When is it important to show your work?
I’m watching the 2022 CrossFit Games as I write this. This is a massive, multi-day athletic competition that tests athletes’ skill, strength, and endurance over five days. It culminates in crowning one male and one female winner.
Each athlete has a judge who is in lockstep with the athlete throughout the event, letting them know at every rep if their work passes or if they have to repeat it.
In the event happening now, the athletes have to do lunges across a long field while they’re carrying a heavy barbell. There’s not too much for the judge to do; they have to make sure the athlete doesn’t drop the barbell, and that they cross the marked lines on the field.
One judge caught my eye—he was moving deliberately, holding his attention on the athlete one hundred percent of the time, making very distinct and crisp movements to indicate that the athlete had cleared each marked segment. There are lots of ways you could judge this event; I know, because there were lots of judges doing the same job. This judge stood out to me because it seemed like he was “showing his work.”
Why might this matter?
Every athlete in the competition has trained and sacrificed for years to be there.
Thousands of people are watching in person and millions more online.
Every step and every rep of every workout matters, not just for that athlete but for the others in the competition.
If you’re doing something that is really important to you, it matters for the people around you to take it seriously. The judge doesn’t have nearly as much at stake as the athlete does, but he needs to be as committed for the duration of the event as the athlete is.
Could the judge do a good job without showing his work? Probably. But it shows respect and concentration to demonstrate that you’re committed.
