The whiteboard is a central part of the CrossFit experience.
You will find one, or a fancy electronic version of one, in every CrossFit box you visit. In the Crossfit level 1 trainers guide Greg Glassman states the importance of “Using whiteboards as scoreboards, keeping accurate scores and records…” mentioning “this data has important value well beyond motivation”.
PRO’s
The whiteboard is an effective tool to motivate you to achieve your potential and to perform to a higher level. It often helps having people of a similar ability to help drive you to perform better.
The whiteboard is also a great tool to help reinforce your training goals. Marking down every score no matter how big, small, good or bad helps paint a picture of you moving in the right direction.
Lastly, the whiteboard promotes accountability. It is important to note your score down every day. The strength / skill component as well as the WOD. Not everybody has a great day or PRs everyday, but it is still important to get the numbers down.
CON’s
The whiteboard is a reflection of the training session. This could be a specific weight lifted, time accomplished, or a specific number of repetitions completed. But herein lies the problem. It tells us only numbers, part of the picture, and gives us no insight into technique. In this way it can also produce an athlete who strives to be the best on the whiteboard, shaving off important aspects of what could be a great training session.
Used appropriately the whiteboard is a fantastic tool to help motivate and track your results and performances over time. Lets make a big effort over the next month to get your scores onto the whiteboard and into the log books and the app.
Coach Nick.
