Dubbed “the toughest two minutes in sports” by ESPN, the Scott Firefighter Combat Challenge is tailor-made for CrossFitters.

The participants, all active firefighters, scale a five-story tower with a 45-pound high-rise pack, pull a second pack up from the ground, rocket back down the tower, and hit every step en route.

Picking up a 9-pound plastic hammer, they drive a 160-pound slug three feet along a skid.  Abandoning this setup, the firefighters sprint through a serpentine course, pick up a charged fire hose, and drag it thirty feet through a pair of saloon doors.  Pulling a handle, they unleash a jet of water on a circular target.

Ten feet distant, 175 pounds of dead weight waits for rescue.  Grabbing the man-sized dummy around the torso, the firefighters backpedal one hundred feet to the finish line, collapsing to the ground to the sound of a buzzer. The best athletes run the course in under 1:30.

The entire event is run in full turnout gear, compressed air flowing to the competitors through a 30-pound self-contained breathing apparatus, functionally identical to the one used to fight fires.  

 
Profession-specific equipment aside, the event is a generalist’s dream—carrying, pulling, striking, sprinting, and dragging, always under load, and always with the clock running.  The course practically screams for a name like “Eva” or “Annie”.

The similarities between the Challenge and CrossFit are not lost on the athletes.  Many of these men employ a rigorous WOD schedule, combining course-specific training with the constantly varied functional movement of CrossFit.  

I’ve been fortunate enough to meet a few of them.

Two weeks ago, I walked onto the National Mall with Paul Weinburgh, a Lieutenant with the Haverhill Fire Department, for the first stop of the 2008 series.  Weaving between trucks and display booths, we made our way to the competitor area for sign-in and warm-up.

Paul had contacted me a few months earlier, asking for a sponsorship and the opportunity to beat his CrossFit-training, hard charging, Combat Challenge rival.  His request granted, we trained in earnest.  We focused on his weaknesses, hammering leg strength and local muscular endurance by squatting, deadlifting, dragging, and sprinting.

 

Paul’s first run of the day, the individual, was disappointing.  He finished a full ten seconds behind his personal record, coming out of the tower slowly and having a hell of a time with the dummy drag.   His experience wasn’t unique.  Most of the CrossFitting firefighters came out slow, turning in times that were short of the previous year’s bests.  

Inevitably, the disappointment set in, and the questions came with it.  Sitting on the D.C. Metro with Paul and his fellow competitor, Dave Bowman, I fielded the torrent.  Given the promise of CrossFit—elite level general physical preparedness—Paul and Dave wanted an explanation for their sub-par performances.

The answer extends beyond the Challenge, and is applicable to every sport in the world:  CrossFit does not replace sport-specific training.  

Although the Challenge clearly favors general physical preparedness, elements of the course are unique.  Climbing the tower demands leg strength, but it also demands proper placement of the hose pack, familiarity with the breathing apparatus, comfort with the rise and run of the tower, and a quick transition to the hoist pack.  Hitting the Kaiser requires tremendous hip flexion.  It also requires a proper hammer grip, staying in front of the slug, and accurate striking.  The list goes on.  Each portion of the course has obligatory skills above and beyond those provided by GPP.  

For the men in question, this was the first time they’d been on the official course since August 2007.  Although each had done his best to mimic the course in firehouses, garages, and parking lots, they lacked recent course experience.  While their general physical preparedness was undoubtedly at its peak, it couldn’t overcome the relative absence of skill-specific training.

Paul ran the tandem ninety minutes after his individual effort.  Running with a champion teammate and the fire of failure at his heels, he turned in a gold medal-winning personal record of 1:24.  His skills were back, and the results were astounding.

CrossFit fills holes.  Unparalleled at exposing and correcting for athletic weakness, it creates versatile monsters out of former non-performers.  Combined with adequate skill training, it will improve the performance of any athlete in a non-specialized sport.  The Scott Firefighter Combat Challenge certainly fits the bill.  

Don’t worry gentlemen—domination is coming.

Paul and Brandon await the start of the team relay on top of the tower.  Picture courtesy of the author.  Check out the D.C. stop in an Again Faster original video, "CrossFit and the Challenge".