As a teacher, I see every day how worried kids are about their grades. They make themselves sick over a final product; one low grade on an essay can ruin their mood for the class, the day, the semester. I see them ruminating, criticizing themselves, and talking negatively about their abilities. Many of them see one low grade as a predictor of an entire failed life: a bad grade on an essay means rejection from a good college, a good job, and as a result, a good life. They often feel their performances on these assignments now will dictate their happiness for the rest of their lives.

On any given day at the box we watch each other walk in, warm up a bit or stretch, and wander over to the whiteboard. We read the day’s workout, but also check out everybody else’s scores. We have conversations with ourselves about how many rounds we think we can get based on other athletes, whether we will scale or go Rx, which level of Rx we might choose, and how we think we can perform for the day. We often make decisions about our own training in comparison to others’ performances.

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