Garrett Brice is being featured as our Transformation Tuesday Athlete! Garrett is 14 yrs old and is the son of Shawn Brice…I met Garrett about two years ago when Shawn asked if he could participate in the kids program; sure he can. The rest is history, like what is stated below, Garrett has gained so much confidence in his abilities and I can tell that he has improved his movement quality since 2 yrs ago. Garrett has even started opening up with me with his smile and chuckle when I refer to myself as being crazy…wonder where he gets that from! 😉
Shawn and Michelle, you have a fine, strong young man to be proud of and I know the rest of his CFU family is proud of him too! Congrats on your Transformation, Garrett!!
Via Shawn:
Garrett started Crossfit about 2 years ago in the Crossfit youth program and has developed a love of working out, especially if he has a chance to workout right next to dad, minus the pink tutu. Garrett is autistic and has struggles with social interaction and anxiety. He does not feel comfortable with people he does not know or do things in front of people that he is not familiar with, so I was not sure that he would try crossfit at all. However, he has a great friend in Mitchell Rosslan and wanted to try it with his friend. I don’t think Garrett had any idea of what he could do or how strong he was, like many new Crossfit athletes. He always gives it his best effort, but he also has realized that stretching, eating and hydrating really do make a difference when working out (after feeling the effects of working out on an empty stomach). The Crossfit Unstoppable athletes have been great in helping Garrett gain more self confidence and being more comfortable with the unknown. Crossfit is a great way to test your ability to adapt to things that you might not have tried or done before as the workouts are always different and knowing how far you can take yourself through a workout is not always known till the end. Those things along with the great Crossfit family have enabled Garrett to thrive in a setting that he is comfortable and relaxed in now. Even if Garrett isn’t going to say a word to people, it never stops anyone from saying hello to him and asking him how he is doing. It may not seem like that much to anyone else, but it means a lot to him, myself and his mom.
Garrett is now participating in the regular WOD’s on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday’s, he puts in extra lifting work on Saturday’s after the regular WOD and overall has seen lots of improvements in his strength and his form, especially keeping his back straight on lifts and squats, also getting low. Ya, coach he gets that from his dad 🙂 He has also seen improvement in his running technique- head is up and steady rather than bobbing up and down, thanks Jen! His mom says that he is more likely to help out at home with tasks that require strength (that his mom can’t do on her own)! Since starting CF, he doesn’t seek out proprioceptive input for his joints, which he has always done since an early age (due to sensory dysfunction), he’s now getting what his body needs from CF, his PE teacher also noticed how good his push-ups were.
Some first for Garrett since joining Crossfit, were he recently competed in competition even though he was nervous about all the people there watching him. Without Crossfit and the people that he knows, I am not sure that I could have imagined him doing a workout in front of that big of a crowd and that many people that he did not know. Words can’t describe what he overcame to do what he did! Another first was taking Garrett to a public swimming pool at the Crossfit party, he had so much fun that evening. It was his first experience in doing that and the waterslide. After it was over I asked him if he wanted to come back and he said if Crossfit is there, then yes! Finally we were both thrown into a team on scavenger hunt at one of the many parties that we have at Crossfit, again Garrett got out of his comfort zone and had a blast, I think there are pictures to prove it lol. Thanks to Crossfit Garrett has come a long way in gaining self confidence in himself, more social interaction, and learning a healthy lifestyle. it isn’t always about your one rep max or your time, sometimes a PR can be overcoming your fears.
