This is a guest post from Iesha Small. If you are interested in providing a guest post for the site, find out more here.
As a HYROX athlete you are often thinking about how to improve your performance at your next race. You may have endlessly researched how to improve your nutrition, training and recovery but an overlooked area is considering how becoming a HYROX volunteer could also help you.
Taking part in a HYROX event feels like being part of a community. The music, the atmosphere, spectators and, of course, you and the other athletes who have trained for weeks or months to be ready to compete. There is one final group who really help to make HYROX what it is – the volunteers.
Here are 5 ways that being a HYROX volunteer can make you a better HYROX athlete, whether you’re a beginner or already have a few ‘finisher’ badges on your backpack.
1. Appreciate it’s a ‘Fitness competition for Every Body’
Are you considering entering HYROX but still undecided? Maybe you’ve signed up but still aren’t sure if you can complete the whole event? For people about to do their first HYROX, especially if you have never competed in any type of fitness or endurance event before, being a volunteer can give you a true view of what HYROX is about.
Your shift is 8 hours long and you experience a number of athlete waves. If you are a judge at a station you may get to see athletes in open and pro divisions or singles, doubles and relay races. Seeing the range of athletes who pass through your station will give you a broad idea of who competes at HYROX. You will get a proper feel for the true spread of ages, shapes and athletic abilities. It’s inspiring and puts a warm feeling in your belly. You also realise that if such a wide range of athletes can complete HYROX, so can you.
2. Refocus your Mental Game
As a more experienced HYROX athlete, it can be easy to get caught up in constantly trying to improve, or being disappointed when comparing your race times and splits to other athletes. Maybe you’ve run so many races this season that you feel burnt out. Perhaps you can’t compete because you are injured. The mental aspect of competing is often as important as your training and physical preparation. Becoming a volunteer can give you a different, wider perspective on the sport. Whether you are supporting athletes at bag drop,event sign in, the water table in the Roxzone or judging the lunges you can be reminded of being a wider part of the growing HYROX community or #Hysociety, and this can give renewed fire, motivation and perspective for your next race.
3. Observe Effective Form and Technique
Sure, you’ve read all the Rox Lyfe blogs and have your own “HYROX” playlist on YouTube so you can work out the best way to improve your performance at each of the stations (oh – is that just me?) but nothing beats seeing live examples from hundreds of people in person. Before I entered my first HYROX, I was worried about the dreaded wall balls as I’d seen so much about that station online. When I volunteered at London Olympia I was a judge on the wall balls. 100s of people came through during my shift. I observed pros and open athletes, sweaty muscled Adonises, and grannys who had entered together as a challenge. Some people did them almost unbroken, others took more than 10 minutes.
In judging and supporting athletes to get to their 75 or 100 wall balls and finally finish their HYROX event, I was very clear about different strategies people used to complete the task and what might work for me. I also saw how shorter athletes – closer to my own height – tackled it. I understood why people got given no reps and how important mobility is for the wall balls.
For people who have already competed in a HYROX, being a volunteer judge on a station gives you an opportunity to compare your own form or station strategy to other athletes of your level or the level you are aspiring to. This isn’t possible when you are competing because you are so focused on your own race.
4. Gain Key Insights from Experts on the HYROX Team
During a HYROX event, key members of the HYROX team walk around to ensure everything is running smoothly and help boost morale. I got a chance to talk to the Head Coach and some of the master trainers. It was a great opportunity to get insider thoughts on topics from ways to conserve energy during the hardest stations to how the core HYROX team was responding to feedback from the wider community.
5. Free Entry
The most obvious way volunteering at HYROX can help you on race day is by giving you free entry to a future race, usually in the same season. I didn’t realise this the first time I volunteered but it was a great bonus. My original reason for volunteering was mainly to see what the event was really like and if I thought I could complete it.
Now that I’ve competed, I want to give back to the HYROX community and potentially be somebody who encourages another athlete to keep going, just like a judge did for me on the burpee broad jumps.
If you get bitten by the HYROX bug and start to enter multiple races per season, the cost can start to add up so free entry can be a good bonus. You might even be one of the people who decide to compete and volunteer on the same day!
By now you’ve hopefully realised that volunteering for HYROX can help you as an athlete as much as good sleep, decent nutrition and effective training!
Iesha Small is a HYROX competitor, functional fitness fan and writer who is new to endurance sport. You can contact her on hello(at)ieshasmall(dot)com
