Quick Tips for Hosting Your Own CrossFit Games

Hosting a successful local competition can provide your CrossFit box with a lot of media exposure and attract new clients. It also helps motivate your current members and strengthen relationships with other local businesses.To be successful, you'll need to do some planning and preparation, including choosing your location, determining the agenda and staffing your event. Then you'll need to market your event.

Determine the Agenda for Your CrossFit Competition

Most CrossFit competitions are organized into several 10-minute heats, each of which incorporates 2 to 3 different movements. When you create your workouts, make sure that each movement has an easy-to-judge range of motion to prevent any potential ruling issues during the event.

Movements for CrossFit Competitions

Combine 2 or 3 of these examples to create a heat for your CrossFit competition:
 

     - A gymnastics movement (HSPU, pull-ups, muscle-ups)
 

     - An Olympic movement (snatches, clean and jerks)
 

     - Cardio (burpees, running)
 

     - Max lift(s)
 
Consider how each heat will be timed:
 

     - AMRAP (as many reps as possible)
 

     - RFT (rounds for time)
 

     - EMOM (each minute on the minute)
 

Recruit Volunteers, Judges & Sponsors

Hosting a CrossFit competition is not a one-person job; there's plenty of work to go around, so enlist as many volunteers as possible. Depending on the size of the event, you'll need at least 5 volunteers for both setup and teardown. In addition, plan to recruit at least 2 scorekeepers to collect and publish the results. You'll also need a master of ceremonies (this could easily be yourself) and enough staff at the doors to sign in competitors, collect tickets from spectators and answer questions.Two other important groups you'll need to recruit are judges and sponsors. Consistency is critical when it comes to judging, so plan to have 1 to 2 judges per athlete in each heat. Your local chamber of commerce meetings can be a good source of potential sponsorship leads, but almost any other local business could make a good sponsor. Feature your sponsors' logos on t-shirts, flyers and other giveaways, and offer to pass out their promotional materials. You can even feature your largest sponsor by including its business in the name of your competition – the marketing opportunities are endless.

Assess the Location

Now that you've planned your workouts and staffed the event, you'll need adequate space to host it. The amount of space you have available can impact the number of participants and spectators that can attend your CrossFit competition. First, determine the cap on participants in your competition. Consider the number of workouts you have planned, the time allocated for the competition and the number of athletes that can be on the floor per heat. Are they individual, partner or team competitions? Then map out the space you need for each competition with taped 4'x 6' rectangles, making sure to dedicate a sufficient amount of space for bar workouts. Also, define where spectators can stand and where table setups for sponsors, check-in and food will be located.

Spread the Word

Of course, you'll want to advertise the competition to members of your own gym. However, if you want to attract new clients and media attention, you'll also need to market the event. Post the details of the competition to your website, blog, Facebook page, Twitter feed and other appropriate social media outlets. Contact other local CrossFit affiliates to see if you can spark some interest there, too. Get creative, but be persistent and provide plenty of notice. Remember, whether you're planning the heats, staffing or marketing, getting organized early will help ensure that your event goes off without a hitch. Once you've made the proper preparations, the setup and execution of a successful competition should be easy.