By Cathy Kimmel-Srock
Review Staff Writer
Dylan Kade finally competed in his first in-person CrossFit competition; it just happened to be against the best in the world at the 2016 Reebok CrossFit Games, where he took fifth place in the world in his age category, Teenage Boys 14-15.
Kade, who taught himself about CrossFit from a YouTube video before eventually training with the Rochester gym, CrossFit Maven, travelled to California last month to compete in the games.
According to Kade, his best event was the second event of the games called Adios Amigos. Kade called it a shorter event and explained that it included snatches and muscle-ups.
A snatch, which is considered one of the hardest athletic moves in CrossFit, features an individual lifting a barbell from the ground to over their head in one continuous motion with locked arms.
A muscle-up is a move that is a combination of a pull-up and a dip, requiring both core strength and grip strength, where the athlete does a pull-up, rotates their shoulders and continues to push themselves up and over the bar/rings.
Kade took second place in this event that featured both of these moves.
This event was one of the several, which lead to an overall fifth place finish for Kade.
“I’m a little disappointed with my finish but it was a great learning experience,” he said.
And Kade, who will be a sophomore at Lake Orion High School this fall, isn’t going to let that disappointment hold him back.
“My next goal is qualifying for the games in the 16- to 17-year-old division,” he added, saying that he wants to improve his strength. “My end goal is to win the CrossFit games as an individual in the men’s division, ages 18-39.”
Even more long-term, Kade wants to open his own CrossFit gym someday and “help improve other people’s fitness.”
In the interim, he is thankful for the experience, which took him and his parents, Erv and Mary Kay, and brother, Chris, to California for the competition, where he got to meet other teens that share his same passion for CrossFit.
“My favorite part was hanging out with all my competitors because there’s not a lot of kids in my local area that do this sport and it’s cool to be able to relate to other kids your age,” said Kade.
While Kade will continue to work to improve his CrossFit, he will also be focusing on school and football come the fall, as he will be taking the field as a Dragon football player.
Being a Dragon is very important to Kade, who not only donned his Lake Orion socks for the competition, but recognizes the importance of the support he has received from the community.
“I wouldn’t have been able to do it without all of the supporters,” he said.
In fact, Kade says that when training got rough, it was all the support he was given that helped pull him through.
“It gave me motivation to do more,” he added. “Thank you to those that supported me on my journey.”