Competetive olympic weightlifter here. Crossfit still gets a lot of hate, as comments below show. That's undeserved. They create a lot of attention for barbell training where there previously was none. That's fantastic. More places for me to train, suddenly people understand you why its fun and there's a whole market opening up of quality and affordable gear (iron too) that previously wasn't even an option. There's crossfit boxes organizing WL competitions with actual WL rules because they think its cooler. There's even crossfit boxes with strongman and powerlifting equipment. Crossfit pulled strength training out of its niche and is starting to overule the rediculous, overcommercial rotten fitness industry as it is now. It's a new fitness concept _with actual results_.

The main problem, as I see it, is that it's near trivial to get a Coach Level 1 certificate (my mom could do it). This results in a lot of bad coaching, resulting in bad form, resulting in unneeded injuries. You could argue that an easy certificate makes it easier to open up a box. Interesting trade off.

There are plenty of crossfit boxes, although I do not know if this is a majority, that hire real weightlifting coaches.

I can't help but think that much of the hate crossfit gets is just some form of resentment. Barbell training used to be unique, now it's getting more popular, and people feel attacked on a personal level.

All that said, good coaching, especially with big weights, is very important. It's a shame not every crossfit box owner thinks that way. Some of the injuries are bad. https://medium.com/@ericrobertson/crossfits-dirty-little-sec...