Wouter de Jong x Baseline

He started at CrossFit Winschoten, outgrew it in the best possible way, and helped build something new from the ground up. At only 26 years old, he runs his own Blacksmith Training box in Scheemda. Splitting his days between coaching, running the business, and finding time to train.

After a harsh introduction to CrossFit, in which he got beaten in a deadlift workout by his mom, he realised this was something he had to work hard for. With a background of football and fitness, he made the switch to CrossFit and adapted to the values that belong to an athlete. Building a functional body and understanding how movement works and why it works made much more sense to him. 

When asked about his favorite movements, he’ll point out barbell work as the winner. Being a tall athlete, this helps him move bigger weights more easily. On the other hand, this also comes with downsides to movements like handstand pushups, which are among his least favorites. Weaknesses are something that he actively works on every week, as he states you’re only as strong as your weakest link. We couldn’t agree more.

On the mental aspect, he is more of a down to earth type athlete. Just do the work, stop overthinking, and get focused. It helps him to surround himself with other strong athletes and train together. This is both inspiration as well as motivation to keep going. 

When it comes to competitions, he already has a stacked calendar. He already finished the Battle of Normandy and the Liege Throwdown earlier this summer, and both the Lowlands Throwdown and Amsterdam Throwdown are still on the schedule. When asked about his goals, he wants to reach his maximum potential without losing balance with things like running the business.

The values conversation when we spoke to Wouter about joining Baseline felt natural from the start. He and his co-founder run Blacksmith Training on a quality-over-quantity principle. That matched what we were doing closely enough that the partnership made sense almost immediately. Shared standards tend to make collaboration easier.

His advice to anyone starting out in CrossFit: trust your coaches, hand the process over to them, and let the rest follow. The beginning can feel like a lot, but they’ll guide you through.

Watch the full interview with Wouter below.

Follow Wouter’s journey on Instagram: @wouter_de_jong

Wouter is part of the Baseline Athlete Team. View more introductions through the Journal.