training and the when I loaded day one there was a problem.  The prescription was so long the content underneath was lost. So I split the training into 2 parts: SWOD and DWOD.  From those of you not schooled in the use of acronyms, SWOD means Strength Workout of the Day and DWOD was Daily Workout of the Day.  The SWOD/DWOD names were created because I needed a way to refer to the program by part….thus the DWOD and SWOD were coined.

Shortly after launch, I knew the site was less than ideal.  I spend the next 2 years on redesign and was ready to launch it but the programmers could not come up with a way to load all the previous comments, workouts and media from the custom platform to WordPress.  For me, that was the gold of the site; the organic user created content was the lifeblood of the program and losing it was not an option.  So I waited to launch a new site till this could become a reality.  It took a few years but as the Internet and technology changed, we took notice.  With some help from Harry and Luke, I realized the Internet is not just being accessed by people just sitting at a desk, but people on the go using mobile devices, smart phones, tablets and iPads.  I would venture to say most of the CFFB Nation is taking some form of mobile device into the gym to check and record results and take videos of the training.  One thing was clear; we needed a mobile friendly site.

Fast forward to December 31, 2013 and the launching of the “new and improved” CrossFit Football site.  The new site is clean, easy to navigate and has been optimized for the mobile user.  With this new offering, we did away with the workout split into two parts and list them side-by-side.  I know many of you were partial to the old way of doing things but I really believe this new platform and the improved experience is more than ideal.

With improvement come issues; we have been working to backfill content from the past 5 years.  We were able to move all of the comments from past posts, but the media and workouts could not be ported over, so we have had to backfill the workouts by hand.  And with 1500+ workouts in two locations plus media, things are slow.

With that said, let me take you on a tour of the new site and show off our hard work.

When you click on CrossFitFootball.com a landing page will come up.

This landing page is your first stop on the CrossFit Football experience.  If you are a new user, you will be drawn to a section in red with blinking yellow arrows that clearly states, Are You New, The Basics, Start Here.  Click it and see where it takes you.

From the Basics page, you see a box with a description of CrossFit Football.

CrossFit Football is a strength and conditioning program designed for strong, explosive, short duration field sport athletes.  If you are new, this section is where you’ll find all the basic information to help with training. 

Watch the short video (by me) introducing the program and going over the basic elements.

From there you will see more boxes labeled Testimonials, Nutrition, Demo, How to Become a Coach, Find a Coach, FAQ and a Talk To Me Johnnie.

Take a look at the box, Become a Coach.  This is an important section because if you give you information about the seminar and the locations we will be landing to work with our coaches and athletes.  If you think the seminar is about football, you are in for a rude awakening.  The seminar is dedicated to training athletes.  It is packed with everything from assessments tools we call warm ups to programming for specific populations.  If we can’t identify your limiting factors we wont know how to fix our athletes.  We get into the barbell lifts, our primary mode for changing posture and position.  We hammer programming, sprinting, change of direction and proper mechanics so your athletes can excel at whatever they chose to apply the training to.

The CrossFit Football Seminar Series has two rules, 100% engagement and “Train fast, be fast.  Train slow, be slow.”

One of the most exciting parts of the new site is the Find a Coach section.

This section allows you to find coaches and people who are schooled in the CrossFit Football/Power Athlete Training system in your area.  This is a massive resource and soon will include CrossFit Football friendly gyms, so the user can find people doing CFFB globally.

If you are already familiar with the program, have been to a seminar and can leap tall buildings in a single bound, you can head right to the box labeled Workout of the Day.  We used our mascot, “The Slickster” to identify it.  If you are familiar with us and own any of our merchandise, there is a good chance you have a shirt or sweatshirt with the Slickster on it.

Once you click on this box you will land on the training page.  This is where the magic happens and workouts are found.

You will see two parts to each workout, some days there might even be three or four parts.  Start on your left and work right if you are using a desktop and top to bottom for a mobile device.  Many days the strength work might be the priority and listed first and other days something else might be the priority.  The best advice I can give is, start on the left and work right or start at the top and work your way down for the mobile user.

Once you are done with your training, click on the comments section and post your results

This is where you find the community aspect of the training; friends and virtual training partners are found here and things get interesting quickly.  Even though you could be training in a garage by yourself or a local gym with a few guys you are not alone.  You have thousands of training partners to help you get better and show you how to hammer your body into a performance machine we call a Power Athlete.

I realize this is a lot to digest and you will have questions, there just so happens to be a tab labeled FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions).  I know you find this hard to believe but Tyler Durden was right.  You are not a unique snowflake, we are all the same organic decaying matter and while you believe your question is unique, there is a good chance it has been asked before and answered.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X2AvfSTi6Q[/youtube]

Only if after you have scoured the FAQ and read all 180+ Talk To Me Johnnie posts, click on the comments and ask away.  There is a minute chance the Power Athlete crew missed something.

Once you have explored the new site, head over to the Power Athlete site for training videos, blog posts and podcasts.  This is where the nuts and bolts of the program are found.  PAHQ is the resource library for movements and demos, so use it.

And if you have questions about training, nutrition and life, please check out Talk To Me Johnnie.  There is a good chance I have already addressed it…but if I haven’t…please send questions to Raven.

Thanks for allowing me to be your guide, I hope you enjoyed your experience and look forward to seeing you soon at a seminar.