We started summits in 2009.
And this is our ninth summit.
If you guys would think for a minute
about how many summits you've been to
and just hold that in your mind.
And if you've been to all nine summits–
if you could stand up for me. And stay standing.
All nine. Stand up! Stay standing! [applause]
If you've been to eight, stand up and stay standing.
If you've been to seven, stand up and stay standing.
Yeah.
There's some familiar faces.
I almost said, "old."
[laughter]
I will say familiar–a kind of an old guard, if you will.
Thank you guys, you can sit down.
[cheering and applause]
Now I want you to stand up if this is your first summit.
[applause]
Welcome!
Welcome to the team. Welcome to the family.
It's awesome to have you here.
Generations. We have generations, now.
And I've been thinking about this a lot, because
there's also a kind of generational turnover happening.
Members of the old guard, people on the team
they're transitioning into positions that are taking them off the road more and more.
And they've worked three or four hundred or more seminars,
and they're being promoted!
That's great. That's exactly what we want to have happen.
It exactly reflects the health of the organization
and it's great.
And as you saw, we have people on this team
who haven't even been here for two months and maybe not even worked four gigs.
So generations.
And I've been thinking a lot about that
and I've been thinking especially about
what each generation owes the other.
Being part of the first generation— the older generations—
I know what I want from the newer generations, and it's really pretty simple.
I want them to care.
I want them to really care about preserving and transmitting the potency
of the technology and culture that is so uniquely CrossFit.
The technology: constantly varied, functional movements executed at high intensity.
Eating meats and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar
in the right quantities.
It's the key to staving off chronic disease–to maintaining functionality, work capacity,
health across a lifetime.
The technology and the culture.
The culture of being committed to what works, results, the truth. No bullshit.
The culture of being excellent, service-oriented,
humble, and inclusive ambassadors of the brand.
To being and making great coaches and better humans.
I want the new generations to care.
To really care about preserving and transmitting those things.
And from my vantage point, the preservation aspect of this
becomes more and more critical with each passing year.
The reason for that is that we've changed the landscape.
We've changed the face of the fitness industry
so much so that it's just how people work out now.
It was really trippy.
There was a quote from Greg posted on one of our Instagram properties
and it's an older quote. I hadn't heard it in a long time.
I'm sure you guys will recognize it. And it was:
"Blur the distinction between strength training and metabolic conditioning for the simple reason
"that nature's challenges are blind to this distinction."
And I read some of the comments and it struck me
that the community had experienced a generational turnover as well.
Because people were actually debating
this quote. And they had no idea what it meant.
They were debating: is it more relevant, more applicable than strength work over
kipping work? Is it more applicable than working your weaknesses?
And I thought, "Wow, right, cause for them—duh—why would anybody ever do strength training
on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and cardio on Tuesday, Thursday?
I mean, these people grew up on CrossFit. Like our generation grew up on bodybuilding.
The basic tenets of our fitness revolution are now commonly accepted as simply the way to work out.
But ironically, it's exactly therein that the current challenges lie.
And that the current danger lie, if you will.
The challenges now look like knockoffs and watered-down programs.
They look like people in our own community
trying to retell us our story with a different focal point,
like they invented something new.
Or maybe just innocent misunderstandings of the program that look like us, but miss the mark.
Beyond that, there are corrupt organizations–legitimately corrupt–that rip off what we do
and twist our messages.
Their intent isn't truth and efficacy.
It's money, it's marketshare, and it's maintaining their own dwindling status.
These are the academic frauds and the evil dopplegängers, like "Exercise is Medicine."
These are the old stewards of the fitness industry, who sat back and watched
and protected their marketshare while the whole world got sicker.
[cheering and applause]
But I see these challenges as more complex, though
than the first generation faced–than my generation faced.
We were revolutionaries.
We were fighting a clear enemy.
They looked and sounded really different from us.
It was easy to distinguish. There was light. There was dark.
And we were motherfucking Jedi Knights.
[cheering]
But when the enemy is gray...when it looks a little like you, unfamiliar though
something's a little bit off...is it disgusting or is it cutting edge? It's harder.
It's harder to distinguish, and the new fight is less revolution and more resolution.
We aren't so much changing the course of things as we are ensuring they continue to go in the right direction.
No forgetting who we are. No letting the world forget.
This is the job of the new generations:
The preservation of the Level 1 kernel.
Our DNA.
What it's doing is it's ensuring that when this message reaches those who still need it most
for years to come—and it will—
that they get the full benefit of the undiluted potency of this program.
Just like you did.
It's your debt.
It's your mission.
And we've entrusted it to you.
So you're all motherfucking Jedi Knights, too.
No matter your generation.
And finally, I just want to leave you with:
It's not lost on me that we as the older generations, we owe you somethings too.
We owe you things like wisdom.
A wisdom that allows you to know the difference between relevance and reinvention.
That newness and novelty, bells and whistles
don't make something better or most relevant.
We owe you our recognition of ourselves that it's a different hour for us.
And that we'll do our best work by developing you.
And in that vein, we owe you events like this.
Where we connect, recalibrate, and refuel.
Where we dig intently into the fundamentals,
the timeless, breathtakingly simple truth, efficacy, and beauty of who we are.
That's what we're going to do over the next two days
and hopefully beyond.
All of us with the privilege to mentor you and to stand in front of you.
And I am really, really looking forward to it.
And I hope you are, too.
Thank you.